Matthias Schaefer's cooking blog

2008-06-11T00:29:00.000-07:00

My name is Matthias Schaefer, and even though I'm not a professional Chef, I've loved cooking ever since I was a child and I've had the chance to work at one of the top rated culinary schools, where I was working behind the scenes in their Culinary Amphitheater. I was there for almost 10 years and had a chance to experience the world best chefs like Jaques Pepin, Marcella Hazan, Andre Soltner, Ron Ben-Israel, Jaques Torres, Ferran Adria, Andrea Immer and many many more. I had the pleasure of spending a lot of time in the kitchen with LeeAnne Wong(top chef) and helped out a lot if it was crunch time making appetizers. So last year I moved away from New York and now living in Texas I miss hanging around the best chefs and learning from them. So I decided to write a blog about some of the recipes that I like, and since I grew up in Germany I decided to start with some of my Grandma's favourite recipes.

Sauerbraten

2008-06-11T00:17:00.000-07:00

Sauerbraten - Braised Beef marinated in Vinegar and herbs

Serves 8
2 1/4 cups of water (mineral or filtered tap)
1 cup organic cider vinegar
1 lemon , cut into 8 wedges
2 whole bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon whloe cloves
1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
1 medium yellow onion, rough chop
1 leek, clean and rough chop
1 celery root, peeled and rough chop

4 1/2 lb. top round roast
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 cup beef broth
1/3 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
1/3 gingersnap cookie crumbs

Combine first 11 ingredients into saucepan and bring to boil. Let cool.

Place beef in bowl slightly lareger than beef. Pour marinade over. Cover and chill 2 days, turning beef twice daily.
(You can omit this step if you want, my mum sometimes does this , but it tastes so much better if the meat has time to marinade)

Remove beef from marinade and pat dry. Poar the marinade through a sieve and reserve 1 1/2 cups of the liquid. Put the rest of the liquid and the solids aside. In a Durch oven, add the oil and brown the beef on all sides.
Season well with salt and pepper. Add the solids and brown as well. Pour in the reserved liquid and cover. Braise over medium heat for 30 minutes and add more of the marinade if needed. Add gingersnap and braise for another 1 1/2 hours.
Let the beef rest for 10 minutes before slicing. Pour the braising liquid through a sieve and bring to a boil. This will be the sauce for the sauerbraten. Slice beef and arrange in large baking dish. Pour sauce over meat. Enjoy!
Goes geat with the dumpling recipe.

Rot Kraut - Red Cabbage

2008-06-11T00:07:00.000-07:00

Rot Kraut-Red Cabbage
(serves 4)

1 large red cabagge
1 lb. Granny Smith Apples
2 small onions
3 Tbsp. canola oil
1 bay leaf
3 allspice berries
4 tsp.red wine vinegar
2 Tbsp. red currant jelly
1/2 cup water
Sugar
Salt and Pepper
(some areas in Germany add caraway seeds, use very sparsely, otherwise too overpowering, personally I like it without)
Remove any wilted leaves and wash the cabbage. Quater and wash the cabbage again. Using a Japanese mandoline , slice cabbage very thin. (you can use a knife if you are good, but it is way faster and usually more accurate if you use a mandoline. It's important, that all the slices are the same width because otherwise they will cook differently.
Wash peel and core the apples. Slice apples into 1/2 inch thickness.
Peel and dice the onions.
Heat a large skillet over med high heat, add the canola oil. Sweat the onions, then add the cabbage and apples.
Add the bay leaf, allspice berries, juniper berries, vinegar, jelly and water. Lower the heat to low and let cook for 45-60 minutes. Season with salt and sugar to taste. Goes great with the Sauerbraten.

Semmel Knoedel - Bread Dumplings

2008-06-10T23:57:00.000-07:00

Semmel Knoedel - Bread Dumplings
Serves 12
2 oz of lardons, diced
2 small white onions, small dice
2 tsp. canola oil
8 pices of day old rolls 9substitute old sourdaough) cut into cubes
1 1/4 cup whole milk
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
4 whole eggs
4 tsp. finely chopped flat leaf parsley
In a skillet over med. high heat add the oil and the lardons> Fry the lardons until crispy. lower the heat and add the onions. Cook until the onions are trans lucent.
In a sauce pan heat the milk and butter together.
In a large mixing bowl add the rolls. Pour the milk and butter mixture over the rolls and stri. Add the onions, lardons and the fat from the skillet. stir and let it cool enough to handle.
Beat the eggs and stir in the parsley. Add to the bread mixture ( make sure it's cooled, otherwise your eggs will curdle) and season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Mix and make sure everything is incorporated. Lightly flour your hands and roll the mixture into 12 dumplings.
In a large stocj pot, add enough salted water for the dumplings to move around. Bring to a boil. Once boiling add the dumplings. Bring it back to aboil and lower the heat to a simmer. Do not cover. After 20 minutes, use a slotted spoon and remove the dumplings. Serve
Go great with Sauerbraten or other kinds of roasts.

Rouladen -Beef Rolls

2008-06-10T23:39:00.000-07:00

Rouladen-Beef Rolls
Serves 4

4-7 oz. slices of beef topside
4 slices of bacon ( not smpked), cut each one in half
1 small onion, peeled and cut into large dice
1 leek, washed and cut into half moons
carrot, peeled and cut into half moons
2 celery ribs peeled and cut into half moons
4 cornichons or gherkins
2 Tbsp. cano;a oil
1 cup beef broth and extra
3 Tbsp. all purpose floour
2 Tbsp. water Dijon Mustard
Salt and pepper
Toothpicks or Kitchen string

Pat the beef dry with p[apertowels and season with salt and pepper.Spread mustard on each slice of beef. Place the bacon on top of the mustard, season with pepper. Add the cornichon slices, season with pepper.Roll the beef and secure with toothpicks or kitchen string.
In a skillet over high heat, brown the rouladen with canola oil. Make sure to brown all sides. Remove the rouldaden and add the vegetables and sautee. Add the rouladen cack into the skillet and add the beef broth. Cover and braise for 1 1/2 hours on medium heat.
Periodically turn them and add more broth if necessary.
When the roulden are done, remove and keep warm. Strain braising liquid.Wisk the flour into the braisong liquid. Bring to a boil and season with salt and pepper. To serve remove toothpick and serve the sauce over the roulden. Tastes great with Spaetzle (next recipe)

Spaetzle

2008-06-10T23:27:00.001-07:00

Spaetzle Serves 4
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 whloe eggs 1/2 tsp Kosher salt
5 Tbsp. water
Sift the flour and salt into a mixing bowl. Make a well and add the eggs and the water.Stir until there are no lups. Continue to stir until the dough begins to form air bubbles. Using a medium stock pot, bring salted water to a boil. (hint: water takes longer to reach cooking temperature when you add the salt in the beginning, if you'd like to save some time and energy, add the salt after the water starts boiling)
Using a spaetzle press or a metal colander , push the dough through and into the boiling water.The spaetzle are done ,when they start floating to the top (about 3 to 5 minutes).Use a slotted spoon to remove the spaetzle into a colander. Rinse under cold water and let drain.
Heat a skillet with butter and toss spaetzle until golden. Season with salt and pepper.

Variations:
1)Add fresh herbs- use 1 Tbsp of minced herbs.
2)Add pureed spinach or roasted bell peppers to color the spaetzle, just add enough to color the dough.
3) Kaesespaetzle (cheese spaetzle):
additional ingredients 1 onion (fine chop)
1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese. (you can try different cheeses)
Before the step ,where you put them into the pan, start sauteeing the onion first. then when they are about halfway done add the spaetzle and then just a little before everything is done you can add the cheese.
Serve! (garnish with a sprig of parsley, just kidding it's just like the sprig of mint here on desserts, in Germany reastaurant traditionally garnish almost everything with a sprig of parsley to add some color) Enjoy or Guten Appetit as we say over there. Goes well with the Rouladen or the Sauerbraten.

Radish recipe

2008-06-10T23:25:00.001-07:00

Rettich- Daikon Radish
2 medium size daikon radish
Kosher salt
(This is the way as it is served at most of the places like Oktoberfest or any other event like that, real easy , real simple.)
Wash and peel the daikon . make slices (sharp knife be careful) from the wide part to the thin part without severing any part of the actual radish. Then you take the salt and put it in between the slices. Let absorb for a bit. Eat. It is served like that , so you can walk around with it.
Some places yuse these fancy things that you use for apples too. It's like a knife with a spike you put it in the middle and you keep turning until the radish looks like a slinky, season with slat.
Variation:
Additional ingredients: White wine or balsmic vinegar, canola oil, sugar salt and pepper. Make the dressing play around with the proportions to your liking. Using a box grater, grate the daikon with the large holes. Add dressing. Let maarinade for at least 30 minutes.
I know a lot of people don't like radish it's too much for their taste buds, but these ways make it a lot milder , it's like cooking horseradish in milk first to get the heat out (learned that from Nils Noren). Enjoy radish is good for your liver.

Sauerkraut - White Cabbage

2008-06-10T21:35:00.000-07:00

Sauerkraut
Serves 4
(ok now this is not a fresh sauerkraut recipe made from raw cabbage, it takes few days sort of like kimchi, of course it's alot healthier than the store bought stuff, but just for now this will do, I will explain in a later blog to make Sauerkraut from scratch this is just a way to make the stuff from the store tast a lot better -kick it up a notch. Am I even allowed to say that or is the phrase already copywritten?)
750 grams sauerkraut
1 small white onion, small dice
1 apple, peeled, cored and sliced
2 Tbsp. sunflower oil
1/2 cup dry white wine or waterr
3 bay leaves
10 to 20 juniper berries
(ok here is my advice to juniper berries , they really add a great flavor to the recipe, but careful if you bite on them the flavor is super strong, you might think about removing them before serving or warning your guests)
Cracked black pepper
Salt
Heat the oil in a sauce pan Sweat the onions, add the sauerkraut. Add the wine or water and then the apples.
Add the bay leaves, juniper berries and the cracked black pepper. Cover and cook over low heat for 30 minutes.
Go great with brat wurst or hot dogs. grill hot dogs slice them and add them into the sauer kraut ( serving suggestion)

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