ISO: Oktoberfest Foods

[ewriggs]

We are having Oktoberfest at our house on the 25th. But other than having bratwurst, German potato salad and lots of beer, I have no idea what to fix (or ask people to bring). I'm kinda brain dead at the moment! LOL! (October is a big month in the family: 2 anniversaries and 3 birthdays, so we're just gonna have one "biggie" celebration.)

Any good German recipes "out there" anywhere?

Cheerio!

Elizabeth

[Lifestar]

Some less "traditional" by American standard, But very tasty and authentic and German recipies are from my grandmother's recipe file. She was German/Austrian by birth. I don't know if it's quite what you are looking for. Try a google.com search for German food recipes or Oktoberfest recipes.

Val


Roast Chicken Stew GEFLÜGELRAGOUT
()
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons chopped onions
2 tablespoons plain flour
500 ml beef stock
50 ml dry port or red wine
2 thick lemon slices with peel
2 bay leaves
Salt and fresh ground pepper
Dash or two of wine vinegar
1 1/4 lbs. roast chicken (just the meat, cut into bite-sized pieces)

Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed non-reactive saucepan: add the chopped onions and cook until translucent. Add the flour, and cook until the *roux* is golden brown. Pour in the beef stock and port. Add lemon slices, bay leaves, salt and pepper. Allow the sauce to cook for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, then pour through a fine strainer, test for seasoning, and add vinegar and salt or pepper to taste. Add the chicken pieces and heat over a low flame.
Serves 6.



Stuffed Cucumbers GEFÜLLTE GURKEN
()
1 kg cucumbers, medium sized
250 grams chopped pork
250 grams chopped beef
2 soft rolls (softened by soaking)
1 egg
Onion to taste
Salt
Oil
Sour cream or flour

Peel the cucumbers, halve and core. Mix together the pork, beef, egg, rolls, onion and salt and fill half of each cucumber. Place the other half back on, binding the two halves together. Fry briefly on both sides. Preheat your pan in a moderately hot oven (180-200 C) and add the cucumbers. Add some water mixed with flour or sour cream to make a sauce. Bake at 180-200 C for 20 minutes, then reduce heat to 140-160 C for 30 minutes more.


Cold Cucumber Salad GURKENSALAT

2 medium cucumbers
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1/2-teaspoon salt
1/8-teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, minced

Slice cucumbers paper-thin. Sprinkle slices with sugar, vinegar, salt and pepper. Marinate for 20 minutes, drain off liquid, and toss lightly with sour cream. Top with minced parsley.
Serves 4.

[ewriggs]

So far, I have received 4 recipes plus the ones you listed! I'm going to post a summary after we have the Oktoberfest and let people know what we had and what we did!

Cheerio!
Elizabeth

[Lifestar]

My cousin Lilo, is from Hamburg, She's married to my cousin J. She transcribed all these recipes from my Grandma... So that's why the metric measurements are there... I will ask her about some more "festive" recipes for Oktoberfest... Maybe she can come up with some. These were the ones I had in my recipe box at home.

[nagymom]

Elizabeth--I recently carried a link for German Recipes in one of my freebie mailings and completely forgot about it until some pamphlets arrived today. Val those recipes sound divine!

This is from the panplet and sounds good too:

Oktoberfest Streudel

3/4 cups melted butter (Calls for German but sure won't find that in my neck of the hillbilly woods)
1 cup minced onion
1 large Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored and diced
1 1/2 cups drained sauerkraut, German Wine kind if you can find it
2 tsp. carawy seeds
8 phyllo sheets
1/4 cup German Sweet Mustard
1 pound cooked or smoked bratwurst thinly sliced

Mustard sauce:

1 T butter
1 T flour
1 cup light cream
3 T German sweet mustard
1 t. paprika

Preheat oven to 375F. In a large skillet, over medium heat, warm 2 T butter, saute onion for 3 minutes. Add diced apple and saute 3 more minutes. Remove from heat, stir in sauerkraut and caraway seeds, mix well. On a large non-stick baking sheet lay out one sheet of phyllo and fold in half lengthways and brush with about 1 T butter. Repeat layering. Spread mustard over last layer of phyllo. Then spread sauerkraut filling along the long lenghtwise side to the center of the dough, leaving a 1 1/2 inch border. Top sauerkraut with the bratwurst slices, roll jelly-roll style, folding in the short edges. Place seam side down on pan, brush with butter and bake 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.
Meanwhile prepare mustard sauce. In a large skillet melt butter over medium-low heat, stir in flour to form a smooth paste. Slowly stir in cream and continue stirring to keep lumps from forming. Whisk in mustard and heat through. Slice warm streudel and serve in a pool of mustard sauce. Sprinkle mustard sauce with paprika. Serve as an appetizer (8 portions) or slice larger as an entree' (4 portions).

Jayne

Oh yeah--these are from www.germanfoods.org .

[ewriggs]

Our Oktoberfest Menu looks like this:

Appetizers:
Potato pancakes with applesauce for dipping
Soft pretzels with yellow mustard

Entree:
Bavarian Pot Roast
Bratwurst - Boiled in Beer
Bratwurst - Grilled
German Chicken (of some sort - son is brining it)

Veggies:
Onion Pie
German Potato Salad
Sauerkraut

Desserts:
Bee-Sting Cake
Black Forest Cake

Beverages:
Beer!!
German Wines
Iced Tea
Lemonade

How does that sound??

This is our first one, and next year's will be bigger and better!

Cheerio!
Elizabeth

[Abear]

Originally posted by ewriggs
How does that sound??

This is our first one, and next year's will be bigger and better!

Man that sound absolutely D'LISH!!!
Can I have some of the leftovers???

Sounds like your celebration is going to be a great success!

Have fun & enjoy!!

[Abear]

Originally posted by nagymom
Oh yeah--these are from www.germanfoods.org .

Thanks for that link Jayne! I just went there and scanned it. Will go back later when I have more time. Would like to make some schnitzel (sp???) and red cabbage. Haven't had that in quite a while.

[nagymom]

Hey Elizabeth--when and wehre did you say this party is going to be???

Jayne

[ewriggs]

Sorry to be so long in posting this! I was so over-stressed getting everything together I totally forgot to post!!

In this post I'll put the Appetizers:

Red Soup
(Tote Gruetze)
(adapted from somewhere on the web. I can't find it again! I messed with the amounts and changed the directions a good bit. The original was almost incoherent to me!)

4 # of Red Plums (I used black plums - that's all I could find!)
4 c water
Sugar to taste (I used about 1/2 c)
8 - 10 tsp cornstarch

Put the water in a large diameter pan, bring it to a boil, and put the rinsed plums in - whole, unskinned.
Let them come back to a boil, then turn down to a simmer and cover. Simmer for about 20 to 30 minutes, turning the plums frequently to bleach out all the skins (they turn the water red!).
Once the plums are cooked down, strain (save the water!), and put the pulp through a sieve (you can use a ricer, I did).
Add the sieved pulp back to the water, add the sugar and bring back to a boil, then turn back down to a simmer.
Add the cornstarch to about 1/2 c of water, mix well, and add to the simmering fruit pulp. Continue to simmer and stir until the cornstarch turns translucent.
Serve immediately OR chill and reheat later.

What I did was add some whipping cream sweetened with a little Splenda when I served the soup. It was just marvelous!


Soft Pretzels and yellow mustard

OK, I cheated! I sent my SIL up to Auntie Anne's to pick up 2 doz soft pretzels! They were delicious! We served them with good old French's mustard.


Potato Pancakes and Applesauce

Cheated again!! I used Aunt Jemima pancake mix, and added about 1/2 c of Idahoan potato flakes for each cup of pancake mix I used. Then I added an extra egg and extra water to make a slightly thinner than usual pancake batter.

I fried them in a good bit of canola oil - so they were crispy around the edges.

Put them on a plate with a big bowl of applesauce in the middle. People rolled the pancakes and dipped them in the applesauce.

I used plain old Motts natural applesauce, and added 2 Tbs sugar per cup of applesauce along with a few dashes of nutmeg and cinnamon - to taste!

Hope y'all like these as much as we did!

Cheerio!
Elizabeth