#erbsensuppe

Yes, really. Though not actually fried, and probably better for it. Read on...

A couple of years ago @dduane​ and I had a holiday in Freiburg im Breisgau, SW Germany near the Black Forest. We stayed in a self-catering apartment out by Merzhausen rather than a hotel, so we could do some cooking with local ingredients, either by taking a tram to the daily market in Münsterplatz...

...or sauntering along to the local supermarket, in this case a ReWe.

Storm Dennis put our 33rd anniversary plans on hold, as you can see - we were directly under that curl to the right of the main body...

...and with an eye to possibly losing power in the middle of cold windy weather, D made a big pot of Erbsensuppe - pea and bacon soup with sliced sausages, suitable for reheating on our solid fuel stove if we need to. She’d been thinking about summer holidays (in this weather, who could blame her!) and went to the ReWe website to see if they have recipes.

Have they ever!

Their Classic recipe isn’t quite the same as ours, and even then our variant had to be based around what we had in the house (we used dried yellow peas from my curry-making supplies, some recipes call for yellow ones, some for green, and others - like ReWe’s - don’t say what colour they should be).

Here’s a snap of our prep; the paprika and green beans aren’t usual either, but they work!

But then Classic dishes tend to be the-same-but-different, usually because everyone’s Granny made the best one and that’s what they call Classic... :-D

It was delicious, as usual will be even better tomorrow, and is the sort of thing where ringing changes is as simple as using a different sort of sausage. This uses ordinary hot dogs, but we can also get hold of kabanos, chorizo, kielbasa, Jägerwurst, rookworst, Silesian... Even regular Irish pork bangers would work just fine, fried or grilled first for extra flavour and so they could be sliced easily.

I started exploring for other interesting recipes, and that’s when I found the “Kentucky Fried” Cauliflower. (Ta-Daah, he got there eventually...!)

It’s (a) oven-baked not fried and (b) is listed as vegetarian, but not vegan because it uses milk; I don’t know if nut milk will substitute for the purpose required; YMMV.

The original German recipe is here, my translation is next. If anyone tries it, let me know.

“Kentucky fried” cauliflower with cashew aioli dip

You need: 1 head of cauliflower, cleaned and cut into large pieces or florets. Make a spice mixture from 1 tsp vegetable stock powder • 1/2 tsp sweet paprika • 1/2 tsp ground black pepper • 1/2 tsp oregano, dried • 1/2 tsp tarragon, dried • 1/2 tsp parsley, dried • 1/2 tsp thyme, dried • 1/2 tsp garlic powder • 1/2 tsp onion powder • 1/2 tsp celery salt

You need: a bowl • 250 g / 9oz spelt flour.

Mix the spelt flour with the spice mixture.

You need: another bowl • 450 ml / 15 fl oz (US) - 16 fl oz (UK) of milk • 2 tsp of cider vinegar.

Make a brine in the bowl with the milk and vinegar. Preheat the oven to 190° C / 375° F.

You need: baking parchment and a deep baking tray.

Dip the cauliflower pieces in the brine, then in the flour and spice mixture, again in the brine and a final time in the flour and spice mix. Place on a baking sheet lined with baking paper and bake in the oven for 10 minutes, then turn them over and bake again for 10 minutes. Place on serving platter and eat hot.

For the aioli you need:

A blender or food processor • 3 sticks of celery • 2 cloves of garlic • 1 lime • 2 cups of cashew nuts • 1 Tbsp thyme leaves • Salt

Wash the celery and cut it into small pieces. Peel the garlic cloves and chop them. Juice the lime. Place all these in the blender with the cashew nuts and thyme. Blend, adding a little water as required, until aioli is at desired consistency. Taste, season to liking with salt, place in serving bowl and set out with cauliflower.

This might, just might, turn out to be the only other* cauliflower dish I will eat, for which I can blame too many over-boiled school dinners, too much breakdown of sulphur compounds and too much yecchh.

(*The first was Crunchy Grilled Cauliflower with Sesame from Deane’s in Belfast, which so surprised Diane that she phoned my mum. Mum’s response was to suggest she also phone the BBC - head office was just round the corner - and tell them they’d got the big news story for the day.

Our Erbsensuppe (pea and bacon soup with sliced sausage, which I’m betting is high up the list of German comfort food “just like Mutti used to make”) as described in this post, along with a home-baked poppy-seed roll.

Not visible: Irish butter for the roll, firewood for the stove.

Meine liebste Erbsensuppe Weil Oma schon immer sagte, dass Eintopf aufgewärmt noch besser wird, habe ich heute für morgen meine liebste Erbsensuppe vorgekocht ❣️ Ein Rezept von Susanne Keller. Meine liebste Erbsensuppe Bild und Rezept von Susanne Keller Zutaten🥣: ✨️500 g grüne Erbsen *Trocken-Hülsenfrüchte ✨️1 kg mehligkochende Kartoffeln ✨️500 g geputztes und fein gewürfeltes…

Erbsensuppe mit Bockwurst @ Café Hexenflug, Brockenhaus, Brocken. Boszorkánytej és ördögcsók is kapható.