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15 recipes

Radi

In Bavaria a Radi is a single big white radish, cut into one long spiral or paper-thin slices and salted until it 'weeps', then eaten with your fingers in the beer garden between bites of pretzel. Stalls at Munich's Viktualienmarkt sell the long white roots from spring to autumn, and old regulars carry a special spiral cutter. It is crisp, peppery and cooling, the opposite of everything rich on the table. A common mistake is eating it straight away: the salt needs ten minutes to draw out the bitter juice and soften the bite. Chef's tip: pick a heavy, firm radish with a smooth skin; a light one is often woody and hollow inside.

15 minGermanSnacks & StartersVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Champignonpfanne

Walk through any German Weihnachtsmarkt, from Cologne's cathedral square to Nuremberg's Hauptmarkt, and you will smell the Champignonpfanne before you see it: a huge flat pan of button mushrooms frying with onion and garlic, scooped into paper boats and topped with a cool herb sauce. It is the market's favourite meat-free snack on a cold December evening, and it takes twenty minutes at home. Serve it with crusty bread or as a side to potato pancakes. The common mistake is piling every mushroom into the pan at once, which makes them stew grey in their own water instead of browning. Chef's tip: salt the mushrooms only once they have coloured; salt added early draws out the liquid and stops the browning.

20 minGermanVegetarianGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Pellkartoffeln mit Quark und Leinöl

Ask anyone from the Spreewald, the river-and-forest country south-east of Berlin, for the taste of home and many will name this: small potatoes boiled in their skins, a bowl of cold herb quark and a thread of golden, nutty linseed oil poured over the top. It is a weekday supper in Brandenburg and Berlin, cheap, quick and surprisingly filling, often with a Spreewald gherkin on the side. Fresh linseed oil tastes of hay and walnuts; old oil turns bitter and fishy, so buy a small bottle and keep it in the fridge. A common mistake is peeling the potatoes before boiling; cooking them in their skins keeps them firm and flavourful. Chef's tip: beat a splash of milk or sparkling water into the quark, which makes it light and creamy instead of stodgy.

30 minGermanVegetarianGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Gebrannte Mandeln

Gebrannte Mandeln are the warm paper cone you carry round a German Christmas market, from Munich's Marienplatz to the Striezelmarkt in Dresden, the stalls stirring copper kettles of almonds until the sugar crackles. At home they take one pan and twenty minutes, and a jar makes a good December gift. The sugar goes through three stages: syrup, then dry and sandy, then melted again into a shiny crust. The mistake most people make is giving up at the sandy stage, when it looks ruined; keep stirring and it melts back into a coating. Chef's tip: spread the almonds out on baking paper the second they are done and separate them with two forks, or they cool into one big brittle.

20 minGermanSnacks & StartersVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Kartoffelkäse

Despite its name, Franconian Kartoffelkäs contains no cheese at all: it is a soft spread of riced potato, sour cream, onion and caraway that farm families around Bamberg and Nuremberg put on the table for Brotzeit, the cold evening supper. It goes on thick slices of rye bread with chives and sliced radish, and it was a way to turn a few leftover potatoes into something rich enough to stand in for cheese. A common mistake is using waxy potatoes, which go gluey; floury ones make it light. Chef's tip: rice the potatoes while hot, but stir in the sour cream only when they are cool, so the spread stays fresh-tasting rather than heavy.

30 minGermanChutneys & DipsGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Leber Berliner Art

Leber Berliner Art is a dish of old Berlin dining rooms and corner restaurants: thin slices of calf's liver fried in butter and piled with soft, sweet onion rings and golden apple rings, served with creamy mashed potato. The sweet apple and onion balance the rich liver, and the whole plate is on the table in half an hour. For safety the liver here is cooked through, which keeps it tender as long as the slices are thin and the pan is hot. Chef's tip: salt the liver only after frying; salt draws out juices and makes it tough.

30 minGermanMeat
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Spundekäs

In Mainz and the wine villages of Rhine-Hesse, Spundekäs is what lands on the table at a wine festival or in a Straußwirtschaft, the pop-up taverns winemakers open in their courtyards in late summer. It is a light, airy whip of quark and cream cheese, sharpened with onion, garlic and plenty of sweet paprika, and it is scooped up with soft pretzels or Laugenbrezel. The name comes from the cone-shaped wooden 'Spund' it was once pressed into. A common mistake is using watery quark straight from the tub, which makes a runny dip; drain it first. Chef's tip: make it a couple of hours ahead so the onion softens into the cheese, then dust with fresh paprika just before serving.

15 minGermanChutneys & DipsGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Matjes Hausfrauenart

Matjes nach Hausfrauenart, 'housewife's matjes', is the early-summer plate of northern Germany, eaten when the new season's young herring arrives in June, from Glückstadt on the Elbe to the cafés of Emden. Mild, buttery matjes fillets are covered in a cool sauce of sour cream and yoghurt with crisp apple, onion and gherkin, and served with hot boiled new potatoes in their skins and sometimes green beans. Matjes is cured raw herring, so buy commercially prepared, previously frozen fillets from the chilled counter and keep them cold; it is not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system. Chef's tip: make the sauce first and let it chill for 20 minutes so the apple and onion flavour it before the fish goes in.

30 minGermanFishGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Senfeier

Senfeier is a dish many people who grew up in Berlin, Saxony or anywhere in the old East remember from school canteens and Friday suppers: halved hard-boiled eggs in a smooth, pale mustard sauce, with boiled or mashed potatoes to soak it up. It is cheap, fast and comforting, and the sauce is a simple butter-and-flour roux loosened with stock and milk, then sharpened with two kinds of mustard. A common mistake is boiling the sauce hard after the mustard goes in, which makes it taste flat and grainy; add it off the heat. Chef's tip: a spoon of the gherkin pickling liquid at the end lifts the whole sauce.

30 minGermanVegetarianGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Obatzda

Obatzda is what a Munich beer garden puts beside a giant soft pretzel: overripe Camembert mashed with soft butter, sweet paprika, caraway and raw onion until it turns a creamy, rusty orange. It is a thrifty spread that grew up in Bavarian taverns as a way to use cheese that had gone a little too far, and it is still eaten in the afternoon sun with radishes and dark bread. Camembert is usually made with animal rennet, so pick one labelled vegetarian if that matters to you. A common mistake is blitzing it in a processor, which makes it gluey; mash with a fork so a few soft lumps stay. Chef's tip: make it an hour ahead and chill it, then let it stand 15 minutes before serving, so the paprika flavour blooms and it spreads easily.

15 minGermanChutneys & DipsGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Halve Hahn

Order a Halve Hahn in a Cologne brewpub and you will not get half a chicken, whatever the name says: you get a buttered rye roll, a slab of aged Gouda, sharp mustard and raw onion rings. It is the standard snack on the long wooden tables of the Altstadt, eaten with a small glass of the local beer, though it is just as good with apple juice spritzer. The point is the contrast of crusty rye, nutty crystalline cheese and the bite of onion and mustard. Aged Gouda is usually made with animal rennet, so look for one labelled vegetarian or made with microbial rennet. A common mistake is slicing the cheese thin like a sandwich; the Cologne way is a slice as thick as your finger. Chef's tip: take the cheese out of the fridge 30 minutes ahead so its flavour opens up.

5 minGermanSnacks & Starters
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Fischbrötchen

Fischbrötchen are what people eat standing up at the Landungsbrücken piers in Hamburg, on the Sunday fish market, or from a kiosk on the dyke at any North Sea harbour. A crusty white roll is filled with sharp marinated herring, raw onion rings, gherkin and a little crisp lettuce, and eaten in a few bites with the wind in your face. The herring is cured, not cooked, so use commercially prepared Bismarck-style marinated herring from the chilled counter, which has been frozen before curing as the law requires; it is not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system. Chef's tip: slice the onion paper-thin and rinse it in cold water for a minute so it stays crunchy but stops shouting over the fish.

10 minGermanFish
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Schokofrüchte

Schokofrüchte stalls glow under strings of lights at almost every German Christmas market, from Stuttgart to Hamburg, with rows of strawberries, grapes and banana chunks on wooden skewers dipped in dark, milk and white chocolate. Children choose with their noses pressed to the glass, and at home they are a fun job for small hands. The usual mistake is dipping wet fruit: even a drop of water makes chocolate seize into a grainy lump and stops it sticking. Chef's tip: melt the chocolate gently and let it cool to just warm before dipping; it then clings in a neat, thin shell and sets glossy. Many chocolates contain milk, so check the label if you need it dairy free.

20 minGermanDessertsGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Mbejú

Mbejú (say 'mbeh-JOO') is a Guaraní breakfast and merienda: cassava starch rubbed with butter, cheese and a little milk into damp crumbs, then pressed into a hot pan where it fuses into a thick, chewy, crisp-edged cake. It's eaten in the countryside with cocido (sweet toasted yerba tea with milk) on cool mornings, cut into wedges. It's naturally gluten free and very quick. Chef's tip: the mix should look like damp sand, not a dough; if you can squeeze a handful and it just holds, it's right.

25 minParaguayanBreakfast & BrunchGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Torta frita

In Uruguay, a grey rainy afternoon has one answer: torta frita and mate. These thin discs of dough, pierced with a hole in the middle, are fried until puffed and golden and either sprinkled with sugar or eaten plain, still hot, between sips passed around the circle. In Montevideo you'll smell them from street stalls on wet days; at home they're made with butter or beef fat, here with butter. Chef's tip: the hole in the middle isn't decoration; it lets the centre cook through at the same speed as the edges.

30 minParaguayanSnacks & Starters
by KrazyBadal 0 views