Spoonful by Spoonful

by forumholitorium

Often while searching for one thing, we find something else that turns out to be better than what we had hoped for. An early morning walk to secure two Krapfen from Vienna’s alleged best producer of jelly-filled doughnuts (Der Mann) led to an important discovery: good cinnamon rolls are available within an easy walk of the apartment. KA says that Zimtschnecke, as German-speakers call them, were always available when he was a child. They are not common anymore, so I was surprised to see them next to several different flavored Krapfen at the bakery kiosk. The standard Austrian Krapfen is filled with apricot jam. Der Mann had the standard one with a powdered sugar M design on top (probably for Mann, but I prefer to think for Marille, or apricot). I bought a standard Krapfen and a poppyseed one with plum jam filling. There were also pistachio and nougat-filled Mozartkrapfen, egg liqueur-filled Krapfen, strawberry jam-filled Hilfskrapfen, and a few others that mustn’t have either appealed or repulsed me since they didn’t stick in my mind. KA and I split the two so we had a taste of each. I found the standard Krapfen quite good, but I was cheated out of plum jam. Even though I split them carefully down the middle, my side of the poppyseed one had just a small stain of jam, so I didn’t get the full flavor. KA had already finished his half and said it was also quite good. Neither of us are diehard jelly-filled doughnut fans. I read that the average Austrian eats 14 Krapfen a year. Our paltry two consumed in the prime Krapfen-eating season (the week before Lent) reveal that we are clearly not a typical Austrian household. I was much more excited about the elegantly buttery cinnamon roll. Now I know where to go when I need a fix.

Heimat: Das Backbuch by Martin Schönleben of course has several recipes for Krapfen and other fried dough treats for Fasching. Despite years of watching my grandmother casually fry mushrooms, zucchini, eggplant, and dough, I am not good at frying, which is not a bad thing since fried food isn’t the healthiest. However, I wanted to try out at least one of the Fasching recipes. As a child, KA enjoyed eating his mother’s gebackene Mäuse (fried mice). They are relatively easy, simply spoonfuls of yeasted dough deposited into hot oil. There is no need to worry about filling leaking out into the oil or having to insert jam into them after they have been fried. Though a friend with lots of cooking experience warned me that using Topfen cheese in the dough would make them too üppig (rich), I ignored her and followed Schönleben’s recipe. How can you talk about something being too rich or fatty when you intentionally submerge it in oil? KA used his infrared thermometer to make sure the oil was just the right temperature and our mice with rum-soaked raisins turned out amazing – and not at all greasy. The recipe mentions how gebackene Mäuse used to be served with Kletzentauch, a compote of dried pears or prunes. That sounded delicious but I couldn’t find a recipe for it, so we dipped the mice in applesauce, which the recipe recommended as more appropriate for modern readers. While I don’t agree with his sentiment on the lack of appropriateness of dried fruit, the mice tasted great paired with applesauce.

Before spooning dough into oil in the name of culinary research, I had spent several days spooning pumpkin gnocchi into boiling water. My last post showed a picture with slices of pumpkin. While some ended up cubed in the freezer, most went into the oven and was baked with a little salt and olive oil until tender. Then I mashed it with a fork into pumpkin puree. There was a lot of it. The first pumpkin meal was (vegan) pumpkin gnocchi. I don’t find it is necessary to add egg to make gnocchi, though I am sure I add more flour than some gourmets would like. I simply start with pumpkin puree and add a little flour at a time, stirring until I get the right consistency. There is no set ratio as it depends on the water content of the roasted pumpkin and the type of flour. Sometimes I use regular wheat or spelt flour, sometimes I use whole wheat or wholegrain spelt flour. Then I follow Claudia Roden’s gnocchetti di zucca method of dropping tablespoons of dough into salted boiling water using another tablespoon to scrape the dumpling off the spoon. Pumpkin gnocchi needs nothing else except a pat of butter and a little grated pecorino (vegetarian) or olive oil in which you have sautéd a few sage leaves (vegan).

Meal planning is easy if you repeat the same thing for several days. There were days of pumpkin gnocchi for lunch until the purée disappeared. While the gnocchi required fresh mixing and spooning into boiling water each time, a pot of soup can be made on one day and the leftovers only need to be reheated. The past four days have been yellow lentil soup days, and I am happy to report the yellow lentils that expired last May were 1) still good and are 2) finally all gone. A week ago I cleaned out my recipe shelf and sorted through all kinds of scraps of paper and newspaper and magazine clippings with recipes. Many ended up in the recycling bin, and the rest have been organized and duly noted in a list of recipes to try. I rediscovered a dal recipe for red lentils that also works with yellow lentils. Spoonful by spoonful, we are working on not wasting food and eating well, indulging in a little rich, fatty festive food and then returning to plant-focused, nutritious everyday meals.

May you find a nourishing recipe worth repeating!