There are legendary dishes and there is pot stew, the food in the fields dish with origins in the cauldron tradition and even further back in the first bronze pots of antiquity – the brunzin – a name still in existence in some food cultures to describe the dish.
Generally a pot stew contains meat, vegetables and aromatics in the form of herbs and spices. With the advent of the sausage tradition, the pot stew got a new definition, seen in those food cultures where sausages of all shapes and sizes define the method.
The sausages that go into an eintöpf are hard sausages – cold smoked or cured for a long time to produce a depth of flavour that will emerge in the medium of the stew. There are so many variations of eintöpf with würst it is impossible to say if there is a defintive version. This is our interpretation, based on the traditional pot stews of yesteryear.
1 litre vegetable broth, lukewarm
6 mettwürst (beef-pork sausages), sliced
600 g potatoes, cubed small
300 carrots, cubed small
300 g fresh broad beans / fresh green beans
250 g onion, chopped
60 g tomato paste
5 garlic cloves, minced
3 tbsp olive oil
5 g black pepper
5 g salt
1 tbsp dried marjoram
1 tbsp fresh sage, chopped
Sauté garlic and onion over a medium heat in a large pot for 15 minutes. Add tomato paste, cook for a couple of minutes, then add the broth and seasonings. Add the beans, carrots, potatoes, sausages and herbs. Cover and cook over a low heat for 90 minutes.
The origins and contents of this enigmatic soup are disputed between Luxembourg and its neighbours in Gaume, Lorraine and Saarland who all claim it as one of their traditional dishes. What is not disputed is the method. Whether the ingredients include leeks or onions, mettwürst or smoked bacon, more or less green beans and cream or no cream, this is a slow soup. The use of mettwürst is not sacroscant, other regional sausages are also favoured. Like many of the traditional dishes of Luxembourg, this is a bean and sausage soup, simply made.
Mettwürst Version
2 litres water
500 g green beans, cut into small pieces
500 g leeks / onions, sliced thin
500 g potatoes, cubed small
4 mettwürst / sausage
30 ml olive oil
10 g black pepper
5 g salt
In a large pot sweat the leeks or onions in the oil covered over a low heat for 15 minutes. Add the beans and potatoes and sausages whole, coat in the mixture, then add the water and seasonings. Cook over a low heat covered for 30 minutes, remove the sausages, leave to cool a little, then cut into thick slices. Remove some of the soup, blend and pour back into the pot with the sausage slices. Cook for an hour.
Smoked Bacon Version
3 litres water
800 g beans, cut into small pieces
300 g potatoes, cubed small
200 g onions, chopped
200 g smoked bacon, cut into cubes
150 ml cream
120 g savory (optional)
50 g butter
5 g black pepper
5 g salt
In a large pot brown the bacon in the butter over a low heat, add the onions and sweat covered for 15 minutes. Add the savory and seasonings, sweat for 5 minutes, add the beans and water, cooked for 45 minutes. Add the potatoes, cook for 15 minutes, add the cream and check the seasonings.
Buda and Pest are among the few centres of civilisation in Europe where the peasant culture is still reflected in the choice of traditional foods available in urban restaurants.
In Budapest soups start every meal, and most of the time that meal is a stew. The exception is gulyásleves, the beef soup outsiders confuse for goulash when it is bogracsgulyas or pörkölt they should ask for.
Gulyás is often served as a main course accompanied with egg-flour noddles.
Kéhli, one of the city’s oldest restaurants, specialises in traditional food including bean, beef, chicken and fish soups and the range of stews. Sípos Halászkert serves a diverse range of fish soups.
1.5 litre of water
900 g beef, cubed 2 cm
500 g potatoes, diced small
500 g onions, chopped
300 g parsnip / turnip, diced
300 g tomatoes
250 g carrots, diced
250 g green or red peppers
100 g celery, cut small
30 g lovage leaves
4 garlic cloves, mashed
10 g paprika, hot or sweet
5 g caraway seeds
2 bay leaves
black pepper, pinch
salt, pinch
Oil, for frying
Sauté the onions in the oil for 30 minutes, increase heat and brown the beef. Reduce heat, stir in the tomatoes and peppers, add the garlic and cover. Leave to simmer for 30 minutes. Add the bay leaves, caraway seeds and paprika. After five minutes add the vegetables, remaining seasonings and water. Cook until the potatoes are al dente.
Marmitako is a traditional Basque fish stew, with all the flavours of the region – land, valley and sea, and generally prepared in an earthenware pot, and baked. We are slow-cooking it on top of the stove.
1 kg fresh tuna, cut into 2 cm dice
1 kg potatoes, cut into 2 cm dice
800 g tomatoes, chopped small
600 ml fish broth
400 g onions, sliced thin
5 pimientos / red peppers, cut in strips
200 ml white wine
60 ml olive oil
6 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp fresh green herbs (lovage, marjoram, parsley, thyme), chopped small
30 g smoked sweet paprika
1 tsp salt
2 bay leaves
Dried marjoram, large pinch
Sauté onion in the olive oil in a large heavy-based pot over medium heat for 10 minutes, add garlic, fry for three minutes. Add peppers and tomatoes, increase heat and reduce for five minutes until the mixture starts to stick to the bottom of the pot. Add tuna and salt. Brown the fish, then pour in the stock and wine. Cook for five minutes, add potatoes, paprika, bay leaves and dried marjoram, bring to a low boil. Reduce heat and simmer until the potatoes are cooked, about 30 minutes. Add herbs.
Bergensk Frokostbuffé / Lefse NORWAY Bergen Norwegian buffet breakfast featuring potato pancakes plus bacon, bread, cheese {Gamalost, Gudbrandsdalsost, Jarlsberg, Pultost, Ridder, Snøfrisk}, crackers, eggs, herrings, pickles and more
Once apon a time travellers on Norwegian Railways sleeper trains were handed special tickets by the train chief.
‘These are for your breakfast, go to the hotel across from the station,’ the chief would explain to bemused travellers.
The sight on arrival in the grand hall of the grand hotel was a grand breakfast, an assortment of hot and cold foods that had no rival anywhere in the world.
Sadly this tradition has lapsed. On the sleeper trains between Oslo, the capital of Norway, and Bergen, Stavanger and Trondheim and between Trondheim and Bodø in the far north, a modest breakfast is served onboard.
The grandoise buffet breakfasts are becoming a thing of the past, but some hotels are clinging to tradition by presenting modest grand buffets.
Think of every possible breakfast food that is served across Europe, add the Norwegian love for loaves and fishes, cheeses and crispbreads, bacon and eggs, pickles and potatoes, and then something you never imagined.
Breads
Cereals
Cheeses - selection of Brunost, Gamalost,
Gudbrandsdalsost, Jarlsberg, Norvegia,
Pultost, Ridder, Snøfrisk
Coffee
Crackers
Crispbreads
Eggs - boiled, fried, poached
Fish - Klippfisk (cod), Lutefisk (lyed cod or ling),
Sild (herring)
Leverpostej (liver paste)
Milk
Müseli
Pickles
Potato Flatbread (Lefse below)
Potatoes
Smoked Bacon, grilled to a crisp
Smoked Salmon, served on Lefse or Toast
Tea
Toast
Yoghurt
Potato flatbreads
Lefse – 1
Traditional lefse is made with potatoes and rye flour.
1 kg potatoes, cooked whole, peeled, mashed
330 g rye flour
25 g butter
25 ml sour cream
Add flour to warm potatoes, form into a loose dough, leave overnight.
On a floured surface, roll dough as thin as possible without breaking it.
Fry in oil in a frying pan or dry on a hot griddle, turning constantly to prevent the surface burning.
Place on a plate, spread with butter-cream mixture, fold, cover with a teatowel.
Lefse – 2
This is a modern version.
1 litre milk
500 g pastry flour
500 g potatoes, cooked whole, peeled, mashed, cooled
125 g lard
125 g unsalted butter
30 ml sour cream
2 egg yolks
Butter, for spreading
Bring butter, lard and milk slowly to the boil, pour into a large bowl, sieve and stir in the flour followed by the potatoes, cream and finally egg yolks. Fold onto a floured surface, knead into a soft dough.
Cut dough into equal pieces, roll into thin rounds. Dust each round with flour and stack until the dough is used up.
Shake the flour off, fry in oil in a frying pan or dry on a hot griddle, turning constantly until the flatbread is crispy.
Place on a plate, spread one half with butter, fold twice, cover with a teatowel. Repeat with each round.
