A few weeks ago Jola picked me up at the train station after school and we made our weekly trip to the Globus. We purchased about 2 Kilos of Rinder Fleisch along with other items we needed for the menu. I was excited about this recipe because it is served with a cream sauce and I’m always curious to see how cream sauces are made.
Jola serves the Rinderrahm Braten with Blaukraut and Klöse. We purchased a blaukraut in a glass jar and then we doctored it
up with butter, garlic, and onion. We added water, salt and pepper, a tiny bit of flour and Jola’s favorite spice mixture. Jola says that Blaukraut is ok from a glass but sauerkraut or any other kind of white kraut needs to be totally homemade.
To start the Braten we washed and dried the meat. Then salt and pepper. She spread mustard (mittelscharfer Senf) over the entire thing. Next we seared it with margarine and butter schmaltz (about a 1/4 cup of each) in a deep pot on high heat. Jola says never to use oil for meat, oil is for cooking fish. We seared it on all sides until the whole thing had deep hue. This took about 20 minutes total.
In the meantime, Heinz chopped three large onions (Zwiebel), three carrots (Karotte) and three garlic cloves (Knoblauch). They were added to the pot along with majoram and about three cups of water (water should cover meat). Bring to a boil, then cover and cook for 60-90 minutes. Jola uses something she calls a fast cooking pot. I think it’s a kind of pressure cooker but honestly I’m not sure.
After about an hour and fifteen minutes we removed the meat and used an immersion blender to blend all the vegetables with the sauce. Then we stirred in a small package of cream, Creme Fraiche, a spoonful of mustard and some more of Jola’s favorite spice mixture. The cream sauce was smooth and savory.
The best part of the day however was using a tiny slide viewer to look at photos of Heinz and Jola when they were in their 20’s and Thorsten when we was a kid. Jola told me she had a “secret” agenda in showing me the photos. Obviously it was not so secret. She told me that she hoped that by showing me these photos, Thorsten and I would soon be inspired to have a kid of our own. German or American, it seems like all moms have the same agenda and similar tactics to achieve their goals of becoming grandparents.
Laurie's Franconia 