whites until they form stiff peaks, then fold these gently into the batter mixture.
Melt the butter in an ovenproof pan or dish – I like to use a cast-iron pan or similar – then pour in the batter and fry for a few minutes until the bottom is golden brown. Flip the Schmarren over – it doesn’t matter if it breaks apart at this stage. Place the dish in the centre of the oven and bake for 5 minutes.
Remove from the oven, tear apart with two forks, dust with the cinnamon sugar, scatter with the flaked almonds and serve immediately.
VARIATIONS:
Schmarren can be made and eaten in many different ways. For a Kaiserschmarrn (Emperor’s pancake), usually the raisins are soaked in a few tablespoons of rum half an hour before cooking.
Apples are delicious in a Schmarren – grate an apple of your choosing into the batter at the same time as adding the raisins.
Any bottled or stewed fruit is great alongside a Schmarren – my favourites include cherries, apricots and apple compote.
ALL-DAY BREAKFAST
ALL-DAY BREAKFAST
Bauernfrühstück translated means ‘the farmer’s breakfast’. Despite its name, though, we have only ever eaten this in the evening, as I suspect most people do. It is essentially a frittata, a dish of leftovers bound together with a couple of eggs then baked in the oven until golden. Good on days when dinner needs to be fast, cheap and easy, and even better eaten cold the following day as a packed lunch.
This recipe is versatile – the aim is that it should be dictated by whichever ingredients you have to hand.
SERVES 4–6
You will need an ovenproof frying pan
25g unsalted butter
500g cooked potatoes, sliced
6 spring onions, sliced (or 1 small leek)
6 slices of Schwarzwälder Schinken (Black Forest ham), cut into bite-size pieces (or plain ham, salami, chorizo)
100g green beans, blanched (or peas, asparagus, broccoli, chard stalks, courgette, kale)
5 eggs, whisked
100ml soured cream (or cream)
80g medium/hard cheese, grated (Cheddar, Edam)
40g Parmesan, grated
1 teaspoon fresh savory, finely chopped (if you don’t have savory, then parsley, thyme, marjoram or basil will do)
fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Heat the oven to 190°C/170°C fan/gas 5.
Melt the butter in the frying pan and add the potatoes. Fry for 5 minutes, turning them from time to time, until the edges start to brown. Add the spring onions, ham and green beans and fry for a further 2 minutes. Mix together the eggs, cream, cheeses and savory, season with salt and pepper, then pour into the frying pan, poking the egg mixture around to ensure it is evenly spread. Fry for a further 2 minutes, then transfer to the oven for 15–20 minutes, until golden brown on top and the egg is cooked through.
This goes well with a simple green salad.
I ALSO LOVE:
Spring onions, potatoes, cumin seeds, smoked paprika, chard stalks.
Spring onions, potatoes, mushrooms, thyme.
Spring onions, potatoes, peas, mint.
Spring onions, potatoes, spinach, cumin seeds, sumac.
Any leftover cooked vegetables would work – quite often we have roasted root vegetables left over or baked butternut squash, for example.
BAKED QUARK
BAKED QUARK
This little warm dip or spread, depending on how you view it, takes all of 3 minutes to put together before it is baked. We enjoy it as part of a salad meal or simply with crackers as a snack, which we quite often share straight after school, taking the edge off the boys’ hunger as we wait for dinner.
SERVES 4
1 teaspoon olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
250g quark
1 egg, beaten
80g Parmesan, grated
½ tablespoon fresh thyme leaves, plus a few extra for the top
fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
a pinch of sweet paprika (or chilli flakes or sumac)
Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/gas 4.
Use the olive oil to grease an ovenproof shallow dish. Mix the quark, egg, Parmesan, thyme, salt and pepper together until evenly combined. Pour into the prepared dish, sprinkle with paprika and a few extra thyme leaves, drizzle with olive oil and place in the oven for 15–20 minutes, until golden and set.
Serve with fresh bread or crackers.
STRAMMER MAX
STRAMMER MAX
Strammer Max is the name we give to an open sandwich topped with a fried egg. A variation of this dish is eaten all across Germany, and I suppose in terms of snack popularity it ranks equal to a toastie in the UK, or a croque monsieur in France. When offered something to eat in a German household, Strammer Max is my snack of choice and over the years I have enjoyed it made in several ways. The surprise of what I actually end up with on the plate is what draws me to it.
Like a lot of recipes, this one depends on personal preference. Should you use white or brown bread? Fry the bread in butter or just butter the bread? Should it be made with cured ham or cooked? Cheese? And if so, does it go under the ham or on top? What constitutes the perfect Strammer Max has been the hot topic of conversation over many a table – here is my version.
SERVES 1 (MULTIPLY AS NEEDED)
½ tablespoon unsalted butter
½ tablespoon sunflower oil
1 slice of rye bread
3 fresh sage leaves
2 slices of cheese of your choosing (a medium Cheddar or Gouda, for example)
2 slices of Schwarzwälder Schinken (Black Forest ham)
1 egg
flaky sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 gherkins, to serve
Heat the butter and oil in a frying pan. When it starts to bubble, add the bread and sage leaves and fry for about 1 minute on each side, until the bread is crisp. Put the bread on a plate and lay the cheese directly on top, followed by the crispy sage leaves and the ham. Fry the egg in the same pan, slide it on to the sandwich, and season with a lot of black pepper and a pinch of salt.
Serve immediately, with 2 gherkins on the side.