Top Secret Jewlicious Plan B-Launch Party – The Recipes

De gustibus non est disputandum.

(It’s Latin week at the ‘lish if you haven’t noticed yet.)

A short trip planned to last four days ended up lasting twelve days. I’m back to my native habitat now and been catching up with work.

Anyhow, as promised, here are the recipes for the dishes served at our top secret Jewlicious plan B-launch party. Sorry, I didn’t snap any pics this time as I preferred to honour the attendees’ privacy.

German-style potato salad
For a large bowl full you’ll need approx. 5 kilos of all-purpose potatoes with thin peel. Boil the potatoes with their peel in salted water till they’re just done. Strain and let cool for a bit. (If you peel them right away, you will not only burn your fingers but have the potatoes break more quickly.) Now it’s very easy to peel the potatoes. Just cut a line along the peel and pull it off. Remove dark spots (there’s nothing dangerous to them, they just don’t look pretty).
For the dressing, put a generous amount of mayonnaise into a bowl (full fat, low fat, whatever your fancy), add white balsamic vinegar, mustard, pepper, plucked parsley and finely sliced spring onions to taste. Slice in the potatoes. Use a wide spoon to fold the potato slices into the dressing (don’t just stir or you’ll get an odd mash). The potato slices should just about be covered, not floating in the mayonnaise. Set to rest for a couple of hours, add more dressing or spices if needed before serving.

Frikadellen – German-style burgers
I made them mini-style, but a pound of (lean) minced beef will give you about five regularly-sized Frikadellen.
Take a bun, a slice of bread without crust etc. Break into bits into a large stirring bowl, add water till the chunks are just about covered and let the pastry soak up the water. Then squeeze the pulp to remove the water again. The pulp will give you the typical Frikadelle-texture, which is with a crust on the outside but juicy on the inside. Add two pounds of minced beef and either use a sturdy stirring spoon, dough hooks, or a fork to blend the bun and the meat into a dough. Add an egg, salt, pepper, a finely diced shallot or small onion, finely diced garlic and plucked parsley to the mix. Blend well. Heat oil or whatever frying fat you prefer in a flat frying pan. For the mini-sized Frikadellen, you need about the amount of dough that can be scooped onto a regular fork. Shape into little patties and fry. Turn them over when you see the side is getting “colour”. The Frikadellen are done when you press down on them with a fork and the frikadelle is not elastic anymore. (In the mini versions on medium to high heat, that’ll take about two to three minutes so be careful not to burn them.) I suggest you first fry a few to do some taste testing to see if the dough needs any extra seasoning. Serve hot or cold. Frikadellen go very well with mustard.

Stuffed eggs
Hard-boil a dozen large eggs (salt in the boiling water is a way of keeping them from cracking if you don’t want to prick the shells), strain, refresh, let them cool.
Peel the eggs and cut them into halves. With the help of a teaspoon, put the yellows into a stirring bowl, crush with a fork. Add 4 oz finely chopped smoked salmon, a dab of mayonnaise, pepper, plucked dill. Stir into a smooth mass and use either teaspoons or an icing bag to fill the egg-halves with the mass.
This is such a classic over here that especially during the 1960s to 1980s (and still now), you’d get special platters with egg-shaped notches so the eggs won’t roll down. In lieu of such a platter, I spread stalks of dill on a large plate, topped them with lemon slices and put the eggs on top of that. Keep refrigerated till serving; if the dish is going to be out for a while, place it on top of a cold plate, cold pack etc. to keep it cool.

Aubergine-onion-tomato salad
This one’s pretty simple, too. For a larger bowl, you’ll need two aubergines, six to eight tomatoes, two to three large red onions, some parsley, salt, pepper, some balsamic vinegar.
Slice aubergines and onions and fry in a pan individually. (You know your pans best. Ideally, the aubergine should be nicely fried, not soaking. If they still get too greasy, let them set for a bit on kitchen paper to lose some of the oil.)
This is a very simple layer salad, which layers as follows:
1) aubergine
2) salt, pepper, balsamic vinegar
3) sliced tomatoes, cores removed
4) salt, pepper, balsamic vinegar
5) onions
6) parsley
Layer over and over as long as you wish. If you want to make a small serving, one “layering” will also look great spread on a large platter. This also works with courgettes in place of aubergines and makes a great summer lunch with ciabatta or a nice side at a barbecue.

Ooof, back to work for me. If you’ve got any questions, leave them in the comments.

Cheers