Königsberger Klopse and Red Cabbage

#mondayswithnona

Last night was German night at the Brooker house.  Derek had mentioned a craving for meatballs so I scoured the recipes. Königsberger Klopse is a German meatball dish.  The meatballs are boiled in salt water.  I did a little research and the dish is named after the city in which it originated. The Soviets renamed the city Kaliningrad after World War II after which the Germans who would quickly be expelled and replaced by Russians renamed the dish “Kochklopse” which just means boiled meatballs because they were afraid to reference the German city.  Grandma’s recipe called for beef but old Prussian recipes used veal.  I’ve got to admit… it was missing something!  It was good but a little bland.  I think the addition of something sweeter or more savory could have helped.  Maybe capers. It is obviously one of the older recipe cards as Grandmas handwriting changed over time

The Red Cabbage recipe was out of my Great Grandmas box.  It as given to her by someone named “Inga.” Reading this old recipe, so carefully typed onto this card at a typewriter, makes me think about the importance of sharing ideas and keeping alive what special to the people who have passed.  This recipe was obviously a wartime one.  It calls for Oleo which was called “victory’s spread” in WWII.  There were butter shortages due to rationing and margarine became the popular replacement.  I used butter instead tonight.

Both of these recipes were wanting by our pallettes… But they are both a product of scarcity and working with the ingredients available to make the best version of beloved recipes these women obviously wanted to keep making.  The cabbage brought flavor to the plate and we were happy for that! There are still 8 meatballs left and I’m gonna egg yolk and bread them before frying them. I’ll check in about that later…

Königsberger Klopse

1 lbs ground chuck

2 onions chopped

Salt & Pepper

To this mixture add 2 slices of wheat bread which have well soaked in water and drained.  Then until the add of a lot of flour form a ball.  This is easlity done by putting flour into the hands and rolling into balls. Boil these from 15 -20 miutes in salt water. Serve with cream sauce.

White sauce:

1 tblsp flour

4 tblso butter

2 cups milk

½ cup juice from meatballs

1 egg yok

Speck

Nutmeg

Red Cabbage (sweet sour)               Inga

¾ cup vinegar

“          “ sugar

“          “water

1/8 lb. Oleo (replaced with ¼ lb. butter)

½ can cranberry sauce

Salt and pepper

Shred cabbage and simmer 3 hours.