Vogelmilch // by Christian

This is a traditional dessert known in Eastern Europe and often served in Transylvania and Banat (Romania), typically served in our family at Easter and Christmas.

Easy to make!

INGREDIENTS

• Vanilla (pod or sugar)
• 5 tablespoons sugar
• 1L milk
• 3 eggs
• Grated lemon peel
• A pinch of salt

THIS IS HOW IT IS DONE – GOOD LUCK.

1. In a pot put the milk, the vanilla and a pinch of salt. Then boil the whole thing lightly.
   
2. Beat the whites of the 3 eggs and then, using a tablespoon, carefully place them in a ball shape in the boiling pot. After a minute, carefully turn the balls. And then carefully using a sieve, place the balls from the pot into a bowl.
   
3. Stir constantly under low heat. Until the measures become thicker.
   
4. Cool the milk pot and pour it into the bowl with the balls.

Weihnachtskarpfen (Christmas carp) // by Marion

My grandfather had his own fishponds and always fished the Christmas carp with me on December 22nd. Then the carp came home with us and was placed in the very small bathroom, into the bathtub, and got a name (that’s why I never ate it). Every year the monster left the bathtub several times and my grandmother was not amused by it. At some point she unceremoniously threw it in the pan on the 23rd and served it.

Grandpa was pissed because it was the wrong day and then grandma confessed that she didn’t actually like carp. Since then, we served the Christmas carp always on December 23rd, Christmas was saved.

In the meantime, it is available as carp steak from the fish shop.

INGREDIENTS

• Carp steak
• Salt
• Pepper
• Bowl full of flour
• Clarified butter for frying

THIS IS HOW IT IS DONE – GOOD LUCK.

1. Remove the scales from the carp steaks (use tweezers!) and wash them,
   
2. dab dry, salt lightly, add some pepper.
   
3. Turn in flour and fry in clarified butter.
   
4. When the fish is golden brown, keep warm and brown butter in the pan.

Serve with parsley potatoes and green salad with sour cream dressing.

Polish Potato salad // by Nico

My grandpa had Silesian roots. The potato salad “Polish style” prepared by him was awesome – also at Christmas. With the end of his life, a big gap remained. Humanly as well as culinary. For many years.
But the culinary gap was closed eventually: Through my great mother-in-law.

With Silesian roots.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 jar of peas and carrots
• 13 waxy potatoes
• 1 jar of pickles
  (keep 100 ml of the pickle water)
• 10 eggs
• 2 tsp medium hot mustard

To taste:

• Mayonnaise
• Salt
• Pepper

THIS IS HOW IT IS DONE – GOOD LUCK.

1. Boil the potatoes until they are soft. Then let them cool down and cut them into cubes.
   
2. Boil the eggs until firm, cool and cut into small pieces as well.
   
3. Drain the peas and carrots.
   
4. Also drain the pickles and chop them to your liking.
   
5. Put everything together in a bowl with the spices and season to taste.
   
   Voilà

Easy Peasy Mandelhappen (Almond bites) // by Melissa

My son got this recipe from a children’s Christmas book and for his sake and without much expectation, we tried it. What can I say … these almond bites are a revelation, and we can’t imagine our Christmas cookie jar without them.

INGREDIENTS

• 200 g ground almonds
• 150 g whole cane sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp cinnamon

THIS IS HOW IT IS DONE – GOOD LUCK.

1. Mix everything.
   
2. Spoon heaps onto a baking paper tray.
   
3. 150 °C convection oven // 10 minutes // middle shelf.
   
4. … bang, done.

Sambal goreng Ati (Dragon liver) // by Lea (& Nave)

This is a traditional dish for Eid al fitr. Eid al fitr is like Christmas for Muslims. My partner discovered his favourite dish when he was 4 years old. That’s when the liver looked like a dragon’s to him, which is why it became an inside family gag that it was a dragon’s liver and not a cow’s liver.

INGREDIENTS

• 6 shallots
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 2 cm piece of ginger root
  (or a star of Thai root)
• 1 tsp turmeric
• Light walnut (or macadamia)
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 lemongrass (crush)
• 500 g liver
• 2 tablespoons flour
• Oil (for frying)
• Salt
• 500 ml coconut milk

THIS IS HOW IT IS DONE – GOOD LUCK.

1. Cut the liver into cubes and add 2 tablespoons of flour, fry the whole thing, until it is half done.
   
2. Put the shallots, garlic, ginger and light walnut (or macadamia nuts) in a blender.
   
3. In a second pan, fry the pureed with a little oil and add the coconut milk with a little water. In the pan now add the liver and a little salt until it thickens.
   
   Serve with rice.

Feuerzangelbowle // by Katharina

The Feuerzangenbowle in my family has been enjoyed for several generations and invites to cozy get-togethers in the cold at night. The movie of the same name has little to do with it ????.

INGREDIENTS

• One raw lemon and orange
• 2 L red wine
• 500 ml orange juice
• 1 stick of cinnamon
  (or cinnamon powder to taste)
• 4 star anise
• 6 cloves
• 1 sugar loaf
• 0,35 L rum
  (according to taste, how much alcohol)

THIS IS HOW IT IS DONE – GOOD LUCK.

1. Wash lemon and orange under hot water. Cut off the peel of the lemon.
   
2. Slice half of the orange and then squeeze the rest of the lemon and orange.
   
3. Warm up the red wine in the pot and add the squeezed.
   
4. Add the spices to the pot and let them infuse.
   
5. Then put everything together in the pot.
   
6. Put the sugar hat over the pot and put it on fire.
   
7. Heat the rum and carefully pour it over the sugar loaf a little at a time with a ladle.
   
8. Until there is no more sugar loaf. Stir once.
   
9. To decorate, attach remaining orange and lemon slices to rim of glass.

Funchosa // by Sabine

This has been my favorite salad since I was little and is typically eaten in my birthplace Kyrgyzstan. By the way it tastes great without meat, really good for all veggies ???? .

INGREDIENTS

• 2 big carrots
• 1 bell pepper
• (red, green, yellow, orange – it doesn’t matter)
• 1 onion
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 270 g meat (any kind. Vegetarians can leave it out ???? )
• salt (to taste)
• pepper (to taste)
• 1 tsp paprika powder
• 200 g glass noodles
• 1 tsp sambal oelek (or 2 chili peppers)
• 5 tbsp light soy sauce
• 3 tbsp. oil (canola or sunflower oil)

THIS IS HOW IT IS DONE – GOOD LUCK.

1. Grate carrots, cut peppers and meat into cubes.
   
2. Press garlic and chop onion finely.
   
3. Steep glass noodles in hot water until translucent.
   
4. Drain and run under cold water.
   
5. Mix sambal oelek and soy sauce. (Or almost puree chili peppers, mix with oil a little salt and sugar and then mix with soy sauce – of course the taste is a little different).
   
6. Now add the vegetables (peppers and carrots) to the pan and fry until firm to the bite.
   
7. Season with salt, pepper and paprika powder.
   
8. Set aside and in the same pan saute onions, garlic and meat cubes.
   
9. Then again season with salt, pepper and paprika powder.
   
10. Now add vegetables and noodles to the pan along with the meat.
    
11. Almost done! Just mix everything together with the soy/oleek mixture.

Neinerlaa (Neunerlei – Nine types) // by Birgit

We often had the “Neunerlei” (Neinerlaa). As a child, I thought my mother had invented it. In fact, it is a traditional Christmas meal in the Ore Mountains and Vogtland. The nine ingredients have their own meanings, and their composition varies: Sometimes there is sauerkraut instead of red cabbage, the goose leg is exchanged for roast pork, and a vegetarian version is also possible. Year after year I try number 7, my mother’s red cabbage, because it was legendary.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 kg red cabbage
• 2 onions
• 8 cloves
• 1-2 sour apples
• 6 tablespoons goose fat
• 2-4 tablespoons sugar
• 6 tablespoons white wine or raspberry vinegar
• Salt and pepper
• 600 ml chicken stock
• 4 tsp. cornstarch
• 4 tablespoons currant jelly
• 1 pinch of childhood memories (must never be missing)

THIS IS HOW IT IS DONE – GOOD LUCK.

1. Remove the outer leaves from the red cabbage, cut out the stalk in a wedge shape. Cut the cabbage into thin strips. Dice 1-1/2 onions, put bay leaves and cloves in the 1/2 onion. Peel, core and quarter apples.
   
2. Heat lard in a large pot. Sauté onion cubes in it. Add cabbage, apples and sugar and sauté for 5-10 minutes, stirring. Season with vinegar, salt and pepper. Add spicy onion. Add broth or 600 ml water. Cover, bring to a boil and simmer over mild, low to medium heat for 50-60 minutes (feel free to nibble a little).
   
3. Mix starch with 4 tablespoons water until smooth. Bring cabbage to a boil again with it and the pinch of childhood memories. Season with the red currant jelly and season again with salt, sugar and pepper if necessary.
   
   Bon appetite

Beef roulades // by Mischa

My personal Christmas dish is very classic beef roulades with dumplings and red cabbage. There were always on the 1st Christmas Day at Grandma’s, I’ve been trying to recreate her sauce for 30 years, but so far I have not succeeded. I have been chasing this one particular taste since childhood.

INGREDIENTS

The roulades need:

• 250 g beef roulades
• 2 slices of bacon
• 2 pickles
• 1 tsp hot mustard
• 1 shallot
• Some clarified butter
• Salt
• Pepper
• Roasting thread

The sauce needs:

• 1 soup vergtables
• 1 shallot
• 1 tsp tomato paste
• 2 tsp sugar
• 400 ml dry red wine
• 200 ml beef broth
• 20 g butter
• Salt
• Pepper

THIS IS HOW IT IS DONE – GOOD LUCK.

1. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees.
   
2. Cut the vegetables.
   
3. Cut the beef roulades into slices. And then pound it thin. Try to pat it so thin that you can roll the roulades again.
   
4. Season the roulades with salt and pepper and spread 2 tsp of mustard on each roulade.
   
5. Then put a slice of bacon on top.
   
6. Now put the sliced pickles and a bit of the shallots on top.
   
7. Now roll the whole thing up and fold it at the bottom. Then tie the roulades. (Again, there are countless lacing variations, as many as there probably are recipes. Some use toothpicks, too. But for me, that’s too much fiddling and I always prick myself).
   
8. Fry in a pan with clarified butter until the roulades are a bit crispy.
   
9. The roulades now come first off into the middle of the oven and roast there for 1 ½ hours. After that, check again if the meat is tough. If it is, put it back in the oven.
   
   For the sauce:
   
10. Vegetables, shallots, tomato paste and sugar in the pan. Sauté everything a bit. Then slowly pour in the red wine until it has boiled off.
    
11. Pour the vegetables and the sauce through a sieve into a pot. Let it boil briefly. Remove the pot from the stove. Then add very cold butter to make the sauce creamier.
    
12. As a side dish, I think a lot of options fit. At my grandmother’s we often ate potatoes with it. But noodles, dumplings or homemade spaetzle also fit. Bon appetit!