It did get me wondering about the food of Cologne, and thinking that, in honour of the happy accident, I should make something traditional to that part of Germany.
One dish that kept coming up in my searches was an unlikely sounding concoction called Himmel un Äd (in Kölsch, Himmel und Erde in German, Heaven and Earth in English) - a potato and apple puree most often served with blutwurst (black pudding) and fried onions. I decided to take the elements (potato, apple & black pudding) and make it into something a bit more refined.
Heaven and Earth (serves 2)
300g pink fir apple potatoes
bunch of flat leaf parsley
handful of lardons
1 tsp capers, drained
1 shallot, finely sliced
3 tbs white wine vinegar
2 thick slices of black pudding (I know a lot of people rate Bury, I prefer Stornoway) cut in half
1 Granny Smith apple, cored and cut into 8ths
2 pigeon breasts, cut in half
1 clove of garlic, minced
knob of butter
splash of oil
black pepper
Boil the spuds until tender, then drain and place in a salad bowl. Fry the lardons until crisp, then add to the potatoes, along with the capers, parsley and shallot. Deglaze the bacon pan with the vinegar and pour that over the potatoes. Add the butter and oil to the pan (the deglazing means you don't have to wash it up) and when the butter foams, add the apple slices, pigeon breasts and black pudding. Sprinkle the minced garlic over it. After about 3 minutes, turn the ingredients. After another 3 minutes season with black pepper and serve alongside the still-warm potato salad. A minimum effort supper dish that is really very delicious. If not precisely as they make it in Cologne!
27 comments:
This looks delicious and what a wonderful accident indeed!
A great dish... didn;t sound right to begin with, but ... why not. Looks terrific, and isn;t it fun to be good enough to "create" an original take on a classic
Lovely!
You may like to read http://travelguide.affordabletours.com/search/Article/guide/80/ (he says, modestly) to find out more about Cologne food.
Looks tasty. I'm not sure about black pudding and pigeon breast.
Potatoes & apple & bacon sounds like comfort food to me!
HH - it was tasty!
Dave - I do think my version looks like an improvement!
Travelrat - no, thank you! What a great discovery.
Mother - Pigeon breast has a similar texture to liver, but if you are really squeamish you could have some sausages fried with the apples!
Oh I love the mix of sweet and savory here...and I love the name of this dish.
My hat is off to you! You were quite creative with your ingredients-which is what cookin is all about.
I had to type 'lardon' into a search engine to find out what it was, so I've learned something today (and typing lar ... into Google made the first auto-choice comes up as Lara Bingle. Righto.)
A very creative use of ingredients--it looks hearty and good too.
You know there could be readers of this blog who are in the happy state of not knowing who Lara Bingle is!
Aimee - it's a great name, isn't it?
Velva - thank you!
Cranky - well yes, I suppose lardons aren't something that often crosses a vegetarian's radar!
Deb - thanks, it was very tasty!
Mother - I know! Paul didn't know who she or Fev or Michael Clark were!
Very adventurous! Pigeon and black pudding are new for me.
Oh my gosh, you really did turn that into something special
Natashya - black pudding is much nicer than you would think!
Kat - thanks. I was pretty happy with how it turned out.
Foodycat, the dish sounds exotically divine. Must try it. Wish I was there to try a dishful.
Did the taste move heaven and earth? :) Thank you so much for visiting me. I've signed up to follow you so that your new posts come up in my reader.
Foodycat,
Thanks for getting back to me on my cinnamon bun question. I did not know you could raise bread in the fridge. That would solve my ultimate cinnamon bun problem! Thank you so much!
the heaven part sounds lovely, but i must admit that the idea of black pudding gives me pause. there's no doubt it's an impressive plate--well done!
Gosh, this looks really tasty.
Another black pudding lover here of course.
Never heard of Lara Bingle!
Teresa - how funny that you think this is exotic! I think the things you cook are exotic!
Amanda - it wasn't quite earth-moving! But it was good.
Grace - wimp!
Jude - Michael Clark's ex-fiancee.
That's a great coincidence! And luckily it's a good word, not a rude one! :D
Ben - beer and the best sausages in the world, who needs to know more?
Su-Lin - yeah, if it meant something else I might not have mentioned it!
This looks fantastic!! I had to google lardons - figured it was something to do with lard - but was surprised to find out its what we call lard. Although that is probably technically incorrect!! How sweet that Mummy visits and comments on your blog!
That is a happy coincidence! I love your potato-apple-lardon combination. i guess it would work with duck too, as pigeon is not easily available in Greece.
This looks fabulous! I am so glad I discovered your blog!!
Dharm - I don't know how she'll take to being called sweet! Lardons are chunks of bacon, rather than lard.
Jo - that really surprises me! Somehow I would have thought that pigeon was easily available. But duck would be so delicious!
Jessica - thanks for visiting my blog!
Better than you cope with cute!
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