How to Eat Like Ein Berliner

The truth is, I wasn’t planning to order the bean soup at all. I wanted chicken soup. But the German word for chicken soup is “huhnersuppe” and, when spoken by an American, it sounds a lot like “hummersuppe,” which is lobster soup.

I ordered huhnersuppe, and the waiter called back, “Hummersuppe?” I repeated huhnersuppe, and he repeated his line. . . . We both got so frustrated that I decided to order bohnensuppe. It was wonderful.

It was 1984, and Berlin still felt like President Kennedy’s town to me. Ich bin ein Berliner, the wall, the whole works. I knew some German when I got there, but the goal was fluency. Judging from my inability to order chicken soup, it was going to take awhile.

Ordering food was a good way to practice the language, aside from being the only way I knew to nourish myself. At the time I couldn’t cook my way out of a paper bag, even if it was full of microwave popcorn.

Oh, I gave it a try every now and then, with varying degrees of success. I started with steak, which wasn’t too tough--until I was done with it. Sausages were no better; even wurst, in my case. I couldn’t figure out how to cook them without compromising their structural integrity: Once I peeled off the casings, they tended to fall apart. I ended up “cooking” a lot of sandwiches, so I did learn something about the huge variety of German cold cuts. Mostly, though, I ate out.

Berlin is multicultural city. With its immigrants from a broad range of countries and the guest workers brought in to fuel the economy, it is not unlike Los Angeles. As a result it has a huge variety of restaurants from many ethnicities.

My favorite was a Balkan place near the airlift memorial (Platz der Luftbrucke) in the American sector. Its mix of foods always struck me as being typical of Berlin and is the inspiration for this menu. And fear not, I have finally learned how to cook.

The bean soup from “The New German Cookbook” by Jean Anderson and Hedy Wurz (Harper & Row: 1993) tastes so much like the soup I ordered in the cafe that have I lifted it, rather shamelessly, in its entirety.

The key to the mixed grill, another favorite dish of mine, is getting the best cuts. Leaving the casings on the sausages is also a good idea. The meats I used--smoked pork chops (grilled), veal cutlets (pan-fried), weisswurst (poached in beer) and smoked bratwurst (partly cooked in beer, then grilled)--came from Alpine Village in Torrance, but you can purchase them from any good German butcher.

Each diner gets one small pork chop, half a cutlet and half of each type of sausage. That’s a lot of food by California standards, but it is not unheard of in German households. The remaining menu items--potatoes, braised cabbage and fennel, strudel--are all just adaptations of typical German ingredients and dishes.

There are a lot of good memories in here for me. And for you? Well, let me just say guten appetit!

Menu

Bean Soup

Mixed Grill

Caraway Potatoes Duchesse

Braised Red Cabbage and Fennel

Almond Apple Strudel with Creme Anglaise

GAME PLAN

Night before: Prepare soup and creme anglaise.

90 minutes before: Construct strudel. Peel and blanch potatoes.

1 hour before: Prep and begin braising cabbage and fennel. Mash potatoes and assemble potatoes duchesse mixture. Begin baking strudel.

30 minutes before: Begin poaching sausages. Pipe out potato mixture. Begin warming soup.

15 minutes before: Grill pork chops. Season and pan fry veal cutlets. Finish cooking smoked bratwurst on grill. Place potatoes in oven to brown. Remove strudel from oven when done.

STAPLES

Onion

Oil

Apple cider vinegar

Salt

Ground black pepper

White pepper

Dried marjoram

Dried thyme

Bay leaves

Cinnamon

Flour

Vanilla extract

Sugar

Eggs

SHOPPING LIST

1 pound great northern white beans

1/2 pound green beans

2 celery stalks

2 large carrots

1 large leek

1 red cabbage

1 fennel root

1 bunch Italian parsley

3/4 pound new potatoes

1 1/2 pounds russet potatoes

4 pounds Granny Smith apples

2 lemons

1 pound lean bacon

1 1/2 cups creme fraiche

2 pints heavy cream

1 pound unsalted butter

1 pound filo dough

Caraway seeds

1/2 cup sliced almonds

Golden raisins

Almond extract

1 quart beer

Amaretto liqueur

BEAN SOUP (Bohnensuppe)

1 pound great northern beans, rinsed and sorted

1 quart water

1/2 pound lean bacon, cut in small (1/4-inch) dice

1/2 pound green beans, cut in 1-inch lengths

2 large celery stalks, thinly sliced

2 large carrots, cut into small dice

1 large leek, trimmed, thinly sliced

1 large yellow onion, coarsely chopped

1/2 cup Italian parsley, chopped

3/4 pound small boiling potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch dice

1 tablespoon dried marjoram

1 teaspoon dried thyme

2 large bay leaves

3 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup flour

1 tablespoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/3 cup Italian parsley, chopped

Simmer beans, bacon and water in 5-quart saucepan, covered, 1 1/2 hours.

Add green beans, celery, carrots, leek, onion, parsley, potatoes, marjoram, thyme and bay leaves, and simmer 1 hour longer.

While vegetables simmer, make roux by melting butter in small skillet over low heat and stirring in flour. Cook over very low heat, stirring occasionally, so roux becomes tan right when vegetables are done simmering.

Add a little soup liquid to roux, then add back to pot of soup. Add salt and pepper, simmer about 10 minutes and adjust seasoning to taste. Remove bay leaves from soup and add chopped parsley.

Rapidly chill soup by setting pan in bowl of ice and refrigerate for serving the next day or keep warm for serving within 1 hour.

Makes about 6 quarts soup or 18 servings.

Each serving contains about:

191 calories; 477 mg sodium; 11 mg cholesterol; 8 grams fat; 24 grams carbohydrates; 7 grams protein; 2.23 grams fiber,

CARAWAY POTATOES DUCHESSE

1 1/2 pounds baking potatoes, quartered

1 tablespoon butter, melted

2 tablespoons caraway seeds

8 slices bacon, cooked and chopped into small pieces

Salt

White pepper

2 egg yolks

Place potatoes in cold salted water and simmer until tender. Drain, then dry potatoes in oven several minutes.

Mash potatoes, add butter, caraway seeds, bacon, and salt and pepper to taste. Mix to uniform consistency. Mixture should be fairly stiff. Add egg yolks and mix until smooth.

Using pastry bag with large star tip, pipe mixture into conical spirals.

Just before serving, place potatoes in 400-degree oven to brown lightly, about 5-8 minutes.

Makes 6 servings.

Each serving contains about:

171 calories; 180 mg sodium; 101 mg cholesterol; 7 grams fat; 22 grams carbohydrates; 6 grams protein; 0.76 gram fiber.

BRAISED RED CABBAGE AND FENNEL

1 red cabbage, roughly chopped

1 fennel root, thinly sliced

1/2 cup beer

1 cup apple cider vinegar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

Cook cabbage, fennel, beer, vinegar, salt and pepper in large covered saucepan over low to medium heat until vegetables are moist and tender, 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Makes 6 servings.

Each serving contains about:

31 calories; 211 mg sodium; 0 cholesterol; 0 fat; 7 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram protein; 0.47 gram fiber.

ALMOND APPLE STRUDEL

1 cup golden raisins

1/2 cup Amaretto liqueur

4 pounds Granny Smith apples

2 quarts water

1/2 cup lemon juice

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 pound filo dough

1 cup butter, melted

1 1/2 cups creme fraiche

2 cups whipping cream

2 tablespoons almond extract

1/2 cup sliced almonds

Soak raisins in liqueur and reserve.

Peel, core, quarter and thinly slice apples. Place in water mixed with lemon juice to prevent browning.

Combine sugar, lemon zest and cinnamon in small bowl and reserve.

Cover filo dough with damp cloth to prevent drying. Place 1 layer of filo in bottom of 13x9-inch baking pan to cover and brush with butter. Repeat process 4 times.

Pat apples dry and cover filo with half. Spread half of sugar mixture on top of apples, followed by half of raisin-liqueur mixture. Next spread half of creme fraiche on top of raisins.

Cover filling with 4 more layers of buttered filo sheets, as before, and layer with remaining apples, sugar mixture, raisin-liqueur mixture and creme fraiche.

Bring cream and almond extract to boil and pour over strudel.

Layer top of dish with remaining filo sheets, brushing butter on each sheet as it is placed. Dot top of strudel with sliced almonds. Place on baking sheet to catch any overflow and bake at 475 degrees 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 400 degrees and continue cooking until strudel is bubbling and nicely browned. Remove from oven and cool on baking rack. Serve with creme anglaise, ice cream or whipped cream.

Makes about 12 servings.

Each serving contains about:

788 calories; 352 mg sodium; 137 mg cholesterol; 45 grams fat; 91 grams carbohydrates; 8 grams protein; 1.26 grams fiber.