For the Love of Food

I really love throwing a party – and I never need a reason to throw one for friends and/or family. So, with Foodbuzz’s 24,24,24 monthly event, I have an even greater motivation to throw put together some sort of event centered around food.

For this month’s event I have chosen to throw a grill party for family and friends visiting from out of town. My title “Achtung! Die Grillsaison hat begonnen” (“Attention! Grill-Season has begun” translated into English) is a favorite German phrase that you will see and hear everywhere once grilling season starts – which is about mid-May. So, with my grill party I decided to showcase typical German foods that you would find at a grill party. Naturally, there are many many more dishes and meats that are grilled at a German grill party, but these are my favorite that I can get my hands on here in Bavaria.

Our menu consisted of:
Potato Salad
Tossed Salad
Bread
Tzatziki Sauce
Noodle Salad
Grilled Vegetables
Chicken legs
Bratwurst Kebabs (Bratwurstspieße)
Crunchy Kebabs (Knusperspieße)
Pork Steaks
Pork Belly
Rostocker Bratwurst
Poultry Kebabs (mixture of chicken, turkey, and duck)
Cevapcici
Vanilla Pudding with Rote Grütze (red fruit jelly dessert topping)

Let’s just say we had a lot of food and a lot of leftovers! We were expecting some more friends to come by, but after a pipe burst in their home they were busy with more important things. So, there were 9 of us. I prepared everything..well, I do have to add that most of the meats and the potato salad were all marinated/made by the butcher…and my husband grilled with help, every once in a while, from my father-in-law. The rest of our guests enjoyed themselves, relaxed in our garden, and ate until they couldn’t eat anymore.

Our guests wished not to have their photographs on my blog, so here are some pictures of my family:

me “helping” with grilling

Bellow are the dishes that I made, including recipes, and bellow that are the dishes that we didn’t prepare ourselves. On top of all this I had planned a German creamy cucumber salad, but ended up forgetting it at home. We had it the next day for lunch and it was fantastic. But, it went so quickly that I never got a photo of it!

Tzatziki Sauce
Ingredients:
1 kg Greek Yogurt with 10% fat
1 Hothouse Cucumber, shredded
1 large clove Garlic, crushed
about 1 Tablespoon Salt (or to taste)
juice of 1 Lemon

Directions:
In a large bowl mix all ingredients together and let sit overnight for the best flavor.
Tips:
-if your cucumber produces too much liquid after shredding, squeeze it out.
-start with less salt and add more as you see fit – to your taste.

Makes about 3 Cups.

&

Tossed Salad
Ingredients:
Oak Leaf Lettuce, torn
Cucumber, sliced
Tomato, sliced
fresh Herbs: Basil, Thyme, etc, minced
Salt
Pepper
Dry Salad Herbs
Brandywine Vinegar
Hazelnut Oil

Directions:
In a large bowl mix together lettuce, cucumber, tomato, and herbs.
In a small bowl or jar whisk together (in jar: shake) salt, pepper, dry salad herbs, vinegar, and oil. Let rest for at least 30 minutes to get the dry salad herbs rehydrate. Pour over salad and toss.

Noodle Salad
Salad Ingredients:
120 grams of Spiral Noodles (I used whole wheat)
25grams sliced Munster cheese, julienned
1/2 a Red Bell Pepper, chopped
1/2 a Green Bell Pepper, chopped
1 small Red Onion, diced
50grams Cocktail Tomatoes
100grams of marinated Artichoke hearts, quartered

Dressing Ingredients:
2 Tablespoons of white Balsamic Vinegar (5,4% acidity)
2 Tablespoons of Orange juice
1 teaspoon of Walnut Oil
1 teaspoon of Honey
1 Tablespoons chopped fresh Basil
Salt and Pepper, to taste

Directions:
Cook the noodles according to package directions. Pour out into a colander in your sink, and cool down with cold water.

Combine all salad ingredients in a bowl.

In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together all dressing ingredients. Pour over salad and mix well.

Let sit a few hours to let flavors soak in.

Makes 1 main portion serving or 6 side dish servings.

&

Grilled Vegetables
Ingredients:
Bell Peppers (Red, Green, Yellow), chopped large
Red Onions, sliced
Zucchini, sliced large
Mushrooms
Cocktail Tomatoes
Marinade*

Directions:
Heat up the grill and place your raw vegetables in a vegetable grilling pan (fire-proof pan with holes). I recommend cooking any tomatoes separately because they cook more quickly than other vegetables.

Make sure all vegetables are in a single layer and pour a few tablespoons of marinade over the vegetables and then spread evenly with a brush. Grill for about 15 minutes, mixing/turning once in between.

Place grilled vegetables in a warm pot with the lid on to keep warm while all your vegetables finish. This will create extra juicy grilled vegetables that taste fantastic alone as a side dish, mixed with pasta, or go well in a sandwich.

*For the marinade that we coated the vegetables with we just used the same marinades that the meats where marinading in – instead of throwing them out. If you would rather make a separate marinade for the vegetables I recommend Olive Oil, Salt, and your favorite spices such as spicy paprika or chili powder.

Bratwurst Kebabs (Bratwurstspieße)
Ingredients:
16 raw Nuremberg Bratwurst, cut in half
2 Red Bell Peppers
2 Green Bell Peppers
2 Yellow Bell Peppers
120 grams Green Onions, sliced into 2-inch pieces

Directions:
Thread ingredients onto skewers in the following order: bell pepper, onion, bratwurst, bell pepper, onion, bratwurst, bell pepper, onion.

Grill for 10-15 minutes, or until the bratwurst are cooked through.

Makes 6 main dish servings.

*Cevapcici*
Although Cevapcici is not a German dish, but rather comes from the Balkans, it can often be found at German grill parties. And, all our guests agreed that this was there favorite dish…it was also the only one we had no leftovers for!
A friend of ours made these for us, and, even though I have been begging for the recipe for the last two year, it still remains a family secret. I have been able to ind out certain ingredients through casual conversation, but the most important ingredients, the spice mixture, still remains a well-guarded secret. However, I was taught how to roll them. Each year I learn a new step in making these, so maybe in the next 5 years I will have the full recipe!

So far I know:
Ingredients:
2 kg ground Pork
1 kg ground Beef
Onions, pureed
Baking Soda
other spices

Directions:
Take a small amount in one hand: 2-3 tablespoons. Form into a single mass and place on the counter top and roll like you’re making a clay dough worm. Squeeze the ends together gently to not let them be thinner than the center, and roll again shortly to even out. Set aside on a plate and refrigerate until ready to grill.

To grill: place on a hot grill and grill until cooked through – make sure not to let burn and keep a water bottle handy to extinguish any flames. Once finished cooking, remove to a pot and keep covered with a lid. Traditionally raw diced onion is placed at the bottom of the pot and the cevapcici is placed over it. When all cevepcici are done grilling the onions have softened from the residual heat and the two are eaten together.

Makes about 50 cevapcici.

Dishes that we did not make – thanks to our local butcher Metzgerei Willomitzer:

Potato Salad

Chicken legs – with a lemon-pepper marinade

Crunchy Kebabs (Knusperspieße) – with a paprika marinade (my personal favorite!) – basically really long sprips of thick bacon wrapped around a thick wooden skewer and then marinated.

Pork Steaks – in a paprika marinade

Pork Belly – in a spicy paprika marinade

Poultry Kebabs (mixture of chicken, turkey, and duck) – with a lemon-pepper marinade

From our local baker:

Assorted Baguette Breads

Our guests from northern Germany brought with them:

Rostocker Bratwurst and lots of Rostocker beer

From our local grocery store:

Vanilla Pudding with Rote Grütze (red fruit jelly)

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