Food Wishes Video Recipes (2024)

Every year, in the weeks leading up to the holidays, my mother and aunts would bake batches, and batches of what I thought were the “best” Christmas cookies ever. They were soft, buttery, sugar cookies shaped like trees, Santa’s, stars, and snowmen, finished with a simple icing, and to me they were absolute...to read the rest of Chef John's article about Pfeffernüsse, please follow this link to become a member.)

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Posted byChef Johnat5:21 PM

Sorry for the late upload, but I had some mysterious modemissues, and this German potato dumpling video took over 5 hours to upload! Iwas having flashbacks to those good, old dial-up AOL days, and they weren’t goodflashbacks. I do miss that cool modem sound, but that's about it.

Anyway, it’s late, but I wanted to post theingredient amounts, and maybe I'll add some more info tomorrow, although these areso basic that’s probably not necessary. The only tip I’ll give is that Ithink baking the potatoes works better than boiling them whole. Peeling, quartering,and boiling until tender will also work, but don’t overcook them, otherwisethey'll absorb too much water.

Ingredients for 8 to 10 German Potato Dumplings:

2 large russet potatoes (about 1 1/2 pounds)

salt, freshly ground black pepper, and cayenne to taste

pinch of nutmeg

2 large eggs

1 cup flour

fresh chives to garnish

For the croutons/crumbs

1 stick unsalted butter (1/2 cup)

2 cups fresh bread cubes

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I’ve never been a huge fan of German potato salad, for twovery good reasons. First of all, my love for mayonnaise borders oninappropriate, and secondly, the potatoes always seem to be under-cooked.

Ienjoy many things cooked al dente, but potatoes are never, ever one of them. Iknow people want clean, neat slices, but to me that’s just not a good enoughreason.

However, if they’re cooked tender, especially over somesmoky coals, I can forgive the lack of mayo, since this is a very flavorfulchange of pace, and as I mentioned in the video, perfect for bringing to acookout. A German potato salad must be eaten warm, or at least room temp, soplacing a bowl of this on a sunny picnic table works out very well.

Ingredients for 8 Portions Grilled German Potato Salad:

2 1/2 pounds Yukon gold potatoes, grilled until just tender

1/4 cup freshly chopped Italian parsley

For the dressing:

8 ounces sliced bacon

1 cup diced yellow onion

2 tablespoons white sugar

2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus more as needed

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

cayenne to taste

1/2 cup white wine vinegar

Note: If you want you dressing tangier, add more vinegar,but if you want it less so, you’ll have to adjust with vegetable oil, since youcan’t add more bacon fat.

Apparently “Spätzle” translates to “little sparrows” inGerman, which makes a lot of sense when you consider their shape. What doesn’tmake sense is why these micro-dumplings are also called “spaetzle.” Is it analternate spelling? A different recipe? I’m hoping maybe some of our Germanfoodwishers can clear this up.

Since my favorite German restaurant calls this stuff spätzle,that’s what I went with, and they are as easy to make, as they are hard tocorrectly pronounce. You only need a few ingredients, all of which yougenerally have on hand at all times, and they take just minutes to cook.

Once boiled, you can toss in butter like I did, or sauce themany way you’d sauce similarly shaped pasta. While wonderful served as-is, theymake the perfect side dish to any large hunk of slowly braised meat. I pairedmine with a pork shoulder stewed in hard cider, and it was amazing.

I thought I’d posted a video for that, but it was actually acider-braised pork cheeks recipe I was thinking of, which would work perfectlyhere. So, I may have to do a braised pork shoulder after all. In the meantime,I’m sure you’ll have little trouble figuring out what to serve yours with, andI really do hope you give this Spätzle recipe a try soon. Enjoy!

Makes 2 portions:

1/2 cup all-purpose flour, plus more to adjust

1 large egg

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

pinch of cayenne

1 tablespoon cream fraiche, sour cream, or yogurt

3 tablespoons milk

The hardest thing about this amazingtarte flambée recipe isn’t the prep, or finding some exotic ingredient, it’sactually trying to explain to your guests why it’s not called pizza. I’mreminded of that old saying, “If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, andlooks like a duck, sometimes it’s a trout.”

That’s right, while this is a pizzaalmost everywhere else, in certain places on the German/French border, it goesby the totally dessert-sounding name of tarte flambée. Just tell people thename comes from the fact it used to be cooked in a fire, and then trail off.

The other method would be to pop itin a 500 F. oven, for about 7-10 minutes, or until you’re completely happy. Or, you canactually do both – start in a hot oven, and then give it a minute under thebroiler to seal the deal. Either way, I really hope you give this tarte flambéea try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for 4 tarte flambée:

4 balls prepared pizza dough (about 5ounces each) Note: Wolfgang Puck pizza dough recipe would would perfectly

12 ounces bacon, sliced

1 large yellow onion, sliced, cooked with salt, until soft, but not caramelized

For the cheese mixture:

pinch of nutmeg

salt and freshly ground black pepper totaste

cayenne to taste

For something that looks and tastes as impressive as thisbeef rouladen, it’s actually one of the simplest stuffed meat recipes I know. Everythinghappens right on the meat, and after a quick roll and tie, we simmer in thegravy until tender. The beef and fixings flavor the sauce, the sauce flavorsthe beef, and everybody wins.

Regarding the meat, one of the great things about thistechnique, is that you can pretty much use any cheap cut of beef they have onsale. I used some round steak, but rump, chuck, flap meat, and other similarcuts will work.

Tell your butcher you’re making rouladen, and they will hookyou up with what you need. If they’ve never heard of rouladen, then you shouldprobably find another butcher. As I mentioned in the video, this can be scaledup to any size group. Just use a bigger pot, and the recipe will work as shown.I really hope you give this Rouladen recipe a try soon. Genießen!

Ingredients for 2 Beef Rouladen:

2 (about 1/4-inch thick) slices of cheap beef, about 6ounces per slice. I used round, but rump, chuck, flap meat, and any other longcooking cuts will work.

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

2 tbsp Dijon mustard

4 strips pancetta or bacon
paprika to taste

sliced onion, as needed

6 slices dill pickle

1 tbsp vegetable oil

For the gravy:

2 tbsp butter, added to the pan drippings

1/4 cup flour

3 cups beef broth, veal, or chicken stock

salt to taste

I had heard that some sauerbratens were finished bythickening the sauce with ground gingersnaps, but hadnever tried it since it just sounds so wrong. It certainly doesn’t seem veryGerman. Cookies in a sauce? What’s next, laughing in public?

Anyway, I’ve had a lot of “do something German!” food wisheslately, and since I’ve wanted to post another short ribs recipe, this seemedlike the perfect opportunity to go full cookie. The results shocked and amazedme. This was comfort food at it's finest.

With cooler weather on the way, it’s time to rediscover thesimple joy of slowly stewed meat, and what better way than with this delicioustake on a German classic? I hope you give it a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

For the marinade

3 lbs short ribs, seasoned with salt and pepper

1 tbsp vegetable oil

2/3 cup cider vinegar

2/3 cup red wine vinegar

1 1/2 cups water, plus 1 cup cold water at end to coolmarinade down

2 bay leaves

9 whole cloves

12 juniper berries

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon salt

*Marinate at least 24 hours

Then stew with:

1 chopped large onion

1 chopped carrot

2 ribs celery, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup water

1 cup chicken or beef broth

2 tablespoons sugar, or to taste

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup crushed gingersnaps

The crispy pork cutlet part of the presentation is verysimple and straightforward, but it did afford the opportunity to share my new breading system. With all the time you’ll save, you can hitthe gym to burn off this less than light, but extremely satisfying meal.

I’ve never been a big fan of the 3-pan breading system. Once you dredge meat in the prescribed dish of seasoned flour, you haveto toss the rest. The whole idea is to simply coat the meat with flour, so whynot just sprinkle on already seasoned meat? We use much less flour that way,and with zero waste.

From there, we’re not dipping these in a bowl of beateneggs. Why do that, when we can just dump one egg on to the same plate and tossto coat. Faster, easier, and one egg is plenty for four cutlets.

As far as the cream gravy goes, the jalapenos and greenonion probably seem logical, but some may raise an eyebrow overthe diced dill pickle. I’m not sure exactly why I added them, but Ijust had one of those feelings. Pickles and pork, dill and cream sauce, it feltright, and it tasted even righter.

By the way, you can substitute veal, beef, turkey or chicken forthe pork without missing a beat. Anyway, I hope you give this easy pork cutlet, delicious cream gravy, and/or new breading system a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for 8 Cutlets (makes four entrée size portionsof 2 cutlets each):

2 fully trimmed pork tenderloins, cut into 8 pieces, poundedflat

salt and pepper to taste

flour as needed

2 eggs

about 3 cups panko breadcrumbs

For the gravy:

2 tbsp melted butter

1/3 cup diced dill pickles

1 or 2 jalapeños, small dice

1 bunch green onions, chopped

salt and cayenne to taste

1 1/2 tablespoon flour

No matter how basic or boring an ingredient or dish is, I can usually come up with something to pontificate on, but for this lovely braised red cabbage recipe, I’ve got absolutely nothing.

I could go on about how I’m not sure what that color red is called, but I did that in the video. I could joke about taking one for the team, and keeping this side dish purely vegetarian for a change, but there’s nothing funny about not adding bacon.

I could suggest a few easy ways to turn this into an amazing one-dish meal, by adding some smoked sausage or leftover pork ribs, but that’s probably so obvious that I’d be insulting your intelligence.

Or, I could have gone into a great, old prep cook anecdote about how I won $10 from a pastry chef in 1987 by juggling red cabbages on the hotline during service, but that would have meant making up the story, since it was actually cantaloupes.

No, I’m not going to mention any of that. I'll simply suggest that if you want an easy, gorgeous looking, and very tasty vegetable side dish, then you should give this a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for 4-6 portions:

2 tbsp butter

1 small Red cabbage, sliced thin, about a 1 1/4 pounds

1/3 cup water

1/4 cup red wine

2 tbsp red wine vinegar, or to taste

2 tbsp white sugar

pinch of caraway seeds

salt and pepper to taste

*Note: there are SO many ways to tweak this recipe! Raisins, currants, shallots, onions, leeks, apples, and pears are just a few things that rock in this recipe.

Braising is such a great cooking technique in general, and in particular for the new cook. It's such a forgiving method; The meat is always moist, the timing doesn’t have to be exact since it’s virtually impossible to overcook, and easy to put back in to cook longer, and best of all…most braised recipes make there our sauce or jus (natural juice)!

This is a classic beef brisket dish I learned from a German chef many years ago. As you'll see in this video recipe, it takes about 10 minutes to prep, and after a nice, leisurely 3-hour braise, you have an amazingly aromatic, and succulent brisket.

This is a great dish any time of the year, but it is especially perfect on that chilly fall night, or for that holiday dinner party. Since the average brisket runs about 5 to 6 pounds, it’s great for entertaining. And the leftovers? Forget about it; there is nothing like a brisket sandwich.

There is an aroma that this dish produces as the apple cider, garlic, and rosemary vapors somehow escape the tight foil wrap and waft throughout the kitchen and house that no scented candle has ever come close to surpassing. This is a great meal, and the best kind of aromatherapy. I served it with a new carrot dish I just developed that uses Chinese 5-spice with some surprisingly results. I will show that video recipe soon. It was a perfect match for this dish. Enjoy.

Ingredients:
5 pound beef brisket
6 cloves garlic
1 tbl dried rosemary
salt and pepper to taste (this needs to be seasoned generously)
1 pint apple cider
2 tbl olive oil
1 yellow onion