2012 Cooking Club Week 20: Zürcher Geschnetzeltes

The Hill Billy

Well, here we are again & I’ve gone for another Swiss dish that has ingredients that are easily sourced back home.

Zürcher Geschnetzeltes (German for "sliced meat Zurich-style") are traditionally made with thinly-sliced veal kidneys.
In this recipe I used veal cutlets (more common these days) – but you can easily substitute with pork or chicken.

The usual accompaniement for this would be rösti (previous recipe here - just leave out the bacon, cheese & wine for a standard rösti).
Plain boiled rice or pasta also work well with this.

Ingredients

• 500g veal, pork or chicken sliced thinly
• 1 medium onion, halved & sliced very thinly
• 250g mushrooms sliced thinly
• 2 cloves of garlic minced
• 10-12 sage leaves finely chopped
• 1 tsp paprika
• 200ml dry white wine
• 150ml cream
• 150ml chicken stock
• juice of ½ lemon
• salt & pepper
• butter & olive oil

Method – Meat & Veg

• Heat a knob of butter & a splash of oil in a large pan (medium/high heat)
• When butter foams add the thinly sliced meat & fry in batches until browned
• As each batch is complete I’d suggest placing the meat in a medium sized pot in a warm (75C) oven
• Next, fry the mushrooms in butter & olive oil (again on medium/high heat)
• When done – add to the pot in the oven & squeeze the lemon juice over the mixture
• Now lower the heat under the pan to medium & sweat off the onions, garlic & sage
• When the onions are quite soft & lightly coloured add to the pan in the oven

Method – Sauce

• Now turn the heat up under the pan & add the wine to deglaze, scraping up any crusty bits from the meat & veg
• Allow the liquid to reduce by half, then turn down the heat & add the cream & stock & a small knob of butter & the paprika
• Bring the sauce to a simmer, then season according to taste

Now add the sauce to the meat & veg & mix thoroughly. I served mine with rösti & baby white asparagus tips.
This would go just as well with rice & fine beans, or just simply with pasta.



En Gueta zäme! ("Bon appetite" in Swiss-german.)



PS - Please excuse the poor pics, but my camera is b0rked & I had to use my phone.
PPS - Do I get a prize for the most difficult recipe name to pronounce?

juke

Aaah...after last years rösti - I was really hoping for this.

danke veilmal

The Hill Billy

Bitte gärn gsche!

Little Alex

This is a bit of a rambling post...

The Hill Billy wrote: »

Bitte gärn gsche!

I remember talking to someone before from Zurich and he was telling us that you are allowed customize Swiss German to a great extent. For example vowels: the "A" in a word might not quite suit you, so you could take it upon yourself to replace it with with your own choice, with an "O" or maybe an "E". The next person might rather like the sound of a "U" there instead. Basically, each person is allowed create their own dialect. So he told us, anyway.

The Hill Billy wrote: »

Do I get a prize for the most difficult recipe name to pronounce?

In this spirit I'm calling your dish Züri Schnetzli. Maybe less of a mouthful!

Here is also a link that you might find interesting, HB. I came across it a while back. Somehow. It's a series of three very short broadcasts from a Swiss TV station about the rösti (each about 2 minutes long). Very interesting. The guy in Part 2 says:

... if we make ourselves dependent on one type of crop - like the Swiss at that time with potatoes, for example - then it can lead to a catastrophe where a couple of miserable harvest years resulted in a large (I think he said großter and not großer - which would be größter in standard German and would mean "most", but I'm not sure) part of the Swiss population having to emigrate (due to famine, as was referred to earlier).

The impression I get from that is that there was a widespread potato famine in Switzerland, presumably in the 1840s. I was always under the impression that potato famine was an exclusively Irish state of affairs.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to making (a veggie version!!! of) this soon. I should hopefully be able to come by some white asparagus, too!

The Hill Billy

On the language side of things - there is no official written form of Swiss German. Basically, you spell things however you like. There are a huge amount of dialects - each town & village will not only have their own pronunciation & spellings, but also unique words for certain things. It is a linguistic minefield.

"Züri Schnetzli" is a good alternative alright.

So, when making a veggie version - what will you substitute the meat with?

juke

Finally got around to this - was very tasty.



Far better recipe than I'd been able to find online before.

Thanks

Little Alex

This is what I came up with:



They have white asparagus in LIDL at the moment, or at least they did last week.

I also put a bit of mustard in my sauce because I thought somehow that you had mentioned it...

---

Forgot to mention: I made it with thin strips or Quorn.

The Big Red Button

Little Alex wrote: »

This is what I came up with:



They have white asparagus in LIDL at the moment, or at least they did last week.

I also put a bit of mustard in my sauce because I thought somehow that you had mentioned it...

---

Forgot to mention: I made it with thin strips or Quorn.

That looks amazing!

What's the difference between white asparagus and normal asparagus? (Apart from the colour, obviously!) Or is there any? Never seen the white stuff before!

Little Alex

White and asparagus are the same as green, but the growing technique is different.

White asparagus grows under raised earth mounds so that it is not exposed to sunlight. Green asparagus sprouts above ground. In general, white spears are allowed to grow to be bigger than green ones.

The white ones are more prominent in Germany and its bordering countries.

Malari

Is there a taste difference, Little Alex? I've only had white asparagus in restaurants a couple of times and I've noticed a difference in texture, but not really taste. But that could be how it's cooked. I cook green asparagus myself frequently - I think it looks more appetising than white!

Little Alex

I'm not sure if there is a taste difference, Malari, but yeah, the white ones tend to be more developed, so maybe their texture is a little different.

I myself prefer the white ones.

Actually, I was in Germany a couple of weeks ago during Spargelsaison (asparagus season). I had forgotten how crazy they are for asparagus! And nothing wrong in that, either!