For your enjoyment…

Do you feel the same as I do on weekends on or special holidays, or when you have guests over? I’d like to cook something very special, not the usual fare. Then I’m either spoiled for choice or I can’t think of anything at all. If even intensively searching the internet turns out to be fruitless or leafing through piles of cookbooks doesn’t turn up any solution, try our Recipe of the Month!

From the chefs of the Schick Restaurants in Vienna, every month there is a new, seasonal recipe from Austrian-Spanish or Viennese cuisine for you to prepare and enjoy at home! If you don’t want to have to prepare the recipe yourself, you can order the finished dish in comfort at the corresponding Schick Restaurant and indulge all around…

in February 2014 – recipe by Johannes Reiser – chef of the Restaurant “Das Schick”:

Albóndiga of calf’s sweetbread & tarragon
marinated mushrooms . lettuce hearts . pomegranate balm

Ingredients for 4 servings:

300 g fresh calf’s sweetbread
200 g boiled, peeled, floury potatoes (e.g. Bintje potatoes)
3 egg yolks
a bit of leek
a bit of carrot
bay leaf
white peppercorns
2 sprigs of tarragon, plucked and washed
2 tbsp. parsley, chopped
1 tsp. fresh thyme, chopped
grease as desired – for frying

300 g mixed mushrooms (depending on seasonal availability)
1 clove of garlic
rosemary
olive oil
white balsamic vinegar
3 shallots
nutmeg
white pepper
lemon juice
4 lettuce hearts
pomegranate balsamic vinegar
walnut oil
some course flour

Preparation:

Albóndigas of calf’s sweetbread & tarragon:
Press boiled potatoes. Add egg yolks. Season. Add herbs and tarragon. Mix everything into a compact dough.

Place sweetbread in cold water for approx. 1-2 hours, then clean soaked sweetbread. Meanwhile, boil the washed and peeled carrots and leek together with the bay leaf and white peppercorns into a vegetable stock. Place the cleaned sweetbread into the vegetable stock and allow to simmer / steep for 20 minutes. Lift the sweetbread out of the vegetable stock and allow to drip dry and cool down. Remove any remaining skin and dice the cleaned sweetbread into small cubes. Carefully mix sweetbread cubes with the potato dough, season to taste if necessary and add some coarse flour.

Shape the mass into small meatballs and – just prior to serving – fry them in hot grease.

Marinated mushrooms:
Clean, wash, dry and slice mushrooms. Sweat mushroom slices in olive oil, together with garlic, shallots and rosemary. Season with salt and pepper. Allow to cool, then season with balsamic vinegar.

Clean and wash lettuce hearts, slice into bite-sized, decorative pieces, and marinate with pomegranate balsamic vinegar and walnut oil.

TIP: If you use premium-quality pomegranate balm and walnut oil, you don’t need any additional spices!

Arrange Albóndiga(s) with the lettuce hearts and mushrooms as desired – as in our photo, for example – and enjoy…

We wish you much success!