For your enjoyment…

Are you like me on weekends or special holidays or when you have guests? On those occasions I like to cook something very special, not the usual fare. Then I’m either spoilt for choice or nothing occurs to me. If even the most intensive search on the internet comes to nothing, or leafing through piles of cookbooks fails to offer a solution, try out our Recipe of the Month! 

From chefs of the Schick restaurants in Vienna, every month there will be a new, seasonal recipe from Austrian-Spanish or Viennese cuisine for you to cook and enjoy at home!

In October 2013 – recipe by Johannes Reiser – Chef at the decorated Restaurant “Das Schick”:

Fillet of pork “Ibérico”
Asadillo de verduras . Manchego cheese gnocchi . black salsifies

Ingredients for 4 servings:

800 g Ibérico fillet
(Pork from half-wild, free-range pasture pigs that have been popular since Roman times. They are fattened primarily with acorns in oak wood, predominantly in southwest Spain.)
fresh thyme
salt, pepper
olive oil

Asadillo de verduras:
200 g mixed vegetables (carrots, yellow turnips, celery)
1 red bell pepper
3 ripe tomatoes
4 shallots, diced
2 cloves of garlic
some tomato paste
olive oil
brown sugar
salt, pepper, some chili

600 g fresh black salsifies
juice from one lemon
butter for tossing

Manchego cheese gnocchi:
300 g floury potatoes
100 Manchego cheese, finely grated
3 egg yolks
70 g flour and some flour for handling
3 tbsp. Arbequina olive oil
1 espresso spoonful of ground rosemary
1 espresso spoonful of cumin
salt, pepper, nutmeg
1/8 l cream

Preparation:

Asadillo de verduras: Bake bell pepper and tomatoes with olive oil in the oven. Peel and slice into large pieces. Also slice the vegetables into large pieces and sweat with shallots and garlic in olive oil, stopping before they change color. Add 2-3 tbsp. of brown sugar and briefly sauté. Infuse with 1/4 l water and slowly stew at low heat until soft. Afterwards, mix all ingredients together, puree coarsely, and season with salt, pepper and chili to taste.

Manchego cheese gnocchi: Press still-warm, boiled potatoes through a potato press. Mix all ingredients (except cream) into a smooth dough and allow to rest. Form a cylinder shape with some flour and slice gnocchi using a dough scraper. Prior to use, boil in salt water for approx. 3-4 minutes. Quench gnocchi and slightly bind with some cream. Season to taste with salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Black salsifies – thoroughly wash salsify, then brush it off and peel it. Immediately place salsify into slightly acidified lemon water (so that it retains its white color). Slice into pieces approx. 5 cm (2 inches) large and boil until al dente. Strain. Briefly toss in butter prior to serving.

Season fillet Ibérico (skinless, deboned) with salt and pepper and sauté until it looks good all around. Sprinkle with thyme. Roast for approx. 7 minutes in the oven at 150º until tender and pink, then allow to sit for a bit. Slice into finger-thick medallions. Arrange as desired with the juice and side dishes –as in our photo, for instance – and enjoy!

We wish you much success!