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 September 2014 – recipe by Roman Rothmayer – new chef of the Restaurant “Das Schick”:

Gratinated loin of the racka
Schupfnudeln (potato noodles) . tomato-zucchini turret . spume of Manchego cheese & rosemary

Ingredients for 4 servings:
approx.1 kg racks of lamb
1 rather small zucchini
2 tomatoes
150 g Manchego cheese
2 – 3 sprigs of rosemary
200 ml whipping cream
1 small celery root
4 eggs
2 potatoes, floury
approx. 100 g breadcrumbs
3 cloves garlic
approx. 1 tbsp. butter
some flour for dusting

Schupfnudeln:
2 egg yolks
500 g floury potatoes
250 g coarse-grained flour
salt
white pepper
nutmeg

Preparation:

Schupfnudeln: Wash potatoes and boil them, together with their skins, in salt water until soft. Strain, then let them sit in the pot, allowing the steam to evaporate. Peel potatoes, grate them coarsely and sift the flour onto them. Add egg yolks, nutmeg, salt and pepper and mix all ingredients into a firm dough.

Form the dough into a ball, roll it to about 1 cm thick, and slice it (like gnocchi) into pieces approximately 1 cm thick. Shape these pieces into “Schupfnudeln” (dumplings) using your palms. Boil the Schupfnudeln for about 3 minutes, until the dumplings float to the top. Strain, braise lightly in a pan with a bit of butter, and salt.

Soufflé mixture: Peel celery root and potatoes. Slice them into small pieces and boil until soft. Strain (setting aside the vegetable stock) and blend in an electric blender, thinning the mixture with vegetable stock if it becomes too tough. Allow the mixture to cool. Add 4 eggs. Season with garlic, salt and pepper to taste. It should be possible to squeeze the mixture out of a pastry bag or piping bag. In case the mixture is too liquid, add breadcrumbs to bring it to the right consistency.

Season racks of lamb with salt and pepper, then sauté for approx. 2-3 minutes in a pan. Set aside the roast residue! Place racks of lamb onto a baking sheet, apply the soufflé mixture onto the lamb using a pastry bag and then, depending on how well done the meat should be, bake in the oven for approx. 10 minutes at 180 degrees C (approx. 350 F) (adjust for more or less time depending on the size of the meat).

Heat the pan with the roast residue once more. Add 1 spoonful of butter and lightly roast half a clove of garlic, cut into slices, with 1 sprig of rosemary. Dust with a bit of flour. Quench with vegetable stock and briefly allow to thicken into a light gravy for the lamb.

Manchego spume with rosemary: Bring cream and 100 g Manchego to a boil. Season, then blend using a hand-held blender. Pluck rosemary leaves, chop, add to the sauce and blend again.

Tomato-zucchini turrets: Cut zucchini and tomatoes into slices approx. 1/2 cm thick. Season with salt and pepper and briefly sauté in a pan. Afterwards, stack tomatoes and zucchini, alternating one after the other, into a turret or little tower, place one slice of Manchego on top, and secure with a toothpick. Bake the turrets au gratin for approx. 5 minutes in the oven.

Slice racks of lamb (approx. 250 g per person due to their bone content) and arrange in an attractive manner together with the Schupfnudeln, the tomato-zucchini turrets and the rosemary Manchego foam – as in our photo, for instance.

We wish you much success – bon appétit!