The following recipe is used by my family since many, many generations and used every single year for the German style Christmas dinner on December 24.
Please note that it takes at least 8 hours to complete the entire 4 course dinner.
It is not hard to prepare but requires hours to do so.
Should you try and use this recipe and have any questions, please contact me:
Sequence in which to cook the dishes is:
Tree cake is best done the day before
On the day of the dinner you should start off with the soup and other side dishes and the Turkey (depending on weight) about 2.5 – 3 hours before dinner.
There is no special tool or machines needed and I will only mention the main raw materials needed.
Quantities are sufficient for about 8 people.
Entrees:
Bavarian Soup
Soup bones, best is beef
Root vegetables like
1 turnip
1 parsnip
1 medium onion
1 carrot
1 litre beef stock as a booster
200 gram beef liver
Bread crumbs
1 egg
Salt/Pepper to taste
Cream of Potato soup
4 large Potatoes
1 litre beef stock
600 ml cream
Some milk
Main:
Red Cabbage
1 kg red cabbage in bags or jars from the supermarket (look for made in Germany or Poland)
1 medium apple
Sugar, Salt to taste
Bay leaves
Potato dumplings
1.2 kg Potatoes
200 gram corn flour
2-3 eggs
Salt, Pepper to taste
Turkey
As a formula 400 gram Turkey is used per person; in our case
3.2 kg Turkey
Mustard
Sweet paprika powder
Salt
Pepper
Oil
Gravy
1 large onion
Some crushed garlic
1-2 rashers of bacon
1 large Tomato
Sugar, Salt, Pepper, Paprika to taste
Turkey skin, neck etc…
Semolina Dumplings
250 ml Milk
1 pinch Salt
50 g Semolina
2 Eggs
Plum Sauce
1 tin of black or blood plums
Some sugar
Cinnamon
Corn starch
Fresh Cream
Tree Cake
200 gram butter
130 gram Marzipan
100 gram Sugar
5 Egg yolks
80 gram Flour
70 gram Cornflour
100 gram Sugar
5 Egg whites
Almond aroma, Vanilla aroma
Extras
Cranberry Sauce
Apple Sauce
Let’s start cooking
Bavarian soup
Add the soup bones with half the diced vegetables to 1 litre stock in a large pot and cook slow for at least 2-3 hours making sure it does not cook dry.
Drain the soup into another pot and bring to the boil again.
Spoon any impurities and fat ‘eyes’ of the top as you go. The more you remove the clearer and more golden the soup will be.
When almost all impurities/fat are gone, add remainder of the diced vegetables and simmer until vegetables are soft.
Liver Meat Balls
Use a blender to puree the liver. The mousse is then pressed through a cloth to remove water. Mix in the egg spices and bread crumbs to make smooth dough. Form small balls, size of a small Apricot.
Add these balls to the soup and reheat it just before serving.
Cream of Potato Soup
Peel and dice the potatoes and boil them in the stock until real soft.
Let cool down a little and blend potatoes only to a fine mousse, adding a little of the stock at the time. When done the soup should be very thick about like apple sauce. Add Salt and Pepper to taste and use cream to thin the soup down to the consistency you like best. Add a little milk if you run out of cream.
Just before serving, reheat gentle but do not boil.
Red Cabbage
Peel and dice the apple and sauté with real butter, not margarine.
Add the cabbage, the bay leaves and simmer for at least 2 hours.
The softer the cabbage is, the more flavour you get. Salt and Pepper to taste, add a little sugar if it is too sour. Red Cabbage should be a little sweet and sour.
Gravy
Use the Turkey’s neck, some Turkey fat, some skin and the diced bacon and brown it off in a pot. Add the Onion and the Garlic.
When it turns brown add the diced Tomato, sweat off.
You can also add some leftover root vegetables from before including a Potato.
Now add water and Salt, Pepper, Sweet Paprika and let simmer.
Make sure it does not become dry and burns. Simmer/Slow boil the gravy for at least 2 hours. Use some sugar if the Tomato is a little sour.
The gravy will reduce and develop more flavour, add water and let it boil.
Drain the gravy; add spices to taste and a bit of cream. Mix corn starch with water and thicken the gravy while it is boiling, add a little cream.
Just before serving add a lump of real butter to give it a nice shine.
Potato dumplings
Peel and finely dice the Potatoes and boil in the stock until real tender.
Discard the stock.
Mash the potatoes adding salt but no milk or butter.
Using your hands, knead in the flour and the eggs. The result should be nice, non sticky dough that feels soft like a baby’s bottom.
Form small balls and drop in boiling salted water making sure that the dumplings are freely moving. Bring to the boil and reduce heat so they just simmer. The dumplings will float when done but let them simmer for at least 15 to 20 minutes depending on size.
Turkey
Clean the bird and remove leftover feathers.
Spread the mustard all over the bird, sprinkle salt and pepper on it.
Use plenty of Sweet Paprika Powder all over the bird, making it almost red.
In a deep dish filled with ½ cup good oil cook the bird at 180 centigrade turning it after the first hour and several times basting it with the oil and fat from the pan.
The Turkey should be ready after about 2-2.5 hours when crispy golden brown skin has developed.
Sweets
Plum Sauce
Bring the plums with the juice to a slow boil, adding sugar and Cinnamon.
The sauce should be sweet but not sugary.
Drain it, discard the Plums and bring the juice back to the boil.
Mix Corn starch with water and add it to the juice to make it thick like a syrup.
Semolina Dumplings
Bring milk with salt to the boil
Keep stirring and add the semolina slowly
Boil slowly until it turns to a ball and cuts lose from the sides of the pot.
Let cool for a while and mix the eggs into it.
From small dumplings, the size of table tennis balls and simmer in salted water for 12-15 minutes.
Tree Cake
Mix Butter, Marzipan, 100 g Sugar and 5 egg yolks until light and fluffy with no lumps.
Grease a baking tray or large cake tin and cover with non stick baking paper.
Whip the egg whites with the other 100 gram sugar to stiff peak.
Fold the dough into the egg white, a little at the time.
Spread a very very thin layer on the tray and bake under a grill (not in the oven) until light brown. Ad the next very thin layer and brown again. Continue until all dough has been used.
Then bake in the oven by 170C for ten minutes.
Let the cake cool down and wrap in Aluminium foil for 24 hours.
Cut small strips and use to decorate the dessert.
Arrange 2-3 Semolina dumplings on a large plate
Decorate with some strips of Tree cake.
Make a little puddle using the cream on the plate, spoon a bit of the Plum sauce and draw shapes using a tooth pick or similar.
Stars, smiley face etc are easy to do.
Serve, enjoy and good luck
