Austrian Meal

Remember the song 'Raindrops on roses ...' from the Sound of Music? - 'cream colored ponies and crisp apple strudel, doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles' it went . I took inspiration from the song and prepared a meal of noodles (and a few other dumplings) with apple strudel. I am presenting a vegetarian Austrian noodles and dumpling meal today.


It was hard trying to put together a meal from a country where the main dishes are usually not vegetarian and the non-vegetarian component is usually the entire dish. That leaves little room to convert the recipe to a vegetarian one. Noodles and dumpling are the exceptions and so I decided to make a meal with them. Kärntner Kasnudeln or noodles from the province of Carinthia are one of our favorite cheese noodles. I have made them a few times before. Though each noodle has to be shaped individually they are easy to put together and taste great. This was the dish around which I built the menu.


In addition to these noodles I made spinach, bread and potato dumplings. The spinach and the bread dumplings are a great way to use up day old bread rolls. I know this sounds backward but for this meal I made a couple extra bread rolls the previous day so I would have leftovers. I served Gruyere white sauce over the dumplings. I made Apfelstrudel for dessert using a wonderful homemade flaky pastry.


I have always wanted to make Apfelstrudel but did not care for puff pastry. This recipe uses a homemade pastry that is really easy to make. The rolled out pastry sheet is then filled with apples, breadcrumbs, raisins and cinnamon. The kitchen smelt great for hours after I baked it.


Fresh cheese is needed to make Kärntner Kasnudeln and I use quark. Whole Foods used to keep this cheese in stock. But apparently they have very few takers for this cheese in summer and stopped stocking it. They offered to order it for me. I had to wait two weeks until it arrived but it was worth the wait.


My original plan was to make Kasespatzel or Austrian macaroni and cheese along with all the other noodles and dumplings. The day I made this meal, I had planned to cook Kasespatzel after I was done with everything else. But once I looked at the quantity of the food already cooked I decided to drop it. The spinach, bread and potato dumplings are usually eaten fresh. However, I made the bread and potato dumplings a day ahead. My plan was to make this meal for dinner. But it took too long and the light was fading so I decided to stop, store what was already prepared and start off again the next day. In hind sight I think that was a wise decision. Because of texture issues we enjoyed the not-so-moist dumplings more than we would have enjoyed the just-out-of-the-water-bath ones. Once the meal was served everyone enjoyed it and that was the most important part.

As they in Austria, Guten Appetit!

Here are the recipes for the dishes on the menu
And for dessert

Comments

  1. Ohhh one more full meal OMG so fantastic specially like that Apple strudle nice choice.

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  2. Awesome post Varada. I am amazed at how some of you managed to do a full meal for each country. Kudos to all of you who did it.

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  3. Speechless !!! Wow ... Brings back lovely memories of that song and the timeless classic of a movie...

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  4. I started humming the song...but truly an awesome meal where I can't pronounce the dishes...ehe..looks fantastic. .will come back to read all the recipes..they look very interesting.

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  5. Amazing spread Varada and your reference to the sound of music has made this so wonderful !..will check out all your recipes soon...

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  6. OMG ! A complete meal here from Austria! Awesome.

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  7. The moment I read the title, I was reminded of that movie! And what a spread you have put up here!Amazing!!Great way to start the marathon Varada..

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  8. That is one amazing spread you have there , will read the recipes seperately .Awesome post Varada !

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  9. wow - what a spread i've made apple strudel before but I did the Greek version with phyllo dough. yours look amazing

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  10. wow thats an awesome spread varada :) I even can't pronounce the dishes but they are tempting me seriously :) very delicious spread for A dear :)

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  11. Omg, you made an Austrian meal, thats fabulous, actually mindblowing..Such a fabulous spread to kick start this mega Bm.

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  12. An awesome spread and amazing way to kick start the BM.

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  13. I'm speechless Varada. That is one heck of a meal you have there. Kudos to your efforts and keep those international meals coming :-)

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  14. What a beautiful and varied spread Varada! Amazing effort! Btw Sound of Music is one of my favouritite movies...love all the songs too

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  15. I m finding so hard pronouncing them correct and here you have presented them all together!!! Awesome spread varada, kudos to your effort!!!

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  16. Awesome spread of dishes.. Kudos to your efforts & for managing in cooking a whole meal. Yum.

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  17. Awesome Varada. This is an elaborate spread and you have explained it so well...

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