A very nice tasting pork shoulder steak with apples and a German onion sauce that is flavored with smoked bacon and ginger! Served with wine packed sauerkraut!
German cuisine comes easy to me, because part of my family was German. The German members of my family were lousy cooks and they cooked everything till it was nearly burnt. I at least got to learn some of the basic flavors of German country style cuisine from the cooking at home. I happen to be one of those people who have very few good home cooked food memories from childhood, other than the old American southern style cooking that some of my other relatives made. When people say that there is nothing like a memory of a home cooked meal from childhood when reflecting on the past, I dreadfully still taste the nightmarish memory of burnt charred food from childhood in my mouth! Because part of my family was German, we dined in German restaurants occasionally and that was where I really took a liking to German cuisine! My first German restaurant food experience was delightful, because I then found out that German food was not supposed to be cooked till it was dried out and burnt! We always had to bite our tongues and tell white lies about how our relatives home cooked German food was much better than the German food at restaurants, just to be polite. German restaurant food in Pennsylvania is what caused me to develop an interest in German cuisine. Later during my chef career, I worked with a yacht club chef and a country club chef who were German. I also worked in a great German delicatessen. I learned how Germans cooked and presented French cuisine, American cuisine and eastern european cuisine during those years. Most important, I learned how to properly cook German food! German food can be very basic. The high formal German cuisine rivals any high cuisine of the world. Attention to detail, authenticity and perfection are three good words to remember when cooking German cuisine. If you modify a standard German sauce, then the ingredients must be placed in the title of the recipe. There are many different ways to make zwiebelsauce and there are many different styles of zwiebelsauce. Some are thickened with roux and some are reduced like a glace. Some are loaded with onion and some are only flavored with onion. The zwiebelsauce that I made for this pork chop recipe has a sauerbraten sauce kind of flavor, because I added ginger. Ginger is a popular flavor in German cuisine and it goes well with zwiebelsauce for pork. Smoked bacon is commonly used to flavor recipes in German cuisine and it was added to the zwiebelsauce. The apple wedges were also simmered in the onion sauce with the pork steak. Zwiebelsauce or onion sauce can be considered to be a German mother sauce, because so many German chefs modify this sauce to create a new complimentary flavor for a recipe. Traditionalists do not like modifications or additives, while others may be pleased if the added ingredients create a nice flavor. Today's modified zwiebelsauce recipe for this blog has a flavor that appeals to nearly everybody! It is made by reducing glace viande enriched pan jus for a lighter texture and richer flavor.
Glace Viande Recipe: Place 4 pounds of veal bones, lamb bones, beef bones, pork bones and meat scraps into a roasting pan. Add 5 ounces of tomato paste. Add 8 to 10 ounces of rustic un-peeled mirepoix of carrot, celery and onion. Stir the mixture together. Roast the mixture in a 350 degree oven, till the bones and vegetables caramelize to a deep brown color. (Stir the ingredients occasionally.) Place the roasted bones and mirepoix into a stock pot. Deglaze the roast pan with water and add the jus to the stock pot. Cover the bones with water and bring to a boil over high heat. Turn the temperature to medium low heat and simmer for 4 hours. Add water occasionally to cover the bones. Strain the stock through a fine sieve. Discard the bones and vegetables. Skim off the grease. Reduce the meat stock by a little more than half. This is a very rich unseasoned stock that can be frozen in portions for later use. The glace should be able to thinly coat and glaze the back of a spoon. When the glace viande is used in recipes, it will be reduced to a slightly thicker glaze consistency to order.
Weinsauerkraut: Weinsauerkraut is wine packed sauerkraut. It needs no rinsing and it has a gentle flavor. Heat a sauce pot over medium low heat. Add 1 slice of smoked bacon that coarsely chopped. Saute the bacon, till a small amount of grease is rendered and till the bacon starts to become crisp. Remove the bacon pieces from the pan and set them aside for the pork steak recipe. Add 1 1/2 to 2 cups of wine packed sauerkraut with its own juices. (Wine packed sauerkraut does not need to be rinsed twice with water like regular sauerkraut!) Stir and heat the weinsauerkraut till it becomes hot. Keep the weinsauerkraut warm over very low heat.
Smoked Bacon Ginger Zwiebelsauce Pork Steak and Apples Recipe: Heat a saute pan over medium heat. Add 3 to 4 pats of unsalted butter. Add a 10 to 14 ounce pork shoulder blade steak that is lightly seasoned with sea salt and black pepper. Sear the steak on both sides till it becomes lightly browned. Remove the steak from the pan and set it aside. Pour off any excess grease from the pan. Place the pan back over medium heat. Add 2 pats of unsalted butter. Add 2 tablespoons of finely minced onion. Add 2 1/2 tablespoons of finely minced ginger. Add 1 peeled apple that is cut into thick wedges. Saute till the ginger starts to become aromatic. Add 1/2 cup of sweet German white wine. Deglaze the pan to create a jus. Add 1 pinch of nutmeg. (The nutmeg is necessary in this recipe. It adds balance to the flavors of the sauce!) Add sea salt and black pepper.
Add 1/3 cup of glace viande.
Add 1 cup of beef broth.
Add the reserved smoked bacon pieces.
Return the seared pork steak to the pan.
Reduce the temperature to low heat.
Gently simmer and reduce the sauce, till a very thin glace sauce is formed.
Smoked Bacon Ginger Zwiebelsauce Pork Steak and Apples with Weinsauerkraut:
Place the pork steak on a plate.
Arrange the apple wedges on top of the pork steak, so they look nice.
Spoon the smoked bacon ginger zwiebelsauce over the pork steak and onto the plate.
Place a mound of the weinsauerkraut on the plate.
Serve with a vegetable and potato of your choice. It is tomato season, so grilled tomato halves are a nice choice! Boiled potato that is flavored with butter and green onion is another nice early summer flavor.
One thing that is true about German cuisine is that you get a nice portion of food! This plate looks full. The pork steak is tender after simmering in the flavored glace style onion sauce. This is an aromatic and savory plate of good German food! Yum! ... Shawna
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