A New Year’s Eve meal for three generations, prepared by three generations without anyone being flambéed at the end – that was the task given to our cooking columnist. He thinks: Too much consensus in the kitchen is not a pleasure
What is eaten is what comes on the table: I still remember how my grandmother said this sentence sternly but lightly when the whole family was finally sitting at the table and she put the Christmas goose, shiny with fat, in the middle. Even back then, in the early 1980s, half of the group ate the roast only for traditional reasons or out of respect for the older generation. We children were inaccessible for such non-culinary reasons. Nils Holgersson was on TV and the goose smelled like grandpa’s old socks had gotten into the deep fryer.
Even then, what is now known as the “Society of Singularities” was announced. I have a strong suspicion that development even began with the isolation of tastes. What is eaten is what is on the table: Today this saying is nothing but anachronism. In the meantime – I now belong to the upper middle field of the generations – I discuss Christmas and end-of-year menus with my mother for days, her memory is wonderful, what the uncle cannot take and what the granddaughter made years ago spit. At some point the conversation becomes so knotted that we seek salvation in the old classics for a short time: Viennese with potato salad? And fondue on New Year’s Eve? No more such well-intentioned consensualism. The lowest common denominator is not a pleasure for anyone. Why don’t we put the relationship to the test of tolerance? With a culinary look back at the last 50 years. A highlight for every generation that is a little unreasonable for the others – that is the motto. But always soul food, that’s a must in the fourth wave. The protagonists of the end-of-year menu are therefore foie gras, tuna and jackfruit.
1 fat liver
What a tender butter melt! This is what lovers of foie gras appreciate. It melts gracefully on the tongue, contrasted with a rustic, tasty liver sausage. French cuisine is the art of packaging fat in the most elegant way. This is what foie gras par excellence stands for. If it weren’t for this method of breeding them. Even the Egyptians and Romans put gigantic funnels in the beaks of geese and ducks and pressed grain and maize into the necks and stomachs until the birds that had blown off the mast could no longer stand on their own two feet. You don’t have to be a vegetarian to oppose such cruelty to animals. The delicacy is therefore becoming more and more taboo, only in cities like Chicago and New York, after Brexit the United Kingdom announced a ban, even in Strasbourg, Grenoble and Lyon town halls have announced that they will not use it at official receptions in the future. In German delicatessen shops, foie gras products duck into the furthest corners.
It was different in the 1980s. Foie gras with brioche and fig jam greeted in Germany as in France from the cards for the New Year’s Eve menu. The delicatessen liver sausage was also ideal for at home. They were simply bought in blocks, in tin, cut into slices and served on a plate with baguette and cranberry jam. I remember that in addition to caviar, foie gras in a glass or canned was also a popular Christmas present among adults with ahs and ohs.
Foie gras is also the starter in our New Year’s Eve menu, albeit with modifications. Let’s better call it “faux gras”. I use the normal liver of an organic farm goose and stuff it with mascarpone and marzipan.
Faux fat
Ingredients for four people
»500 g poultry liver,
cleaned and diced
»100 g marzipan, diced
»100 ml of cream
»1 shallot, finely diced
” Salt
»Chili powder
»50 g soft butter
» 2 Backpflaumen pro Person
»200 ml apple cider vinegar
»20 g of sugar
preparation
Fry the liver cubes on all sides in butter over medium heat. Take out and sauté the shallots in the pan until translucent, deglaze the pan with a dash of cream. Finely puree the liver, onions, cream, butter and marzipan with a hand blender, preferably pass through a sieve. The mass should have a consistency like soft butter. Season to taste with salt and chilli. Put in the fridge for 15 minutes. Beat the mixture in a tall vessel with an electric whisk. Pour into a glass or cut off lobes with tablespoons and shape and chill. Bring the vinegar and sugar to the boil, add the prunes and let cool. The mousse will keep for four to five days in the refrigerator, and serve with toasted white bread and the prunes.
2 raw muscle
Around ten years later, a fish with deep red meat conquered the menu. So far it has been known mainly gray and canned in this country, but in its raw state it has been known as a sushi ingredient for several years. Tuna is a very young delicacy not only in Germany, but also globally. For a long time the fish are landed en masse, in the Japanese fish kitchen they are poor food and have no place on the rice balls of the sushi kitchen. That only changes when many Japanese migrate. In California, a stronghold of the expat movement, chefs are discovering salmon and tuna as sushi ingredients in the absence of traditional fish and are renewing the cuisine of their homeland.
The raw fish appetizers inspire worldwide. Tuna becomes an ingredient of Generation Jamie. It’s so damn like beef, not just because of the color, but also because of the meaty texture. Men can do something with it too. And they use it like meat. There is tuna as a tartare, as a burger, in fine cuisine, of course, as a steak, seared on both sides and still raw on the inside.
Because tuna is extremely popular, it soon becomes clear that there is hardly any other food that mankind has eaten so quickly to the point of exhaustion. Every species of tuna is now more or less endangered, and all attempts to breed the fish like salmon have proven unsuccessful. Tuna cannot live between nets, it is a restless predator and swimmer. Incidentally, that is also the reason for the deep red meat. The next recipe therefore comes without a tuna-free tuna tartare made from oysters and the best beef.
Tatar „Surf & Turf“
Ingredients for four people
»250 g beef fillet
“4 oysters, blown
»1 spring onion
»1 tbsp white miso
” Salt and pepper
» Wasabi
“Coriander
» Mayonnaise
preparation
Finely chop the spring onion. Thinly slice the fillet of beef with a sharp knife, cut the slices into thin strips, then add the oyster meat, miso and spring onion, chop and mix everything together. Dissolve wasabi in a dollop of mayonnaise, then add mayonnaise and finely chopped coriander to taste. Press the tartare into a cookie cutter and place on a plate, decorate with green mayonnaise. Green salad goes well with it. If you find samphire at the fishmonger’s, mix it with the lettuce leaves.
3 Pure fiber
The main course is for the youngest generation. She is the most open-minded about the vegetarian, but even this ingredient will be new to most. So: adventure for everyone.
Jackfruit, which is also called vegetable meat, is used for cooking. These are the fruits of a tropical mulberry tree, which can reach an enormous size and weigh up to 50 kilograms.
They have only been on the German market for about five years. It is originally native to South India, but is now grown in many tropical countries in Southeast Asia. Jackfruit is often confused with durian because it has a reptile-like, leathery skin that is very similar to the stink fruit. Below that, however, the differences turn out to be enormous. The meat is fibrous, somewhat reminiscent of pineapple and, when unripe, tastes slightly salty and somewhat like artichoke. This makes the jackfruit an ideal meat substitute, after boiling the fibers take on a consistency like roasts or stews cooked at low temperature. And with a little practice, they get even juicier than the original. With it, all those skeptics who like to pull on seitan patties, tofu sausages or pea burgers can be shut up pretty tasty. It’s all about the spices. I decided to use it to make a Shepherd’s Pie for this menu, but you can also use it to make goulash or lasagna.
Shepherd’s Jackfruit Pie
Ingredients for four people
»500 g mashed potatoes
according to your favorite recipe
»50 g butter or oil
“1 carrot
»1 clove of garlic
»1 red onion
»1 small stick of leek
»1/2 stick of celery
»10 g dried porcini mushrooms
»3 EL Balsamico-Essig
»200 ml vegetable stock
“200 ml of water
“500 g jackfruit from the jar
” Salt pepper,
» Worcestershire-Sauce
preparation
Let the porcini mushrooms soak in hot water for 10 minutes. Drain the jackfruit, rinse under water, cut out woody areas and seeds and roughly chop. Clean and dice the vegetables and sauté them in a casserole for 5 – 7 minutes. Add jackfruit, vinegar, broth, mushrooms with soaking water and balsamic vinegar and simmer for 30-45 minutes. You can always go longer. Let it boil down well at the end. Season to taste with salt, pepper and Worcestershire sauce. Pour the ragout into an ovenproof dish, pour the puree on top and spread on it. If it seems too firm for this, stretch the puree a little softer beforehand with milk or – vegan – broth. Brush the surface with the tines of a fork so that the puree looks like a Japanese rock garden. Brush with warm butter or – vegan – oil. Bake in a hot oven at 200 degrees for about 30 minutes until the surface has turned golden brown.
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