German Food Packets Cleanout, Fall 2023
Dec. 5th, 2023 08:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroIt occurred to me that I was still sitting on a big stash of the German sauce mixes/meal ideas that my sister sent me (checks notes) over two years ago.
Kase Spatzel - Pasta with cheese. This is functionally cooking egg noodles in herbed chicken broth and then tossing them with cheese. They suggested Emmental; I used Gruyere. It was tasty, but not something that actually requires a sauce packet; and honestly I’m more likely to take the extra step and make a quick mother sauce to melt the cheese into and make proper mac and cheese; it’s only slightly more effort.
Spargel mit Lachs & Susskartoffeln – Salmon with sweet potatoes and asparagus. You put the marinade on the salmon, then toss the rest of it with the vegetables and put them all on the same baking sheet. I had to rescue the fish after 20 minutes in the oven and then let the rest go for another 15 until the potatoes were edible (and the asparagus was overdone). The seasoning was…fine? Forgettable, really.
Zwiebel-Sahne Hahnchen – Chicken in celery cream sauce. Like, literally a cream sauce, it was the packet plus a cup of heavy cream. (I suspect I noted this last time I reviewed these packets, but the Germans apparently always have cheese on hand but are much more willing to use powered vinegar than Americans.) It was decent, relatively mild and perfectly fine with some rice and steamed veggies.
Rahmgemuse – Creamed vegetables. It instructs you to steam the crap out of carrots, broccoli and cauliflower, then add the cream and packet. That made something similar to a thick cream of broccoli soup with carrots in it, because the carrots were still vaguely firm but the other vegetables dissolved. I was unimpressed.
Frikadellen & Hackbraten – I made the “frikadellen” version, which are fried meatballs, and I actually quite liked them. The packet is clearly bread crumbs and seasonings (which you add water to and soak before combining with the meat) and I used the supermarket beef/pork/veal meatball mix. They were tender and tasty and I really should limit how much I shallow-fry meatballs because that sort of thing gets dangerous to my waistline.
Kartoffel Gratin – Potatoes au gratin, and a perfectly reasonable example thereof, though not standout. (I used Gruyere again and was happy with that decision.) I didn’t think it saved a lot of time versus just making the sauce myself, and it could have gone harder on the herbs and black pepper.
Knuspiriges Wiener Schnitzel – Breading for frying your pork chops with. Includes powdered egg so you just wet the pork chops and roll them in the breading. Probably could have used a little more salt and mustard in it, but these came out very nicely.
Nudel-Schinken-Gratin – Another brand, another gratin packet, this one for noodles and ham. I don’t actually think there’s a big difference among the gratin packets.
Salat-Fix Kuchenkrauter – And a final circle back to the powdered vinegar salad dressings. They remain tasty!
I had a Broccoli Gratin, a Lachs-Sahne-Gratin (salmon) and another Zwiebel-Sahne Hahnchen that I gave away, because at this point we’ve tried all the gratin and can gratin no more.
Overall: Tasty experiments, but nothing I’m too sad I can’t get locally.
Kase Spatzel - Pasta with cheese. This is functionally cooking egg noodles in herbed chicken broth and then tossing them with cheese. They suggested Emmental; I used Gruyere. It was tasty, but not something that actually requires a sauce packet; and honestly I’m more likely to take the extra step and make a quick mother sauce to melt the cheese into and make proper mac and cheese; it’s only slightly more effort.
Spargel mit Lachs & Susskartoffeln – Salmon with sweet potatoes and asparagus. You put the marinade on the salmon, then toss the rest of it with the vegetables and put them all on the same baking sheet. I had to rescue the fish after 20 minutes in the oven and then let the rest go for another 15 until the potatoes were edible (and the asparagus was overdone). The seasoning was…fine? Forgettable, really.
Zwiebel-Sahne Hahnchen – Chicken in celery cream sauce. Like, literally a cream sauce, it was the packet plus a cup of heavy cream. (I suspect I noted this last time I reviewed these packets, but the Germans apparently always have cheese on hand but are much more willing to use powered vinegar than Americans.) It was decent, relatively mild and perfectly fine with some rice and steamed veggies.
Rahmgemuse – Creamed vegetables. It instructs you to steam the crap out of carrots, broccoli and cauliflower, then add the cream and packet. That made something similar to a thick cream of broccoli soup with carrots in it, because the carrots were still vaguely firm but the other vegetables dissolved. I was unimpressed.
Frikadellen & Hackbraten – I made the “frikadellen” version, which are fried meatballs, and I actually quite liked them. The packet is clearly bread crumbs and seasonings (which you add water to and soak before combining with the meat) and I used the supermarket beef/pork/veal meatball mix. They were tender and tasty and I really should limit how much I shallow-fry meatballs because that sort of thing gets dangerous to my waistline.
Kartoffel Gratin – Potatoes au gratin, and a perfectly reasonable example thereof, though not standout. (I used Gruyere again and was happy with that decision.) I didn’t think it saved a lot of time versus just making the sauce myself, and it could have gone harder on the herbs and black pepper.
Knuspiriges Wiener Schnitzel – Breading for frying your pork chops with. Includes powdered egg so you just wet the pork chops and roll them in the breading. Probably could have used a little more salt and mustard in it, but these came out very nicely.
Nudel-Schinken-Gratin – Another brand, another gratin packet, this one for noodles and ham. I don’t actually think there’s a big difference among the gratin packets.
Salat-Fix Kuchenkrauter – And a final circle back to the powdered vinegar salad dressings. They remain tasty!
I had a Broccoli Gratin, a Lachs-Sahne-Gratin (salmon) and another Zwiebel-Sahne Hahnchen that I gave away, because at this point we’ve tried all the gratin and can gratin no more.
Overall: Tasty experiments, but nothing I’m too sad I can’t get locally.
