Königsberger Klopse und GlumstorteDue to circumstances beyond our control, it was not possible to celebrate E.T.A. Hoffmann's birthday with the originally planned Königsberger feast of Klopse and Glumstorte on the birthday itself, 24 January. We therefore decided to extend the celebrations over the course of the entire week, starting with a simpler but nonetheless festive meal on the 24th, and reserve the Königsberger specialties for an evening when time would permit their preparation.
The week of festivities began with a quick trip to
Meyer's Delicatessen in Lincoln Square on Monday afternoon, where we got several cold cuts, cheese, two kinds of sausage, potato salad, beer, wine, rolls, bread and, crucially,
Glumse, a.k.a.
Quark. That evening, we had a meal of
Stullen (=Butterbrot) with the cheese (young Gouda) and cold cuts, which were
Schweinebauch, Schwarzwälder Schinken, Tiroler Schinken and
Pfefferwurst, accompanied by the potato salad from Meyer's, and preceded by a bowl of simply made lentil soup. After a brief break from the Hoffmann celebrations on Tuesday (though I'm sure he would have approved of the
pasta e fasulë we had), we then had on Wednesday veal
Bratwürste from Meyer's with
Bratkartoffeln and spinach. Finally, last night the opportunity arose to make the Königsberger specialties.
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Königsberger KlopseThis dish would perhaps be more widely appreciated if the humble North German term
Klopse, meaning 'meatball' and derived from a Low German verb
kloppen 'to beat', were replaced with the more elegant sounding (and etymologically obscure) French term
quenelle, which might more immediately suggest the rather sophisticated nature of the recipe without losing the alliterative force of the original Prussian dialect name:
S'il vous plait, vous pouvez nous apporter les quenelles de Königsberg...
Briefly
Königsberger Klopse are delicately seasoned 'quenelles' of meat which are poached in broth and then served with a sour or sweet and sour sauce that is made with the poaching liquid. There are many divergent recipes for the dish and the points of difference involve almost every aspect of the preparation other than the general cooking method. Nevertheless, one can discern in these recipes a core group in which the variation falls within certain bounds, a full discussion of which would be worthwhile but due to time constraints cannot be taken up here and now.
Our approach to making
Königsberger Klopse falls, I believe, well within the core group of recipes. For the
Klopse themselves we use both veal and pork, bread, onion, lemon rind, anchovies and mace, and they gain additional flavour from the poaching broth, which is seasoned with onion, pepper corns, allspice and bay leaf. For the sauce we opt for the sour rather than sweet and sour variant. The sauce is made, as mentioned above, with the meat broth used for poaching the
Klopse, thickened with a roux, then flavoured with lemon juice and capers, further thickened off-heat with egg yolks and finished with a good dose of
Schmant, that is, sour cream. The
Klopse are served with
Salzkartoffeln, that is, small potatoes which are boiled, drained, salted and dried off-heat in the hot pan until they have a mealy texture. To my mind, the
Klopse themselves are so delicate and delicious that I prefer to eat them with just the little bit of sauce that adheres to them after they are reheated in the finished sauce. But the sauce is also quite delicious in its own sour and intense way and goes perfectly with the simple
Salzkartoffeln.
As I said above, this dish is really quite sophisticated and it's very much worth the effort to make it at home. I should note too that
Königsberger Klopse are also served as the daily special on Saturdays at
Laschet's Inn on Irving Park, though I have yet to have the chance to try them there.
Königsberger Glumstorte (ohne Boden)Following John's (JSM) advice we bought our
Glumse, the East Prussian name for
Quark, at Meye's. In essence, this dish is a crustless cheese pie which features the
Glumse enriched with butter and egg yolks and a little
Grieß (semolina) and flavoured with lemon rind and lemon juice and sugar. This was the first time we made this and Amata did pretty much all of the work; the result was excellent. We hope to be able to post a picture of the
Glumstorte soon.
***
A final toast to the great E.T.A. Hoffmann will be raised tonight or tomorrow when we have an
Erbseneintopf auf Berliner Art, a one-pot meal made with yellow split-peas in the fashion of Berlin and using the left over Bratwürste, cut in small disks, to fortify the dish.
Alsatian Riesling, Rhenish Gewürztraminer and beers of various strengths and from divers parts of Germany have accompanied these meals.
Thanks to Bill, JSM and ReneG for
Glumse advice.
Antonius
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I'll have to go back and get it on my own.
) about. Except insofar as it's tasty, anyway. Available also in these United states from Schaller & Weber (awful lot of chemical but but what the hey)...