Meal #1 - Germany - Fleischkuechla

First up on my world cuisine tour is Germany. I got lucky with this country as much of my family, and half of Katelin's family are of German ancestry.  For the recipe, I went with one of my wife's favorite childhood foods that just happens to be a Scherer family classic. The recipe itself isn't traditional German cuisine, but instead a German-from-Russia cultural dish. 

The recipe is so simple to prepare and it was delicious as well. Imagine a hamburger, but instead of a bun, cover it in fried dough. The only problem I had was that I managed to splash oil all over the burner getting one of the fleischkuechla out and completely smoked up the kitchen. Overall, a very tasty and successful start to the worldwide experience.

Recipe:

Dough:
 3C Flour
2 tsp. Salt
2 eggs
Equal amounts of cream and water (I used a total of 1 1/2 cups of liquid)

Combine eggs, salt and flour. Add water and cream mixture gradually until you have a smooth dough. Let rest covered in a warm place for 3-4 hours.

Meat Filling:
2 lb. ground beef
1 small onion, chopped fine
salt and pepper to taste


Mix hamburger, onion, salt and pepper well. Shape dough into egg size balls. Roll the dough balls into circles about the size of a dinner saucer. Spread meat mixture on half of the circle, fold the dough over and pinch edges together tightly. Fry in hot oil until nicely browned on each side. Eat with ketchup, dill pickles and potato chips.

Makes about 12 servings.

Welcome to my Blog

Hey Everyone! Thanks for visiting my blog. The premise of this blog is simple: for the rest of 2011, every dinner I make will be from a different country. Seeing as I have a fairly busy work schedule, I'll only be home to cook on Friday, Saturday and Sunday - which ends up working well for me as I would run out of countries (and money) far before the year ended if I was cooking foreign food every night.

Before I get too far into the blog I wanted to talk a little bit about who I am and my passion for cooking. As you probably know by now, my name is Carson LeMahieu. I'm a 2009 graduate of Northern Michigan University currently living in Greeley, Colo. for my wife Katelin to attend graduate school. Ever since I've been young I've been obsessed with food. At first just eating it, but as time went on my interest in preparing food began to blossom. I've worked in the food service industry in various capacities on-and-off since I've been 18 years old. If I'm still without a stable writing career come summer, I'm hoping to attend culinary school in Denver. I'll keep you posted on that last part as things develop throughout the year.

Anyhow, I think that about sums up my life and my reasons for making this blog. Hopefully you all enjoy.