ROOTS & WINGS

16. German "Arancini"

This is not something my (grand)parents actually cooked when they were still among us, but it's something my late Dad would've LOVED.

Why?

Well, you would've never guessed when you'd met him, but Kohlrabi was my Old Man's fave veg. He ate it raw, as fritters, soup, you name it.

Then why do I "borrow" the Italian "Arancini" for these, when the original are basically fried risotto?

Well, they're similarly made (minus the rice, plus often vegs) and have a similar texture.

I choose to make this dish because I saw it being made in an episode of the cooking show Einfach und köstlich (= Simple & Delicious), by Chef Björn Freitag. It also happens that I have his two cookbooks titled the same. This recipe is in the collection with vegetarian recipes.

I really like Freitag's cooking as it's rooted in Deutscher Hausmannskost (German Cuisine/home cooking), BUT: always with a yummy "twist", often from international cuisines.

Okay, along the way of making them a few "surprises" occurred which led to me needing 4 hours – from prep to eat – instead of the 35 minutes given for the recipe, BUT: main thing is I didn't starve and got a yummy dinner at... 10 PM.

And now enough babble and off to the kitchen – I dunno know about you but I wanna eat before 10 PM.




Serves: 18+ veg balls 4 main courses, according to recipe. ALSO: since I'm alone, I prepped two separate batches à 2 portions, keeping the rest of the mass in the fridge until needed.


Prep Time: 35 minutes Recipe. In which Universe!? It took me alone that time to prep the veg. 4 hrs Me. More to that as we go along.


Degree of Difficulty: easy maybe tricky




WE NEED


BALLS


2 kohlrabi
3-4 middle-sized potatoes
1 onion My fave red. Also makes a nice dash of color.
4 stalks dill
2 eggs
salt
pepper freshly ground.
1 tbsp potato starch Only had corn starch. Maybe one reason the mass didn't want to adhere.
100 gr / 3.5 oz. panko crumbs
2 l / 0.5 US gallon deep-frying oil I used a mix of organic oils derived from sunflower + canola.



SAUCE

50 gr / 1.75 oz. butter
1 tbsp flour
500 ml / ~ 2 US cups veg stock Organic here, too.
100 ml / 3.5 US fl.oz. cream
1 tbsp coarse, spicy mustard I used Dijon as I'm a wuss concerning "spicy".
50 gr / 1.75 oz. capers Pickled, and with their liquid
salt
(white) pepper




WE DO


BALLS


1. Peel the potatoes. From the kohlrabi cut off stalks/green, and peel it with knife and potato peeler You're "done" when NO "woody" patches are left.

Grate potatoes + kohlrabi. I did it by hand. Guess you can use a food processor, too. Peel and very finely chop the onion. Shower, shake dry and finely chop the dill.



2. Add eggs, onion, dill + starch to the vegs, thoroughly mix them and season them with salt + pepper.


3. Shape the mass into about 2 in-sized balls.

Uh, NOPE. Because of the potatoes the mass was so soggy that not even the eggs + starch were nearly enough to make that possible: the balls didn't adhere, and the potatoes so well to my hands that I needed a sharp knife to scrape them off, and back into the bowl. Googling was inconclusive – despite concise question! – so I figured it out myself. BUT: even 250 gr / 9 oz. EXTRA bread crumbs only just did the trick.


4. Fry the balls in batches of 3-5 balls in the oil until they're golden-brown. NOT darker as then acrylamide may develop which is cancerogenous A thought about the oil: when you don't use a deep fryer, but a pot, hold a toothpick into it. The oil has the right temperature when NO bubbles form around the wood anymore.


5. For the sauce, gently heat the butter in a pot, and let it brown SLIGHTLY. Only just because otherwise it burns Gradually add the flour, and LIGHTLY sauté. Deglaze with cream + veg stock, stirring VIGOROUSLY. I did it a little different: I already stirred flour + butter, as I didn't want them to burn the pot, then added cream, followed by veg stock.

Then add mustard, capers + caper sud and season with salt + pepper. If you fancy it, you can also chop the kohlrabi's leaves, and add them to the sauce.


Guten Hunger! (PAPA)