Angelica's German Rice Salad

This recipe makes a nice hot weather supper with hard rolls/hearty bread or breadsticks and fruit for dessert, or a side dish the remainder of the year.

Ingredients:

6 1/2 oz tuna (could substitute 1 cup cooked chopped chicken)
1 medium onion, chopped
3 hard-cooked eggs, chopped
1 large dill pickle, chopped
1 large bell pepper, chopped
1-3 Tbsp oil
1-2 Tbsp vinegar
2 cups cooked brown rice (or white rice)
3 large tomatoes, chopped

Have all ingredients cold. Mix meat with onion, eggs, pickle and pepper. Add oil and vinegar; toss. Add rice. Add more oil and vinegar, if desired. Add tomatoes. Chill well. If you wish, you may garnish with tomato, lemon wedges and parsley.


* This recipe was from a woman from West Berlin years ago and submitted by Sue La Leike  in Whole Foods For The Whole Family La Leche League International Cookbook 1981.

German Potato Salad

Ingredients:

4 pounds baking potatoes, such as yukon gold
salt
12 slices bacon
2 cups chopped onion
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp celery seeds
pepper
1 1/2 cups water
1 1/2 cups cider vinegar

Cook potatoes in boiling salted water until tender, about 20 minutes. Drain the potatoes well, then peel and slice them. (You may peel and slice, or leave the peel on and slice and boil them.) Meanwhile, cook the bacon in a large skillet over medium heat until crisp, about 5 minutes. Drain and crumble the bacon, reserving about 1/4 cup of bacon fat.  Cook the onions in the reserved fat over medium heat until tender, about 10 minutes. Stir in the flour, 2 tsp salt, sugar, celery seeds and pepper to taste. Cook 2 minutes. Add the 1 1/2 cups of water and the vinegar, mixing well. Cook, stirring often, until the liquid is bubbly, has thickened and coats the back of a spoon. If the sauce becomes too thick, add a little water or vinegar.  Stir in bacon and potatoes. Cook until heated through, tossing gently to mix. If you prefer a more tart salad, add more vinegar while tossing.

This recipe was from the newspaper, and I did not note at the time who authored it.

Spaetzle (German noodle bits)

This was from a Spaetzle maker package and is supposed to be enough to serve 6 people. However, it is easy enough to make this without a Spaetzle maker- just put the mixture into some type of a larger-holed sieve or pasta drainer and push the mixture through the holes using a spatula over a pot of boiling water or over a brothy soup. This is really quite easy to make.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup butter

Beat eggs lightly, add milk and water. Place flour and salt into a bowl and gradually add the egg mixture. "Grate" your soft dough mixture directly into a pot of boiling water. Cook about 4-5 minutes- test a piece and see if it seems cooked through. Remove from water.

As mentioned above, it may also be added to a soup in place of noodles, rice or other starch. It may also be served with melted butter, tomato sauce and grated cheese, sour cream, olive oil and basil (or a pesto mixture)....  You can also experiment with adding different herbs to the spaetzle mixture - 1 tsp basil, 1/2 tsp oregano, saffron, 1 tsp dill, curry, italian blend, greek or french herb blend, etc........Use your imagination!