Berlin has very own simple but wonderful everyday dishes. Here 38 of my favorite Berlin dishes which were and are also often cooked in my family. I will gradually organize original photos of most of the individual dishes.
1. Berlin potato soup
Ingredients:
- 350g peeled potatoes
- 50g lean bacon
- 1 onion
- 125ml sweet cream
- 1 bunch of greens
- 2 grains of allspice
- 1 bay leaf
- marjoram
- 1/2 teaspoon caraway
- 30g butter
- 1L meat broth
- 1 slice of white bread
- parsley
- We leave out the diced bacon and then take out the cubes again.
- We steam the chopped soup vegetables in the fat of the bacon.
- Then we add the meat broth.
- Now add the potatoes and sieve off the foam.
- Spices are added and everything is cooked for 20 minutes.
- After boiling, the soup is pressed through a coarse sieve and seasoned with salt and marjoram.
- The white bread slices are cut into cubes and roasted in the butter until golden. They are sprinkled over the soup with the bacon cubes and chopped parsley before serving.
2. Sweet and sour lentils
Ingredients:
- 500g lentils
- 150g peeled potatoes
- 2 onions
- 125g smoked bacon
- 1 bunch of greens
- salt and pepper
- sugar and vinegar
- The washed lentils must be soaked for a few hours before preparation.
- In the soaking water, the chopped greens are now cooked with salt and the lentils until soft.
- The potatoes are added when the lentils are almost soft.
- The diced onion and bacon are roasted and added to the soup.
- Season with pepper, sugar and vinegar.
3. Kale soup
Ingredients:
- 250g kale
- 40g butter
- 2 cups of grits
- 1 cooked beet
- salt
- The groats are scalded with boiling water, then rinsed again with cold water and again boiled in fresh water for an hour.
- We stir the creamy grits through a sieve.
- We weigh the kale as finely as possible.
- Mix the grits and kale, add salt and saute in butter, stirring frequently.
- Peel, grate and add beet and bring everything to the boil again.
4. Bread soup
Ingredients:
- 250g wholemeal bread
- 1 large onion
- 1 bunch of greens
- 30g lard
- 1l meat broth
- marjoram salt
- 3 tablespoons sweet cream
- 1/2 bunch parsley
- 1 egg yolk
- Soak the crumbled bread.
- Chop the greens and onions into small cubes, then fry in hot fat.
- Add the squeezed bread, stir and fill with hot broth.
- After half an hour of cooking we press everything through a sieve.
- Season with salt and marjoram, boil again briefly.
- Remove from heat and stir in the cream whisked with the egg.
5. Oxtail soup
Ingredients:
- 500g oxtail
- 1 bunch of greens
- 1 large onion
- 40g flour
- 50g lard
- 1 fingertip thyme, salt
- 100ml red wine
- Chop the oxtail
- Fry the pieces in lard until hot.
- Add finely chopped greens, diced onion.
- Sprinkle with flour, salt and brown.
- Add 1l of boiling water and remove the foam.
- Add thyme and cook until the meat separates from the bone.
- Take out the tail pieces and dice them into small pieces.
- Strain the broth and combine with the meat cubes.
- Season to taste with red wine and salt.
6. Rutabaga pot
Ingredients:
- 250g smoked pork
- 250g marbled pork
- 500g potatoes
- 750g rutabagas
- 2 onions
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 teaspoon marjoram
- 1 tablespoon flour
- 5 grains of allspice
- salt and caraway seeds
- chopped parsley
- In 1.5l of water boil the meat, bay leaf, allspice and quartered onions.
- Pour the broth through a sieve.
- Peel and dice the potatoes and rutabagas and cook them in the broth.
- Add chopped meat, season with remaining spices.
- Stir in the flour mixed with cold water.
- Serve sprinkled with parsley.
7. Berlin mince pork
Ingredients:
- 400g lean pork
- 200g fat pork
- 1 onion
- 1 teaspoon chopped caraway seeds
- 1 egg yolk
- salt, pepper
- We cut the pork into coarse pieces, season it and turn it through the grinder.
- Then mix it with the egg yolk, chopped onion and the remaining spices.
- The minced pork is served on fresh half rolls.
8. Berlin brawn
Ingredients:
- Half a pig’s head
- 500g pigs feet
- 500ml meat broth
- 2 hard boiled eggs
- 2 carrots
- 2 sour cucumbers
- 2 onions
- 1 bay leaf
- 3x allspice
- a little sugar
- some vinegar
- pepper, salt
- 1 bay leaf
- Remove the skins from the pork parts and bring to a boil, covered with water and remove the foam.
- Add the salt, sliced onions, bay leaf, allspice and peeled carrots.
- Cook until you can pierce the rind with your finger.
- Remove the softened carrots and set aside.
- Now we detach the meat from the bone and cut it into small cubes.
- Strain the remaining broth through a cloth.
- Cut the cucumbers and carrots into cubes and add them to the broth with the meat.
- Now it is seasoned with vinegar, sugar and salt properly and strongly and boiled up again.
- Fill into jars or similar.
- We achieve an even distribution of the coarse ingredients by stirring or using shallow molds.
- To get the aspic out before serving, simply dip the jar or mold briefly in hot water.
- It is garnished with egg, green cucumber and parsley and served with fried potatoes and remoulade.
