Cooking in Vienna

When one thinks about eating and drinking in Vienna, the Viennese coffee houses (Konditoreien), with all their delicious cakes and sweets, will be the first think to come to your mind.
The majority of the 4.000 coffee houses in Austria can be found in Vienna, as it is the place where coffee was originally introduced by the Turks. (In 1983 the institution “coffee house” celebrated its 300th anniversery.)

Of course, Viennese cuisine does not only consist of sweet dishes. Just think of a delicious Wiener Schnitzel or a Tafelspitz (beef) with spinach and horseradish.

In the so-called "Beisl" you get typical Viennese food at moderate prices. Sometimes they do not look very inviting from the outside, but they are often very comfortable, the food is excellent and a friendly staff serves you with the Viennese charm. These "secret haunts" are not easy to find, as they are very often situated in narrow passages and back alleys, but local people are always willing to give directions.

Kaiserschmarren
A dish fit for an emperor

There are many legends surrounding the origins of the "Kaiserschmarren", such as the one that has Emperor Fancis Jospeh wandering into a small inn while on a hunting trip. The inn was run by a "Kaser" - a dairyman - who could offer the "Kaiser" - the emperor - nothing but an ordinary "Schmarren", a sweetened pancake broken up with a fork after frying. His Majesty found this dish so delicious, however, that he praised the dairyman with the words: "This 'Kaserschmarren' is truly worthy of being called a 'Kaiserschmarren'!".

Ingredients
120g/4.2oz flour, 3 eggs (separated), 30g/1oz sugar, a pinch of salt, 1/4 litre of milk, 3 tablespoons butter, raisins

Preparation
Mix the flour, egg yolks, sugar and salt with the necessary amount of milk to make a viscous batter. Let rest for 30 minutes. Then beat the egg whites until stiff and carefully told them into the batter. Heat the butter in a pan, pour in the batter and sprinkle with raisins as desired. Fry on the underside until golden brown, turn and finish cooking over low heat. Using two forks, tear the pancake into small pieces and brown again very briefly. Sprinkle with confectioner's sugar and serve with a fruity side dish, like stewed plums or fruit compote.

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GUGELHUPF(serves 12)

Ingredients:
75g/3oz blanched almonds cut into slivers, 250g/9oz plain flour,1 sachet easy-blend dried yeast, 50g/2oz caster sugar, 120ml/4fl oz milk, 3 eggs beaten, 100g/4oz butter, 75g/3oz raisins, finely grated rind of 1 lemon, icing sugar to dust.

Preparation:
butter a 1 litre/1 ¾ pint guglhupf mould, sprinkle with the almonds and dust lightly with a little of the flour, set aside. Sift the remaining flour into a bowl, then mix in the yeast and sugar.
Warm the milk and beat into the flour mixture with the eggs. Melt the butter, leave until warm, then gradually beat in until the mixture leaves the sides of the bowl clean. Mix in the raisins and lemon rind, then pour into tin.
Leave to rise in a warm place until the mixture almost reaches the top of the tin. Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/gasmark5.
When the Gugelhupf has risen bake for 10 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 150C/300F/gasmark2 and bake for 30 minutes until firm to the touch. Leave to cool for 20 minutes, then carefully turn out on a wire rack. Dust with icing sugar while still warm.

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WIENER SCHNITZEL

Preparation:
Mix together 1 egg, 1 tablespoon milk, a few drops of oil and a little salt. In a flat bowl beat the veal escalopes, season with salt and turn them over in flour. Then dip them into the egg-mixture and finally press them into breadcrumbs. Shake off surplus breadcrumbs and fry immediately in hot fat. Serve with potatoes, potato mayonnaise, or rice.

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TAFELSPITZ

Preparation:
Use a good quality piece of beef weighing about 1½ kg.
Season with salt, pepper and finely chopped herbs. Place in a hot pan with ½ kg veal bones and brown on all sides to seal the juices. Add 1-2 tomatoes, 1 bay leaf, 2 cloves, lemon peel, peppercorns and ¼ litre white wine. Add water, cover with a close fitting lid and cook until tender. Cut meat into slices and serve with fried potatoes, spinach (or leek sauce) and Apfelkren (grated horseradish apple).

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SACHERTORTE

Ingredients:
6 eggs, 160 gr butter, 175 gr chocolate,
1 jar of apricot jam, 160 gr sugar, 160 gr flour 1 packet
(2 teaspoon full) vanilla sugar, chocolate icing.

Preparation:
Beat the soft butter with half the sugar, the warmed chocolate and the egg yolks until fluffy. Whip the egg whites with the remaining sugar until it is stiff. Then add to the mixture. Stir in carefully the flour and vanilla sugar, previously sieved together. Pour into cake tin and bake for an hour in a moderate oven. When cool cut in half, spread with apricot jam and sandwich together again. Also coat the sides and the top with apricot jam, then cover thickly with chocolate icing.

Icing: Warm 100g chocolate carefully (not too hot). Heat 200g. sugar with water until it begins to stick together. Mix the lukewarm sugar with the softened chocolate and beat smooth.