Tirol at its best

Here you get the real peasant food: robust, straightforward and unfussy, but very delicious!

It is a pleasure to eat those tasty dishes in the typical Tirolean restaurants, which are mostly unpretentious and in smaller villages they can even be found in the back rooms of farmhouses. You will e surprised by the enormous portions.

The well-known Tirolean dishes are Tiroler Speckknödel. Delicious dumplings filled with Tirolean peasant ham (Bauernspeck) and eaten as main course with salad or as a side dish for the hungry ones. As well known, as the Tiroler Speckknödel is the Tiroler Gröstel. A very nutritious pan-fried dish prepared with sliced potatoes, pork meat, onions and many spices.

Other dishes you can find in Tirol are Bean Soup, Dumpling Soup and Gulasch Soup. A traditional starter or afternoon snack (Jause) is the Tiroler Bauernspeck (spicy peasant ham) served in a chunk on wooden board together with dark, crusty bread.

TIROLER SPECKKNÖDEL

Ingredients:
100g streaky bacon, 100g
smoked boiled pork or ham, 4 or 5
diced stale rolls, 2 eggs,1/8 l. ( approx.
4 fl. ozs ) milk, salt, chopped parsley,
1 large onion, flour as required

Preparation:
Fry the finely diced bacon and finely chopped onion in a casserole add chopped parsley, diced smoked pork or ham and the diced rolls. Fry until all ingredients are crisp. Remove from the cooker and allow cooling. Meanwhile mix the beaten eggs with milk and a pinch of salt. Pour this over the mixture and add only sufficient flour to get workable dough. Shape into balls of approx. the size of a small fist, and boil in beef broth and stock for about 10 - 15 minutes before serving. (Cut one dumpling in half to check when done.)

TIROLER GRÖSTEL

Preparation:
Fry together boiled beef or cold roast beef cut small, with onion, caraway seed and parsley, salt and pepper. Mix in the same quantity of potatoes, chopped small and fried golden brown. Before serving sprinkle with chopped parsley. Serve with salad or vegetables.


Also numerous variations of "Nockerl" can be added to the most typical Tirolean dishes, they are prepared with either potato- or quark (white cheese) dough - similar to dumplings- and served either filled with the typical ingredients or they are already mixed into the dough.

Typical ingredients are ham “Bergnocken”, cornflour “Türckennudeln”, spinach and meat “Schlutzkrapen”, or honey "Honignocken".