Thursday,19th March 2009

Something delicious from Austria

Now I feel the time has come to make a so-called “Tafelspitz”.
During the preparation time I tried to remember where the name of this Austrian speciality has come from. I guessed the origin of the name could be created by that typical shape of meat from the tale-root of the cow which is used for the dish. Or does it come it from a special presentation while serving the dish?
As I could not solve the problem I started to investigate and soon I found an explanation in “Planet Wissen”, a science and knowledge show on TV. The “name-giving-story” presented there sounded in such a way curious that I was convinced it must be true.
And here comes the historical explanation:

“This name was obviously created by some archdukes which left still hungry the table of Austrian emperor Franz Joseph (1848-1916) after an opulent dinner party at his residence. When this special dish was served to his  aristocratic guests, the people sitting opposite to the host at the end of the long dining table had a real problem. As Franz Joseph, of course, was served first, the guests at the end of the table got last. When he has finished eating the rest of the illustrious guests had to finish, too, and those ones who were served last at the end of the table had mostly not even started eating. Hungry as they were they went usually to the “Sacher”, a famous Austrian restaurant, to satisfy their hunger there.
It is understandable that nobody liked to sit at the table (Tafel) end (Spitze) as it had, beside the empty stomach, the touch of a calculated punishment, too.
But what is the different to a normal roasted beef? The piece of meat from the root of the tale is boiled in water together with vegetable roots and served with a horesradish sauce and potatoes instead.”

I do not know if the explanation of the origin name of the “Tafelspitz” is correct but I know that the Austrians succeeded with the creation of a wonderful dish.

Ingredients for 4 persons:

Directions:

1. Boil  1,5 l water in a large pot. Dry beef with paper towels. Add beef together with salt, bay leaf and peppercorns into the water. Cook it for two hours.
2. Peel and dice onions. Peel and slice carrots. Clean and slice celery. Wash leek and cut into 2 cm pieces.
3. After cooking the meat add vegetables and cook the mixture another 20 minutes.
4. Before slicing the meat let it rest for about 10 minutes (covered). Pour the soup through a sieve to remove all the vegetables and roots.
5. Horseradish sauce: While the meat is resting, melt butter or margarine for the horseradish sauce. Add flour, mixing well, then moisten with the meat broth, beating with a whisk until the mixture is quite smooth. Add horseradish. Then add salt and a touch of sugar. Cook together for 20 minutes gently, then strain and add lemon juice and cream, gradually.
6. Cut the meat into thin slices. Serve the Tafelspitz slices on a plate, pour some of the soup over it. Add vegetables and serve it with horseradish sauce.

TIPPS:

• You can freeze Tafelspitz together with the broth.
• You also can serve Tafelspitz with boiled potatoes and green salad or with fried potatoes and carrots.