Delicious Austrian Cuisine
Austria is often overlooked as the perfect Alps travel destination. France and Italy have long been known for their majestic peaks, but hidden gem hiking destinations still exist and Austria is among them. We love Austria for many reasons, one being the perfect combination of thousands of hiking trails, beautiful peaks, and picturesque lake villages. We visit two magical regions on our guided treks, the Salzkammergut (The Heart of Austria trek September 12 – 19) and Tyrol (High Peaks of Bavaria and Tyrol trek, September 5 – 12).
In addition to incredible hiking, Austria has a robust culinary culture offering traditional recipes made from seasonal, local ingredients. At the end of a long hike in the Alps, what better way to celebrate than with a banquet of local delights. Here are two of our favorite Austrian dishes you can make at home for dinner and dessert. Guten Appetit! We hope to see you in Austria later this year!
Austrian Beef Roulades
This is a classic Austrian dish that is often made for special family dinners. It pairs perfectly with your favorite pasta, noodle, or potato.
Grocery List:
- 6 beef escalope
- Salt
- Pepper
- Tarragon mustard
- Bacon (sliced)
- 4-5 carrots
- Pickled gherkin
- 2 onions
- 1 leek
- 1/2 celery bulb
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- Bay leaves
- 250 ml / 8 oz red wine
- 500 ml /017 oz beef broth
- Parsley
- Rosemary
- 100 ml / 3 oz port wine
- 125 ml / 4 oz whipped cream
- Butter
Directions:
Step 1: Wash and clean root vegetables. Cut 2 carrots, 1 onion and 4 – 5 cucumbers into long strips (approx. 5 cm). Lightly fry onion strips in butter.
Step 2: Beat beef cutlets, season with salt and pepper. Coat one side of cutlet with mustard and top with a slice of bacon. Place 3 – 4 carrot strips, 2 – 3 cucumber strips and some onion strips on the bacon and roll up the cutlet. Secure the roulade with kitchen twine. Cut remaining vegetables into cubes.
Step 3: Sear the roulades in a little oil on all sides. Remove roulades from the pan (use a pan that can also be put in the oven).
Step 4: Sauté vegetable cubes in the roasting residue. Finally, briefly fry the tomato paste. Extinguish with red wine and add soup. Put the roulades on the vegetables. Add bay leaves, rosemary, parsley and peppercorns. Cover the pan and roast in the oven at 200 degrees top and bottom heat for about 2 hours. Reduce temperature to 180 degrees after one hour. Turn roulades and continue cooking until tender.
Step 5: Put roulades on a plate. Strain gravy with vegetables (or pass through a sieve). Pour port wine and whipping cream over roulades and reduce sauce until desired consistency is reached. Season to taste and thicken with a knob of butter if necessary.
Linzer Cake
We drool over this shortcake pastry with redcurrant jam (named after the city of Linz). Some believe this to be the oldest cake in the world. Don’t forget to serve it with a big scoop of ice cream, whipped cream, or confectioner’s sugar!
Grocery List: (serves 8-10 people)
- 250 g / 9 oz butter
- 250 g / 9 oz flour
- 125 g / 4 oz icing sugar
- 150 g / 5 oz ground hazelnuts (or almonds)
- 2 tbsp bread crumbs
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- Lots of ground cinnamon
- A pinch of ground cloves
- A pinch of salt
- Grated lemon rind or lemon juice
- Wafers for layering, to taste
- Egg for coating
- Redcurrant jam for coating
- Butter for the mold
- Flaked almonds, to taste
Directions:
Step 1: Create a pile of flour on the work surface, slice the butter into cubes, and rub between the fingers into the flour to create a light crumb. Flavor with the cinnamon, a pinch of ground cloves and a little salt, together with the lemon rind or lemon juice and ground nuts. Work quickly to form a smooth short pastry, shape into a ball, cover with cling film, and leave to rest in a cool place for approx. 30 minutes.
Step 2: Preheat the oven to 180°C / 356°F. Grease a suitably sized spring form cake tin and then dust with the bread crumbs to prevent the dough from sticking.
Step 3: Now press a little over half of the dough onto the base of the tin using your knuckles. Shape the remaining dough into several small rolls (for the lattice) and one thicker roll (for the edge). If you like, cover the pastry base with wafers, and then coat with smoothly stirred jam, leaving about 1 cm / 0.4 inch all around for the edge. Place the thicker roll into the tin as an edging, and press down gently. Use the thinner rolls to create a lattice. Sprinkle with flaked almonds to taste.
Step 4: Coat the dough with the beaten egg and bake in the pre-heated oven for 50 – 60 minutes. Take out the tart, leave to cool, and ideally leave to stand for a day, wrapped in cling film. Dust with icing sugar.
Big thanks to our Austrian friends at https://www.austria.info/en/things-to-do/food-and-drink/recipes for some of our favorite Austrian recipes. See you in the kitchen!
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