German Rabbit: Hasenpfeffer in a Crock-pot

 This is undoubtedly thought of as a cool or cold weather dish, but hey, I had a frozen rabbit I wanted to use, so here we go...

Germans have a long history of preparing rabbit,* with their most famous dish being "Hasenpfeffer," a dish of hare/rabbit marinated in vinegar, wine and seasonings, which is then usually braised on the stove top, or baked, but a crock-pot is ideal for this. As with all popular dishes, there are variations in the recipes, at times reflecting regional preferences, as "some" Germans, for example, add ground paprika, a seasoning they picked up from the Hungarians.** Some add smoked bacon or unsmoked pork belly,*** while hunting families often use the blood of the rabbit in the cooking process, although  blood sausage (German: "Blutwurst") is often substituted. Some use white wine, some add egg yolks and others add red currant jelly or jam. Some of these dishes are not called "Hasenpfeffer," but rather  they are called by regional dialectal names. In Hessen, Pfalz (Palatinate) and the Rhineland, a variation is called "Dippehas" (pronounced, "dippeh-hahz"), which means, "pot or jug (ged) hare," where the rabbit or hare is cooked in a (non reactive) metal or crock ware pot with a tight fitting lid. Traditionally, the lid of the pot is only opened when the cooked rabbit is brought to the table, thus dispensing the wonderful aroma to the assembled diners. "Dippe" is a dialect word for "pot." In the Black Forest area (German: Schwarzwald), another similar dish is called "Eingemachter Haas" ("put up**** or preserved hare," and "Haas" is the dialect spelling of standard German "Hase"). By the way, German has an expression that is equivalent to English, "That's the fly in the ointment," or, "That's the fly in the buttermilk," which sort of ties in with this recipe: "Da liegt der Hase im Pfeffer," which literally means, "There lies the hare in the pepper," but the real meaning of which, like it's English cousin, is: "there is a problem that spoils the whole plan or course of action in some issue," as there is no escape for a rabbit, once it's in the pepper. 


Ingredients:

1 rabbit/hare, cut up
flour, seasoned with salt and pepper to coat the rabbit pieces
2 1/2 cups red wine
3/4 cup cup red wine vinegar
1 cup beef broth
2 carrots, sliced or chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 large garlic clove, minced or finely chopped
1  3 to 4 inch piece of pork belly (non smoked) 
2  half inch slices of blood sausage
2 teaspoons dried thyme
3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
10 peppercorns, slightly crushed
2 bay leaves
6 to 8 juniper berries, slightly crushed
1/2 teaspoon salt (can be omitted or use just a pinch, if the beef broth is high salt content)
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
2/3 cup sour cream
3 to 5 tablespoons flour mixed with equal amount of water
2 or 3 tablespoons canola oil or other neutral oil

In a non reactive container, add the wine, the red wine vinegar, the beef broth, the carrots, the garlic and the onion. Place the rabbit pieces into the dish, making certain the pieces are all covered by the marinade (add more wine, if necessary). Cover and refrigerate for 2 days, turning the rabbit pieces once or twice a day. After 2 days, remove the rabbit pieces (they will be purplish in color), pat them dry and lightly coat each piece with seasoned flour. Reserve the marinade. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Brown the flour coated rabbit pieces in the hot oil. To your crock pot/slow cooker, add the reserved marinade, the pork belly piece (left whole), the blood sausage slices (left whole), the thyme, the cloves, the peppercorns, the juniper berries, the bay leaves, the parsley and the salt (if using). Stir to mix, then add the browned rabbit pieces. The rabbit will likely be covered or just about covered by the marinade and seasoning mixture, but if not completely covered, that should happen as it cooks. Cook on "high" for one hour, then reduce to "low," cook a further 5 to 7 hours.

Try to carefully remove the rabbit pieces and the pork belly. I took the rabbit meat off of the bones. Strain the broth. I picked through the strained out items and took out the blood sausage (which will have "melted down" a good bit) and carrots and added them to the rabbit (the blood sausage can now be chopped). I then discarded the other strained out vegetables and seasonings (there were also a couple of small rabbit bone pieces). Put the broth into a sauce pan and heat to a simmer. Gradually whisk the flour mix into the hot liquid, whisking constantly, until the sauce reaches the thickness you desire. Cook for another minute or two, then remove the sauce from the heat for a few minutes before whisking in the sour cream. Serve with noodles or spaetzle (German: "Spätzle") and whole berry cranberry sauce (or lingonberry jam).    

* The German word "Hase" is the relative of English "hare," and indeed, a hare and a rabbit are closely related, with a few differences, although I dare say, most of us in the general public cannot tell anyone even one of the differences. I wonder if Bugs Bunny knows the difference?

** Hungary is famous for its paprika. I knew a Hungarian couple and they used ground paprika in everything. The wife was an immigrant to the United States as a teenager in the 1920s, and the husband was born in the U.S., not long after his parents arrived here.

*** Rabbit/hare is pretty lean, so my guess is, that's probably one of the reasons why the Germans add a little "fatty" meat, either bacon or pork belly. Hey, if you hopped around all day, you'd be pretty lean too. "Do the bunny hop... hop, hop, hop!"  

**** Since I have many readers from a wide variety of countries, many of whom are learning English, while others may not always understand every expression, the term "put up" has several meanings, but in the usage here, it refers to "food items put into sealed containers to prevent spoilage, and thus are able to be stored for later use." A closely related term by meaning is, "canned," although it doesn't mean the storage container is necessarily made of metal; as in fact, home "canning" (the noun for the process) is overwhelmingly done by using glass jars with lids that seal in the content.     

Hasenpfeffer with noodles/sauce and lingonberry jam.

WORD HISTORY:
Strain (#1)-There is more than one word of this spelling in English, but this is the noun meaning, "breed or kind of a living organism," often, but not exclusively, used nowadays in reference to bacteria or viruses, as in, "This year's flu is from an especially nasty strain of the flu virus." It is distantly related to "strew,'' a native English word from its Germanic roots, and it goes back to Indo European "streh/struh," which meant, "spread out, scatter about." This was a derivative of Indo European "stereh," which meant, "to spread, to stretch out." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "streunan," meaning, "to heap up, to gain, to acquire," which produced the noun, "streunam" ("a heap, an acquisition"). This gave Old English the noun "streon," ^ meaning, "a gain (thus also, wealth), an acquisition." From this emerged the idea of "producing, generating;" thus, "having, adding offspring," which further became, "a breed or kind of offspring." This produced "strynd," meaning, "kin, tribe." This seems to have eventually melded with "streon" to become "streen," then "strene," before the modern form with the long "a" sound.

^ It also produced "gestreon," which meant, "a business or trade gain;" thus, "a profit." 

Turkish Scrambled Eggs: Menemen

This is not a typical dish of eggs with some vegetables mixed in, but rather a dish of scrambled eggs more heavily laden with finely chopped vegetables. The "heat level" should be tolerable for just about everyone, except for those who like lots of heat; in which case, you can use the seeds in the chili pepper, and double the amount of cayenne pepper. Turks have this dish with pita bread (Turkish: "pide") or round sesame seed bread (Turkish: "simit"), and additionally, they may serve the eggs with black olives, feta-like cheese, or garlicky yogurt. The Turkish name for this dish is, "menemen," pronounced as if, "meh-nah-men."

Ingredients:

6 eggs, beaten
1/2 red bell pepper, finely chopped
1/2 green or yellow bell pepper, finely chopped
1/3 cup finely chopped onion
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 jalapeño or serrano chili pepper, seeded and finely chopped
1 teaspoon ground Aleppo pepper* or 3/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2/3 cup tomato, chopped (or drained canned chopped tomatoes)
2/3 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons chopped parsley (+ sprigs for garnish, if desired)

In a skillet, heat the oil over low heat, add the butter. When the butter is melted, mix it well with the oil, then add the onion, the bell peppers and the chili pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 3 minutes, then add the garlic and the tomatoes. Cook until the vegetables are soft, about another 6 to 8 minutes, stirring as necessary to keep any of the mixture from burning. Add the ground Aleppo or cayenne pepper, the oregano, the chopped parsley and the salt. Add the eggs and mix them into the other ingredients. Keep stirring the egg/vegetable mixture with a fork or a spatula until the eggs are cooked. If, by chance, you live near a Turkish bakery, you can buy some "simit bread," also called, by some, "Turkish bagels." I used two types of bread in the photo below, but neither is Turkish.

* Aleppo pepper is a ground chili pepper used in some Middle Eastern and eastern Mediterranean cooking. It is reddish or orangish in color and typically it is not mouth-blistering in heat. Aleppo is available in some supermarkets, spice shops or shops handling Middle Eastern food products.

WORD HISTORY:
Range-This word, related to "rank," ^ has a very complicated history in terms of meaning developments, but it goes back to Indo European "krengh," which meant "to turn or to bend," seemingly derived from Indo European "sker," the principle meaning of which was "to cut," but with a secondary meaning of "to bend, to curve," perhaps from the notion of cutting something off and then forming it into a particular shape, and thus seen as the result of "cutting." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "khrengaz," meaning "that which is curved, a bent object." This gave Frankish, a Germanic dialect, "hring" ("ring," an object bent into a circular form), which was then borrowed into Old French as "reng," which then became "ranc." At this time it took on the meaning "row, line," but exactly why this meaning developed is unclear. This then gave Old French the verb, "rengier," meaning, "to arrange in a row, to place in order." This was borrowed into English in the early 1200s as "rengen," which "seems" to have been influenced in spelling by the French spelling change from "rengier" to "ranger." The noun, too, was borrowed in the early 1200s, with the meaning, "row of hunters, row of soldiers." This then began to develop into the meaning, "hunters 'ranging' over an area," and it further influenced the meaning of the noun to, "a large area (initially for hunting)," but the meaning of, "in a row," did not die out, but rather came to be applied to mountains and hills, "a range of mountains; mountain range." The noun also developed the sense, "from one point to another point ('a range');" thus, the modern use in, for example, "range of options." From the 'distance' idea also came the meaning, "the distance (the range) a shot from a gun could go;" which then provided the basis for, "place for gun firing practice (rifle or gun range)." Why the cooking device/appliance is called a "range" is not known, although initially many fireplaces had "rows" of hooks for pots, and the idea might have transferred to the stove with openings on the top to cook food.    

^ "Rank" was derived from Germanic, but it was borrowed by English (and by German as, "Rang") from French, which had gotten it from Frankish, the language of the Germanic tribe, the Franks.

Turkish Beyti Kebab

Kebabs are a common type of food for Turkish people. Kebabs are often grilled or baked on skewers, or sometimes they are just cooked as patties, with various meats, seafood or vegetables (or a combination of these). I couldn't find any good sources for the history of this type of kebab, "Beyti" (pronounced as if, "bay-ty"), with some saying it dates back to the days of the Ottoman Empire, but it then was revived in the 1960s, in Istanbul, while others seem to feel it was invented in the 1960s in Istanbul. Turkey's capital of Istanbul is certainly a common tie to the differing opinions. 

Ingredients (for 6 kebabs):

Kebabs:
1 1/2 pounds ground lamb
1/2 cup onion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon serrano or jalapeño chili, finely chopped
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon ground coriander
3 tablespoons breadcrumbs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 to 2 tablespoons milk
6 flour tortillas, the 6 inch type
melted butter for brushing
bell pepper (red, orange, yellow or green), baked, grilled or fried, cut into strips (or you can use store bought roasted peppers) 
Greek-style plain yogurt (about 1 cup)

Tomato Sauce:
1  15 ounce can tomato sauce
1/4 cup fresh tomato, chopped
2 tablespoons onion, chopped
1 large clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried mint
1 tablespoon olive oil

In a bowl, mix the lamb, onion, chili pepper, black pepper, cumin, coriander, breadcrumbs, salt and milk. Cover and refrigerate for at least two hours. For the sauce: In a sauce pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and let cook about about 2 minutes, then add the garlic and chopped tomatoes. Cook another 2 to 3 minutes, then stir in the tomato sauce and cook until the mixtures begins to bubble. Reduce heat to low and add the dried mint. Cook for about 2 minutes. For the meat: Roll the meat mixture into sausages of about 1 inch wide, 5 1/2 inches long and one inch deep. If you want to put the meat on skewers for grilling, you can soak wooden skewers in water for about 20 minutes, or use metal skewers, and put the meat onto the skewers. Grill, turning occasionally to make sure the meat cooks evenly. Otherwise, heat the oven to 350 F, line a baking sheet with parchment paper or foil. Arrange the meat on the sheet (no skewers needed). Bake until totally cooked through, about 40 to 45 minutes.

Wrap each kebab in a tortilla, and brush with melted butter. Place seam side down and cut each wrapped kabab into three  pieces. On a platter, put about a cup of plain Greek-style yogurt in the center. Arrange the kebab pieces around the yogurt. Spoon the tomato sauce over the kebab pieces. Scatter the pepper strips over the top of the kebabs, or serve in a separate dish on the side. For individual servings, place pieces of kebab on a plate, add a couple tablespoons of yogurt to one side and spoon some tomato sauce over the kebabs. Add the pepper strips.


I made an individual serving, with a few pieces of kebab covered in sauce, and with some pepper strips and yogurt to the side of the plate

WORD HISTORY:
Kebab-This word, also spelled, "kabob," "kebob," along with some others, has an uncertain distant history. It seems to go back to transliterated Afro-Asiatic "kahbah," which meant, "to burn, to roast, to cook." This "apparently" gave a similar form to its offspring, "Semitic," ^ which was passed to Aramaic, one of the Semitic languages, which was a common language long ago, as transliterated  "kahbaba" (?), meaning "burn(ing), (roast(ing), char(ring)." This gave Arabic transliterated "kabab," meaning, "cooked/roasted meat," which was borrowed into Turkish as "kebap." Borrowed by English in the latter part of the 1700s from Arabic, with reinforcement from Turkish.  

^ Semitic is a language family centered in the Middle East. The most common modern Semitic languages are Arabic, Amharic, Hebrew and Tigrinya. Arabic and Hebrew are commonly known in much of Europe and North America, but Amharic is spoken in a large part of Ethiopia. Tigrinya is also spoken in parts of Ethiopia and Eritrea, another East African nation. Aramaic, also a Semitic language, was once fairly widespread in part of the Middle East, but it receded with the spread of  Arabic. 

Poached Salmon

This is a good and easy way to cook salmon. Once the cooking liquid is prepared, you're just minutes away from great food.

Ingredients:

4   5 to 6 ounce salmon fillets (boneless, skinless)
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 cup onion, chopped
1/2 lemon, sliced
1 teaspoon salt (for water)
salt to season each fillet
1/4 teaspoon black or white pepper
butter
freshly cut chives

To a large skillet, add 6 cups water, onion, white wine, lemon, pepper and salt. Bring to a boil and cook ingredients for 5 to 6 minutes. Reduce heat so that the water is at a gentle simmer. Sprinkle a little salt on each salmon fillet. Add salmon to the simmering water and cook for 5 to 8 minutes (depending upon the thickness of the fillets), remove salmon to paper towels just to drain excess water. Top each fillet with thin slices of butter and a sprinkle of freshly cut chives (I use scissors to cut them).

I had my poached salmon with fried potatoes and a little garnish of parsley and cilantro...

WORD HISTORY:
Scale-English has more than one word of this spelling, but this is the noun, and the derived verb, for "protective covering for fish," and, "flakes of dried skin." This word is very closely related to "shell" and to "scale;" that is, the word of the same spelling, but meaning, "a device for weighing." This form of the word goes back to Indo European "skel," which had the notion "to cut, to split, to chip." This gave Old Germanic the root "skal/skel," with the meaning, "to split, to divide," and which gave forms that became the basis of "shell" (covering for sea creatures or land animals, or for the eggs of various creatures," "scale," "the split shells of certain sea creatures used for food or drink, and also used as a dish or tray to hold objects to be weighed," and "scale," the covering for fish and flakes of skin." Old Germanic gave Frankish, a Germanic dialect/language, "skala," with the meaning, "husk, shell," and this passed into Old French as "escale," which meant, "pod shell, husk and hardened covering," later specifically, "hardened skin." This was borrowed by English in the early part of the 1300s with the "hardened skin" meaning, which by then also meant, "hardened bits of protective skin for fish and some other creatures." The verb, meaning, "to strip the scales from fish," came from the noun in the early 1400s.

Oysters With Mignonette Sauce

If you like oysters, as I do, this is a tasty way to enjoy them. Super simple, and I've put a couple of ways you can modify the recipe to give you some variety.

The "Billion Oysters Project" is a science endeavor heavily involving students to try to restore the ecosystem of New York Harbor by adding one billion live oysters to the harbor by the year 2030. For more information or to help: https://billionoysterproject.org/#

Ingredients:

12 freshly shucked oysters on the half shell
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
2 tablespoons finely chopped sweet onion (or shallots)
good pinch sea salt

For a "hot" kick, add 1 teaspoon sambal oelek (hot chili paste)
For a sweetened touch, mix 1 teaspoon honey with the white wine vinegar first

Mix and chill before serving sauce with oysters on the half shell

I used shallot in my Mignonette sauce...

WORD HISTORY:
Hull-This word, related to "hell," an original English word from its Germanic roots, and distantly related to "cell" and "cellar," both of Latin derivation and borrowed by English, goes back to Indo European "kel/khel," which meant "cover." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "hallo/hullo," which meant, "covered area," and the root gave Germanic "hul/hel," meaning "cover," and this then gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "hulu," which meant, "husk, seed cover, pod cover." This then became "hul," before the modern form, "hull." The verb form, meaning, "to remove the hulls from grains, vegetables or fruit," developed from the noun in the first half of the 1400s, at first as "hullen." This "may" be the same word for "the frame of a ship," but this is uncertain, although the "pod and seed shape" of ships seems to be the connection to the word "hull." Anyway, forms still "alive" in other Germanic languages: German has "Hülse" (husk, shell, pod), "Hülle" (cover, wrapping") and the verb "hüllen" (to wrap, to cover);  Low German Saxon has "Hüls" (pod), Dutch has the verb "hullen" (to wrap, to envelop).

The Former Confederacy & Modern American Politics, Part Twenty-Seven

 In the late 1990s, Republicans, along with some Democrats, pushed for deregulation of the banking industry by removing the "Glass-Steagall Act," a law implemented in the era of the Great Depression, to prevent the mixing of investment banking (also termed "casino banking," as it can be highly risky) from "traditional" banking; that is, savings and checking accounts, car loans, etc. Democrat-turned Republican, Phil Gramm, a senator from Texas, led the charge for the deregulation, which was then signed by President Clinton. This legislation would prove to be one of the causes of the later so called, "Great Recession," as it allowed Wall Street banks to engage in behavior that was more than a little risky.

Anti government sentiment had been on the rise, certainly not discouraged by conservative attacks on government at all levels, and the sentiment came accompanied by hate groups and fascist-like militia extremists. In 1995, a terrorist bomb attack on the Federal Building in Oklahoma City killed more than 160 and injured nearly 700. The main perpetrator, Timothy McVeigh, had ties to militia groups and seemingly hated the government over issues like taxes and gun control. Anti government feelings were a longstanding tradition in the southern states, dating to the very creation of the Confederacy itself.

Clinton's second term included his impeachment over sex scandals, but I will not be covering that, as the overall subject is a bit complicated, and I did an article on it as part of another series. If you're interested, this is the link:   http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2012/12/its-about-coalitions-not-purity-part.html 

A president's political party often loses seats in Congress in midterm elections, and that's certainly true of the second midterm elections of two-term presidents. President Clinton's sex scandal gave Republicans hope for an even bigger than typical win in the 1998 election. It didn't happen; in fact, Democrats actually gained a handful of seats in the House of Representatives and the overall Senate numbers remained unchanged after each party won seats from one another, canceling out any net gain for either. The Republican pursuit of Bill Clinton's sex life seemed to have taken a nasty turn on the GOP, as voters seemed to want the matters of governing addressed, and not the president's personal life. The Clinton sex scandal would soon help to claim two REPUBLICAN leaders, not Democrats. First, the election results in the former Confederate states in 1998: 

1998 Senate: the only change in the former Confederate states was a North Carolina gain for Democrats.
House of Representatives: Alabama, unchanged at 5 Republicans, 2 Democrats; Arkansas, unchanged at 2 Republicans, 2 Democrats; Florida, unchanged, 15 Republicans, 8 Democrats; Georgia, unchanged, 8 Republicans, 3 Democrats; Louisiana, unchanged, 5 Republicans, 2 Democrats; Mississippi, Democratic gain of one seat, making state delegation, 3 Democrats, 2 Republicans; North Carolina, Republican gain of one seat, making state delegation, 7 Republicans, 5 Democrats; South Carolina, unchanged, 4 Republicans, 2 Democrats; Tennessee, unchanged, 5 Republicans, 4 Democrats; Texas, unchanged, 17 Democrats, 13 Republicans; Virginia, unchanged, 6 Democrats, 5 Republicans.
Governors: Alabama, Democratic gain: Florida, Republican gain (Jeb Bush, a son of former President Bush, began to come to prominence with this win); South Carolina, Democratic gain. One note, in Texas, George W. Bush, also a son of former President Bush, was reelected as governor. He would then run for president.

Next: Two Southerners face off in the election of 2000 ...  

WORD HISTORY:
Goad-This word, related to the "gar" part of "garlic," goes back to Indo European "ghai," which had the notion, "pointed, triangular," with the extended, "ghaizo," which meant, "staff, spear." This gave its Old Germanic offspring, "gaizo," meaning, "spear, pointed/triangular in shape." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "gad" (long "o" sound), and meaning, "spear, arrowhead," but also, "pointed staff to move cattle or other animals." This then became "gode," with the latter meaning having become the main meaning, and then came the modern spelling. The noun produced the verb form by the mid 1500s (maybe a bit earlier?), with the meaning, "to use a "gad/gode" (goad) to move cattle," but also the figurative, "cause to do something," and then also, "to stir up, to incite." Only English has forms of the original Germanic word that developed with this particular meaning.