German Onion Tart: Zwiebelkuchen

"Zwiebelkuchen" literally means, "onion cake," but in reality it is more of an "onion tart," or an "onion pie." The standard German word for the dish is the compound word "Zwiebelkuchen," and the dish is known as part of several regional cuisines in German speaking areas; and therefore, it is known by a number of dialect names: "Zwiwwelkuche" in Pfälzisch,* "Zwiwwlwähe" and "Zwiebelwäje" in the Alemannic German dialects of Switzerland,** but "Zwiwwelkuech" in the Alemannic German  dialect of Alsace, "Zwiwlwähe" in Swabian Alemannic dialect (very generally the Stuttgart area), and in the Frankish dialect of the Nuremberg area it is known as "Zwiebelplootz," and there are likely more regional names. Just as there are a number of names for this dish, so are there some variations in recipes, with some people using yeast risen dough, like bread or pizza dough, and others using a "short crust" pie dough (in German: Mürbeteig), and still others using store bought puff pastry. I have used both pie dough and bread dough when I've made this, and for this article I used pie dough. I've seen it mentioned by some that originally bread dough was used. Some bake the dish on square baking sheets, while others use round cake or pie pans. Some people add some shredded Swiss cheese ("Emmentaler") or Gruyère to the top.

"Zwiebelkuchen," a type of quiche (see Word History, below), has long been associated with the fall (autumn) time of the year, when "new wine" (German: "neuer Wein"); that is, not totally fermented wine, is sold in many wine bars and restaurants in wine producing areas. As with so many food products and recipes in German areas, there are a number of regional names for "new wine;" hey, you didn't think the Germans would make this easy, did you? One of the common names is "Federweißer," literally, "feather white," but why this term is used is not really understood; although perhaps because of young birds having white or off white feathers? The wine is murky; thus, not really the clear light color of white wine after it matures. Believe me though, there are several other terms used for new wine. Now you don't have to just make this tart in the fall of the year, although you may be penalized by Germans for breaking with tradition by being forced to repeatedly attempt to pronounce  the word "Streichholzschächtelchen" until you get it right. ***

To save yourself time and work, use store bought pie crust, frozen puff pastry or pizza dough. In times now "generally" past, lard was often used in the preparation of "Zwiebelkuchen," in both the dough and in the filling, but many now replace the lard with butter or oil. The recipe here is just a sort of guideline, as the quantity of ingredients will depend upon the dish you use to make "Zwiebelkuchen." I used a 10 inch pie dish (Pyrex/glass). 

Ingredients:

pie dough or puff pastry
2 tablespoons butter (divided use, or you can substitute olive oil) 
2 baseball size onions, chopped
1/2 pound thick sliced bacon, chopped or diced)
1 teaspoon caraway seeds
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup heavy cream (or you can substitute reduced fat sour cream)
1/2 cup evaporated milk (canned milk)
1/4 cup dry white wine
3 eggs
2/3 teaspoon black pepper
(optional) 1/2 teaspoon salt 
(optional for garnish) chopped green onions (scallions)

Heat oven to 400 F. Use 1 tablespoon butter (or olive oil) to grease the pan or baking sheet you will use. Then line the pan with dough. In a skillet over medium heat, melt the butter (or you can use 1 tablespoon oil) and add the bacon. Cook the bacon until much of the fat is rendered, but remember, the bacon will be baked, so you don't want to cook it too much in the skillet. Remove the bacon to some paper towels, then pour off all but about 2 tablespoons of the melted bacon fat from the skillet. Add the onions and cook over low heat until the mass of onions starts to cook down, then add the wine, caraway seed and nutmeg, and stir to mix well. Cook until the onions are softened and remove from the heat. Then if using pie dough, let the onions cool down just a little. Put the onions into the dough lined dish and spread them out evenly. Sprinkle the bacon pieces over the onions. Put the dish into the oven and let it bake until the edge of the dough "begins" to set. While that is going on, mix together the cream, milk, eggs, black pepper and salt too, if using (mix well). Remove the dish from the oven and pour the cream mixture over the onions and bacon. Try to get it over all parts of the dish. Put dish back into the oven and bake until the top is well set and a little browned (the one I made for this article took about 25 minutes). Remove from the oven and let cool for just a little time before slicing. Serve it warm, or it can also be served chilled. I like it with some fresh chopped scallions on top and many Germans serve it that way, too. 

* "Pfälzisch" (=Palatinate dialect, spoken in the Palatinate and in the Rhineland-Palatinate) is a dialect of German derived from Frankish, as are the nearby German dialects Hessisch (Hessian), Lothringisch (Lorraine German) and "Lëtzebuergesch" (Luxembourgish). Other German dialects are also derived from forms of Frankish, as is Dutch, the language of the Netherlands, and the Dutch dialect of Flemish, spoken by about 60% of the population of Belgium.

** The Alemannic German dialects are spoken in southwestern Germany, Switzerland, Alsace, Liechtenstein and far western Austria.   

*** While all languages have compound words, German is famous (infamous?) for compounding compounds into gigantic words that send fear into the hearts of those seeing or hearing them. They really are not as fearsome as they appear, as you just need to break them down. "Streichholzschächtelchen" means, "little matchbox," from the verb "streichen" (close relative of the  English verb "(to) strike," and with the same meaning in German), the noun "Holz" (close relative of generally now antiquated English "holt," meaning "forest, woods, timberland," which in German simply came to mean "wood," the material from trees), the noun "Schachtel," a word borrowed by German from Italian with alterations in Austro-Bavarian German dialect, and meaning "box," and the suffix "-chen," a diminutive, which means it makes a word's meaning seem "smaller" or "endearing" (a close relative of English forms -kin, -ken, -chen). So if Germans try to penalize you by making you try to pronounce "Streichholzschächtelchen," you needn't panic, it's like, "strike-hills-shuttle-chin"... ah, "stripe-held-snipple-chen" ... ah, "stray-help-shacktel-chun," ah... oh the hell with it! You're in trouble!

WORD HISTORY:
Quiche-This word is related to "cake." It goes back to Indo European "ghag/ghog," which simply had the notion of "a spherical object, a clump." Its Old Germanic offspring was "kokon," which by then meant "clump, or small round loaf of bread." It was not until the 1400s and 1500s that "cake" was more commonly used for the sweetened form of bread we think of today. The Germanic form gave Old High German "kuohho," which seems to have meant, "round bread loaf, clump of cooked mush." This then became "kuoche," before the modern German form "Kuchen" (meaning "cake") which was "Küeche/Küche" in "Lothringisch" dialect (Lorraine Frankish German dialect). This was borrowed by French in about 1800 (?) as "quiche," and English borrowed the word in the mid 1900s.^

^ For "cake," the English relative of "quiche" and of German "Kuchen," this is the link to the article with that "Word History": http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2012/09/its-none-of-your-pancake-business.html 

Berlin Style Liver (Leber Nach Berliner Art)

This is a pretty well known dish from Berlin, although it is certainly served outside of Berlin, just as Wiener Schnitzel is served outside of Vienna (Wien in German). It is usually made with calves liver, but you can use beef or pork liver and Bismarck's ghost won't get you with his spiked helmet.

"Yeeeooow! What the hell? Medic! I'll have to finish typing this while I'm standing up."

Anyway, it is not uncommon to find Berlin style liver in German-American restaurants. In Berlin it is commonly served with mashed potatoes, but you can serve whatever you like and Bismarck's ghost ... well, never mind about Bismarck's ghost. I'm not going through that again.

Ingredients (about 4 servings):

1 1/2 pounds liver, sliced, but not too thickly
2 baseball size onions, peeled and sliced into 1/3 inch rounds (you can use white, yellow or red onions)
2 apples (like red delicious or golden delicious), typically peeled, but I leave the skin on, cored then cut into round slices 1/3 to 1/2 inch thick
4 or 5 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 teaspoon ground white or black pepper
butter/canola oil mix (about 3 or 4 tablespoons butter and the same amount of oil)

Heat 2 tablespoons each of butter and oil in a skillet over low heat. Dust the liver slices with flour and set aside. Add the onion slices to the pan and saute until lightly browned (the slices will naturally come apart). Remove the onions to a dish and keep them warm. Add the apple slices to the pan and cook until they too are somewhat browned, remove and keep warm. Add more butter and oil to the skillet, then add the liver slices. Brown on both sides and cook until they are just cooked through. Season the cooked liver with salt and pepper after removing it from the heat. Serve with mashed potatoes and with some onion and apple rings next to the liver.

WORD HISTORY:
Stroll-The history of this word is a bit uncertain, although it looks pretty logical to me. It was borrowed by English in the very early 1600s from German, which had "Strolch," a word from Alemannic German dialect^ which meant, "a vagabond, a rogue, a mischievous boy." This seems to have developed from Alemannic dialect "strollen," which meant, "to wander around aimlessly" (Alemannic also had the noun "Stroll," meaning "vagabond"). While not a complete certainty, these German forms seem to have developed as an abbreviated form of Italian "astrologo," which meant "astrologer, stargazer;" thus also, "interpreter of the stars and their relationship to events, a prophet," and which passed into Lombardic, the language of the Germanic Lombards who settled in northern Italy (the region of Lombardia is named for them), as "strolegh," which then became "strolago," and meant, "vagabond, traveling entertainer who uses tricks to deceive his audience." This seems to have passed into Alemannic in the 1400s from Swiss (German) and Swabian mercenary soldiers serving in northern Italy.

^  Alemannic is a group of German dialects tracing back to the Germanic tribe the Alemanni. Alemannic is pretty much concentrated in the southwestern area of the German-speaking area and includes Switzerland, extreme western Austria, Liechtenstein, Alsace in eastern France and southwestern Germany, including a part of Bavaria. Alemannic is the general name for the dialect, but it breaks down further into numerous regional and local dialects. Not all Alemannic speakers can necessarily understand one another.

Basel Flour Soup (Basler Mehlsuppe)

Basel is located in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, right in the area of the border across from Germany and also Alsace, in France. The general German dialect in the entire region, in all three countries, is Alemannic, with Basel residents speaking the "Baseldeutsch" (Basel German) variety of Alemannic. This simple soup, perhaps the signature dish of the city of Basel, especially during "Fasnacht," a term used in some other German areas, alongside "Fasching" and "Fastnacht," but which is known in other parts of Europe and the world as "Carneval" (some areas spell it "Carnaval," "Carnival," or, "Karneval"), but which is known to Americans as "Mardi Gras," held in New Orleans. Cologne, Germany and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil are also famous for their Lenten celebrations.

Ingredients:

5 tablespoons flour
5 tablespoons butter
6 cups beef stock
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon black pepper
salt to taste (and dependent upon how much salt is in the beef stock)
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 tablespoon marjoram
1/2 cup toasted croutons
a second small onion, cut into rings, then dredged in flour
butter or canola oil (or mixed) for frying the onion rings
1/4 cup shredded Emmentaler cheese (Swiss cheese)

In a heavy bottomed pan over medium heat, melt the butter and stir in the flour. Keep stirring until the mixture becomes browned. Gradually add the beef broth, stirring to prevent lumps. Add the onion, cloves, salt and pepper, stir to mix well. Keep soup at a gentle simmer for about 25 minutes. Add the marjoram. Let soup gently simmer another 10 minutes. Meanwhile, fry the flour coated onion rings until browned. If you make your own croutons, also prepare them. Serve each bowl of soup with some shredded cheese added, then top with some croutons and a few onion rings.

WORD HISTORY:
Carnival-This word, originally only meaning, "celebration before Lent," is a compound, the first part of which, "carni," is distantly related to "shear" and to "share." This goes back to Indo European "sker," which meant, "to cut." This gave Latin "caro," meaning, "something cut off;" thus, "meat, flesh of fruits and vegetables." The second part of the word, distantly related to "light;" that is, "not heavy," goes back to Indo European "legwh," which had the notion, "light in weight." This gave Latin "levis," with the same meaning. This then produced the verb, "levare," with the meaning, "to lift up, to raise," from the idea of "not heavy," but the word also took on a number of figurative meanings, including, "remove, take away." Together the words produced the expression, "carnem levare," which meant, "take away meat." This was contracted into Italian "carnevale," with the "festival before Lent" meaning, and this passed into French as, "carnaval." English borrowed the word in the first half of the 1500s, but it wasn't until the 1920s or 1930s, that American English expanded beyond the traditional meaning to many different kinds of similar festivities, regardless of the time of year. German borrowed the word directly from Italian, but with the spelling, "Karneval."