Pork Soup, Venison Roast and Smoked Beef Jerky: German Meals from the 1000 Things List

Ivan was home for Father’s day and so was Elena so I planned a few days of 1000 things food.  The first round was Frankischer Grunkern which is a vegetable/pork stew using a type of wheat found in Germany called Grunkern which

It is a green spelt and has a very earthy taste.  The veggies included celery, onions, carrots, parsnips and leeks.  The batch I made have very little pork but the broth with all of the veggies was really flavorful.  Grunkern is available Bob’s Red Mill off of amazon.  It has fewer calories and more vitamins that most grains… 

Next round was lunch. We ate three of the 1000 things starting with Easter egg radishes. These are really colorful-red, white and pink but taste like radishes.  Germans eat them dipping them into salt and are often served with beer.  We had Gurkensalat which means cucumber salad. The German’s eat it two ways-most commonly with sour cream and red onion but can be served thinly sliced with just vinegar.  I also served them German black bread with mustard and Bundnerfleisch with is sort of like a thinly sliced, smoked beef Jerky. 

Finally, I made Rehrucken Baden-Baden. This is a really common dish from the region where I lived in Freiburg.  It was a venison roast that is served with apples, grapes and juniper.  On the whole, the dishes were hits-I love the sauce of the Rehrucken and would love to make it again with beef.  The pork stew was also a fun one to make.