(my mother's Liptauer cheese spread)
As a young boy I was fortunate to have a mother who cooked traditional Austrian meals on a daily basis. It was natural for her to bring to the table what she had learned from her mother and the food and traditions on which she was raised. Needless to say all foods were locally sourced, some of it a stoneks throw from where I was raised. I remember walking to my grandmother’s farm-house quite often - it was a large estate, two stories high. My grandmother wasn’t herself into farming and agriculture she just owned the house and the surrounding land. The first floor of the farm and stable of the house was rented out to an operating farmer who raised oinking piggies, brown flecked cows, proud chickens and a whole family of dogs and cats. My oma (grandmother in Austrian) always had an abundance of edible goodies from the farm ready to be enjoyed. As I grew older I realized that this plentifulness of food from the farm was no coincidence, it was actually a part of the lease terms to have an unlimited supply of milk from the cows downstairs which was sweet as vanilla cream. The orchard supplied fragrant apples, aromatic pears, fleshy plums, soft skinned apricots and we relished a variety of tender lettuces and crunchy radishes from the farm’s garden. The agreement even included schnapps which was distilled on premises from the various gifts of the orchard - a hobby of the farmer.
(Heurige cheese & apples "everything from this years harvest")
This season's wine and food
Lease agreements where certainly different back in the day compared to these days. Recently I have been involved in a few of them in my own life. I guess it triggered old memories so much that we want to revitalize some of those traditions in our restaurant. In Austria there is one word which describes a restaurant which sources its ingredients from the immediate area and often produces everything themselves in a fashion similar to a farm. It's called a “Heurige” which essentially means everything edible and drinkable comes from the most recent harvest such as wines, beers summer sausages, cured hams, pickled vegetable. I remember eating saibling which is from the rainbow trout family, and smoked carp looking over the picturesque Danube river in one of those Heurigen on our most recent visit to Vienna. It was accompanied by a green and zingy, fresh Grüner Veltliner wine (an Austrian grape) from the most recent harvest which was a perfect match.
The following recipe is my mother’s it did not need any revisions and will go right on the menu.
(house-pickled market fresh vegetables - perfect for snacking in the wine tavern)
Liptauer Cheese Spread
(enough cheese dip for a party of four person)
4 ounces butter
4 ounces farmers cheese
4 ounces cream cheese
1 glove garlic
1 shallot
1 large pickle
1 tablespoon capers,
1 tablespoon flat leaf parsley
1 teaspoons sea salt such as Baline
1/8 teaspoon cayenne
2 tablespoons Hungarian-style paprika powder
1. Soften butter at room temperature (let butter sit for 15 minutes at room temperature).
2. In a electric kitchen blender whip butter (4-5 minutes) with paddle attachment then add topfen, cream cheese and cooked garlic continue to whip mixture (4-5 minutes).
3. Peel and cut shallot, garlic (1/8-inch dice), dice pickles (1/8-inch dice), chop capers finely and cut parley (1/8-inch wide). Bring a pot filled with water (2 cups) to boil then cook onions and pickles for one minute then poor into a strainer and let cool.
4. Combine spices, cooked/cooled vegetables and parsley with butter mixture and mix to combine (1-2 minutes)
Chef’s note: the farmer’s cheese used in this recipe is called topfen - I get it from the farmer’s market. In Austria a cheese dip is eaten with thin slices of dark fragrant rye bread.
