Königsberger Klopse

This dish is originated in east prussia (the eastern part of the German Empire before WWII) and it's named after Königsberg, a town which is now part of russia and named Kaliningrad, but it's a common staple all over germany. The klopse are normaly made of ground veal, stale bread, onions and anchovies. That's a lot of cruelty inside of these meatballs but I took the recipe for chickpea cutlets as an inspiration and created a recipe without anything related to small disgusting smelling fish or cute baby cows. The meatballs are simmered in a mixture of vegetable broth,white wine, an onion and some spices. After cooking the meatballs are removed from the broth and the broth is thickened with a "Mehlschwitze" (magarine and flour) and enriched with lovely, vinegary capers. Then the meatballs are going back into the enriched sauce and are served with simple cooked potatoes or plain rice. The combination of the soft meatballs, the rich sauce and the strong flavoures of the capers is just outstanding. It's such a perfect combination, that this dish even made me like capers when I was a young boy.

Königsberger Klopse

Ingredients:

For the meatballs:

1/2 cup of mashed chickpeas

1/2 cup of mashed firm tofu

1/4 cup of fine breadcrumbs

1/4 cup of chickpeaflour

1/2 cup of glutenflour

1/2 cup of nooch

2 tbs of vegetablestock powder

2 tbs of olive oil

1/2 medium siced onion, finely chopped

salt and pepper for seasoning and maybe a little bit of light soysauce or vegemite if you want it to be really hearty

For the cooking liquid:

1/2 a pot of vegetablestock mixed with two glasses of white wine

1 medium siced onion, pealed and spotted with 6 - 8 cloves

2- 4 bayleaves

4 allspices berries

4 juniper berries

6-8 whole peppercorns

For the sauce:

1/2 cup of capers pickeld in vinegar ( not the dry and salted ones)

1/3 cup of magarine

aprox. 1/4 cup of wheat flour

salt and pepper for seasoning



1. Mix all the ingredients for the meatballs until you've got a thick dough and mix in the gluten flour.

2. Make little, plum siced balls.

3. Bring the stock to a boil with all the other cooking liquids ingrendients, lower the heat to a temperature between low and medium. The luquid has to simmer slowly all the time. You have to avoid a rolling boil because it could make your lovely little meatballs fall apart and you'll end up with a soggy mix of mashed fake meat and stock.

4. Add the meatballs and cook them for about 1 hour to 1 1/2.(Try one of them after one hour...).

5. When completly done, drain the meatballs into a colander and save the remaining cooking liquid.

6. Heat your stockpot again and add the magarine. Wait until it has melted. Make a roux with the flour and some of the cooking liquid.
Season with salt, pepper and capers, add the meatballs and serve with cooked potaotes or rice. Some people seam to like pickeld beet roots with this dish but this is quiet unknow to me, maybe I've got to try it.