Fortunately for us, Karin Kaufman is very keen to pass on her knowledge. Ten years ago she founded her cooking school “Frau Kaufmann” in the erstwhile Gasthaus Engel Inn in Egg. Anyone who has been cooking non-stop for over 30 years and speaks of “concentrated relaxation” rather than work, must be perfectly suited to the kitchen!
“I take incredible pleasure in communicating, whether it’s recipes, the culinary network of producers and suppliers, or information about natural products that grow on our doorstep,” says Kaufmann. During her extraordinary cooking sessions, motivated connoisseurs (from business managers to inquisitive housewives) learn to wield a cooking spoon. “Many lack the basics of cooking, while others are looking for social variety or culinary inspiration. Along with regional ingredients, these people are the main protagonists at the cooking school. Best of all, shared experience makes everything more enjoyable!”
Hundreds of sold-out cooking sessions later, her recipes and product tips are so popular (within Austria and beyond) that she now has her own product line for spice and baking mixes, vinegars, oils and homemade products (since 2016). As of last year, she also has her very own cookbook. “Feedback has always been extremely positive. Most of the questions concern quantities, possible applications and recipes.” In order to be able to offer cooking support to people at home as well, her next steps as cook were obvious. After the flood of cookbooks in recent years, Kaufmann wanted to ensure that her contribution was more just a string of recipes. “We factored in a good deal of inspiration, motivation, guidance, product knowledge and personality.” The success of her book thus far has proven her instincts correct: After the first editions of her popular book sold out, she is even considering an English translation.
Recipe
Beef roulade with potato pancakes and Brussels sprouts by Karin Kaufmann
6 – 8 servings:
- 8 beef escalopes
- Salt, pepper from the pepper grinder, mustard
- 8 slices of mild bacon (belly cut)
- 100 g carrot, cut into sticks
- 100 g celeriac, cut into sticks
- 4 tablespoons of clarified butter
- 250 g root vegetables (onion, carrots, celery and leek), coarsely diced
- 3 tablespoons flour for dusting
- 800 ml vegetable stock
Butter, kneaded into flour (to thicken as required)
For the side dishes:
- 1 kg waxy potatoes cooked in their skins, cooled
- Salt, clarified butter
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 8 tablespoons coarsely chopped herbs (chives, parsley, lovage, chervil)
- 500 g Brussels sprouts, separated into individual leaves
- 6 tablespoons butter
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped ginger, chilli salt
Beat the beef escalopes flat, season with salt and pepper and cover with a wafer-thin layer of mustard. Cover the escalopes with 1 slice of bacon each in addition to the carrot and celery sticks. Then roll them up and fix them with a roulade needle or toothpick. Put the clarified butter in a hot roasting pan and fry the roulades until brown. Remove the roulades from the roaster. Then roast the root vegetables in the roasting pan as well, dust with flour, and pour on the vegetable stock. Put the beef roulades back into the roasting pan, cover and cook in a preheated oven at 180 degrees with the convection fan on for about 1 hour until soft. Reduce the heat to 80 degrees and let the roulades simmer for another hour. Remove the roulades from the sauce and keep warm. Pour the sauce through a sieve, season it and thicken it if necessary. For the potato casserole, cut the cooled potatoes into coarse slices and salt them.
Fry the potatoes in a hot pan of clarified butter, adding more clarified butter again and again. Fry, flip and repeat. After about 15 minutes, add the onion and fry together. “Roughly” mash the potatoes with a potato masher. Add the herbs. Blanch the Brussels sprouts leaves briefly in salted water, then drain and rinse in ice water. In a frying pan, foam the butter with the ginger, briefly heat the Brussels sprouts leaves in it, season with chilli salt. Serve with the beef and potato mash.
