times
of want and times of plenty
by
Monika Kramer Copeland
Not everyone has the
fortune of having a professional chef for a mom. Not every such mom came
from a line of naturally talented cooks, women in villages whose gifts
were called upon for family occasions or regional feasts in the part of
Saxony, Germany that borders on the former Czechoslovakia. This was before
the age of catering and those ladies cooked without recipes, but with
savvy palates, and their skills guaranteed savory, delicious fare. They
did without electric kitchen appliances, there were no business cards,
but they enjoyed renown and popularity beyond their villages. Their talents
made dishes, such as sautéed red cabbage,
into tradition.
My mother trained
for the profession of chef. She started as an apprentice, being taught
thoroughly and precisely with excellence the goal. She worked in hotels
and restaurants, even spent two summers as chef on a vacation riverboat
touring the Elbe between Dresden and Czechoslovakia. She fortified her
passengers for a day of hiking in the mountains with the most
potent beef broth ever.After WW II, there
was more hunger than food, especially in the Soviet-occupied zone where
we lived. Mom created innovative dishes, all made with potatoes, and with
hardly anything else but herbs from the lifesaving garden. She would cook
potato patties, then marinate the patties in a mixture of vinegar, onion,
salt, and if we had it - pepper, and if we had it - oil. After marinating,
the patties would taste like sour herring. She made 'fake whipping cream'
from a flour and water paste, cooked, cooled, and beaten by hand beyond
the endurance of the hand. In the end it was so full of air and so velvety
that with a little sugar and almond flavoring, it tasted like a cream
dessert.After we escaped to
the American zone, my mom's talents were no longer handicapped by food
shortages. A great favorite of hers and mine is leg
of lamb marinated in buttermilk. Her basic approach to everything
culinary is that there must be harmony in the seasoning.
ABOUT
MONIKA: Monika is a painter and a writer. A woman of the theater,
her passion has been to see the works of Shakespeare produced. Try her
mother's authentic German recipes.
previous mother top
of page next mother
contact us membership agreement
©Monika Kramer Copeland
2001
©
