Welcome to Oktoberfest
Harvest festivals have been popular in all cultures, but Germans show a special exuberance in their annual Octoberfest. The famous 2-week festival brings more than 3.5 million people to Munich each fall for celebrations with German food, large steins of beer and various forms of entertainment for all ages. Oktoberfest originated as a glorious wedding celebration in 1810 of Bavarian royalty and has grown through the years into a harvest festival not only in Munich but even in Gardiner ME as the “Swine and Stein Brewfest”.
As the title of the Gardiner event states plainly – pork, sausages and beer are the main food attractions; though dumplings, pretzels and varieties of cabbage and apple dishes are also popular. After languorous summer meals filled with salads, the crisp days of October entice us to a more substantial fare, and one might celebrate with such dishes for the entire month of October.
Pork chops in mustard sauce
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Core and cut 2 small crisp apples; one in half and the other in thin wedges. Cover with a whet paper towel to prevent discoloration.
Salt and pepper 2 bone-in-rib pork chops 1 inch thick. Heat 1 tbsp. bacon fat in an oven proof pan to smoking, cook the chops on one side for 3 minutes and set aside. To the remaining fat in the pan add the halved apple cut side down and cook for 2 minutes. Then add the apple slices and 1 small, sliced onion and continue to cook for another 3-5 minutes until the vegetables soften. Stir in 2 tsp. flour to mix, then stir in ¾ cups water, 2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar, 1 ½ tbsp. Dijon mustard and ½ tsp. dried sage. Cook all to thicken. Return the pork chops to the pan wedging them in between the apples. Place pan in preheated oven and bake for 10-15 minutes for 1-inch chops, reduce time for thinner porkchops. Serve with new potatoes and red cabbage cooked with wine (Weinkraut).
Red Weinkraut
Fry 2 thick slices of bacon in a 10-inch skillet with deep sides, crumble and set aside. Reheat the bacon fat to hot but not smoking and stir in about 6 cups thinly sliced red cabbage and 1 medium red onion, sliced thin. Cook with occasional stirring 6-8 minutes. Stir in 2 small unpeeled cored apples, thinly sliced, 1 tsp. salt, ½ tsp. lemon pepper, 2 tsp sugar, ½ cup red wine and 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar. Cook stirring occasionally until all the liquid is absorbed. Serve warm with crumbled bacon on top.
Apple crunch with cranberries
Spray an 8x8x2 inch baking dish with buttery baking spray and preheat oven to 375 degrees. For the topping: in a small bowl mix 1/3 cup flour with ¾ cups light brown sugar, ½ tsp. cinnamon and ¼ tsp. nutmeg. With a pastry cutter or 2 knives cut in 1/3 cup cold unsalted butter to make a crumbly mixture. Stir in ¼ cup Grapenuts cereal.
Pare 4-6 medium apples, quarter, core and slice thinly in the baking dish, scattering ¼ cup dried cranberries among the apples. Dot with 1 tbsp. butter. (If cranberries are very dry, soak in hot water for 5 minutes and drain.) Sprinkle crumble over the top evenly and bake for 30 minutes until the top is browned and the apples are soft.
In Munich the Oktoberfest feeling is kept throughout the year for the benefit of tourists and locals in several Biergartens near Theresienwiese, the center of the fall celebrations. I fondly remember being there one summer with a beer stein in hand, filled with light lager, chanting with others in the Bavarian dialect: “Oans, zwoa, drei, g’suffa!” (one, two, three…drink), as we raised steins in unison on “g’suffa”.
(I. Winicov Harrington lives in coastal Maine and is the author of “How to Eat Healthy and Well for Less than $5.00 a Day:” and “Uncharted Journey from Riga”; website: www.winicov-harrington.com)
