Heaven and Earth

This doesn't have anything to do with the dreadful God-slot programme with Gloria Hunniford on Sunday morning telly, you'll be relieved to read, but refers back to my last post, in which I mentioned the German Himmel und Erde combination of potatoes and apples. After mein freund Zero from Cologne told me about it, I decided to find a recipe for Martin on-line.

I found several, all of them in German. Fortunately my command of that language is excellent, at least by cat standards. Each recipe was slightly different, so I took what I liked from each. They all used sugar, but I suspected this might be because Germans use very sour apples (there was no mention of variety), and as M only had rather sweet Pink Ladies, I suggested he leave it out. So this is the version he prepared, and it was lovely. This is enough for two or three generous helpings, with leftovers for an apple-flavoured bubble and squeak the following day.

500gms potatoes
500gms apples
half an onion
two or three rashers of streaky bacon or slices of raw ham (smoked Schwarzwald Schinken is great if you can get it)
a splash of cider vinegar or lemon juice
a little bit of lard, salt

Peel, chop and boil the potatoes and apples until soft enough to mash, adding the vinegar or lemon juice and salt to the water. Meanwhile slice the onions and fry slowly in the lard until brown. Slice the bacon or ham and add to the onions in the pan - add the bacon early and cook until crisp, but if you're using ham just heat it through. Drain and mash the potato and apple, return to the pan and replace on the heat, allowing it to bubble away for a few minutes to lose a bit of moisture. Add the onions and bacon or ham, stir through, check seasoning and serve.

You could use a ring mould to get a nice, round serving, and top with a lovely thick slice of good black pudding and a poached egg, and serve it in an elegant restaurant stylee. Or just slap it on the plate and eat something nice and Germanic with it, like cabbage cooked with caraway seeds, and lots of mustard.