Vegetable Pancakes with pear sauce (Gemüsepuffer mit Birnenmus)

Recipe for Vegetable Pancakes with pear sauce (Gemüsepuffer mit Birnenmus)

Living in Germany has given me a different perspective on food. The cuisine is very different from Indian cuisine. The food is made with minimal spices and ingredient combinations and is yet sumptuous and delicious. One of the most common german foods that I have tasted is the Kartoffelpuffer, which is a potato pancake, usually served with a fruit sauce called mus( like apple sauce or pear sauce).

Today I am sharing a recipe for Gemüsepuffer (vegetable pancake), slightly different from Kartoffelpuffer ( potato pancake) but equally delicious and satisfying. It takes some time to make, but the recipe is easy to follow. In my home, I usually make it on the weekend, when I have enough time to spend in the kitchen and when everyone expects something different from the usual everyday breakfast.

So, here goes the recipe. Let’s start with the Ingredients:

Ingredients for making Vegetable Pancakes:

For the Pancake (Puffer in German):

• Potatoes: 500gm
• Carrots: 200 gm
• Onion: 1 big
• Ghee: for frying ( for my readers in Germany, if you don’t have ghee, use Butterschmalz)
• Salt: According to taste
• Milk: About 1/4 cup
• Butter: 1 tablespoon
• Pepper: 1/2 teaspoon
• Nutmeg Powder: 1/4 teaspoon
• Eggs: 4
• Refined Flour (I used Typ 450): 6 tablespoons

For the fruit sauce( Mus in German):

• Ripe pears: 4 ( you can even use canned ones if the fruit is not in season)
• Lemon juice: 4 tablespoons
• Cloves: 4
• Vanilla sugar: 1 packet, 10 gm ( here, if you don’t have vanilla sugar, take 2 teaspoons of sugar and a few drops of vanilla essence)

In addition

• Whipping cream ( if you don’t have whipping cream, fresh cream will also do)

Recipe for Vegetable Pancakes:

1. Take ghee in a pan, and fry onions. When the onions are translucent, add chopped carrots. Add salt, close the lid and cook for 5 minutes.
   
   
   
2. Then add the boiled and chopped potatoes. Fry a bit. Then add milk, butter, and nutmeg powder and pepper. Close the lid and cook for 5-7 minutes.
   
   
   
3. Then take it out from the heat, roughly mash it and let it cool a bit. Then add eggs and flour and combine well.
   
   
   
4. Now, take a tablespoon and scoop out portions and fry them on a non-stick pan. Add butter to fry them. Fry till they are golden brown.
   
   
   
5. When you are on the 1st step of making the pancakes, you can make the sauce too at the same time. I say this because the sauce needs to cool a bit for serving. The sauce takes less preparation time. So, the sauce would have cooled by the time you finish making the pancakes. For the sauce, chop the fruit.
   
   
   
6. Add the chopped fruit, lemon juice, cloves, and vanilla sugar to a pan. Cover and cook for 10 minutes. Mash roughly with the back of the spoon. Then remove it and let it cool.
   
   
   Note that you can even buy ready-made sauce from the supermarket. My readers in Germany: Please my article to understand more. The product is called Birnenmus.
   
7. Now with the pancakes and the sauce ready, we are ready to assemble. Take your serving plate. Keep one pancake. Then put some sauce. Then add another pancake, followed by some sauce. Many a pile with 3 pancakes like this. Then top it with some more sauce, followed by whipping cream, and serve.
   
   
   
   

The pancakes are ready!

Some notes for my readers in Germany:

Here is the ingredient list in German and tips for buying these:

• Potatoes: Kartoffeln
• Carrots: Möhren
• Onion: Zwiebeln
• Ghee: Butterschmalz
• Salt: Salz
• Milk: Milch
• Butter: Butter (use ungesalzen i.e unsalted)
• Pepper powder : Pfeffer pulver
• Nutmeg Powder: Muskatnuss pulver
• Eggs: Eier ( Read my article to choose the right eggs)
• Refined Flour: Mehl ( use Type 450)
• Ripe pears: Birnen (Buy fresh or canned. I used canned pears for this recipe).
  
• Lemon juice: Zitronensaft (You can get this ready-made, Or just take 2 fresh lemons and squeeze out the juice)
• Cloves: Nelke
• Vanilla sugar: Vanillinzucker (It comes in small sachets like this)
  
• Whipping cream: Schlagsahne

Some notes for my readers in India:

You can get most of these ingredients easily in India. However, here I would mention that if you don’t get pears, you can replace them with apples. If you cont get Vanilla Sugar, replace it with 2 teaspoons of sugar and a few drops of vanilla essence.

Try out this recipe and let me know how it came out for you.

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