Heaven and Ääd met Blootwoosch

Ingredients for 2 servings:

• 3 large onions
• 2 tbsp butter
• 100 ml wine, white, dry
• salt and pepper
• Paprika powder, sweet
• 3 apples (aromatic / sour, e.g. Boskoop or Braeburn)
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 1 pinch of cinnamon
• ½ lemon(s), the juice
• 600 g potatoes (floury)
• 200 ml milk (warm)
• 2 tbsp butter
• salt and pepper
• nutmeg
• 300 g black pudding
• 2 tbsp flour
• 50 ml vegetable oil
• stalks of parsley

Instructions

Working time approx. 30 minutes; Total time approx. 30 minutes

Cologne cuisine

PREPARATION OF THE BREWED ONIONS: Peel the onions, halve them, and slice the halves into thin rings. Heat the butter in a pan. Add the onions to the hot butter and fry for a few minutes. Then deglaze with the white wine and reduce the heat to slightly below medium. Season with salt, pepper, and paprika and simmer gently. PREPARATION OF THE APPLE COMPOTE: Peel the apples, remove the cores, and dice them. Place them in a saucepan, drizzle with lemon juice, and mix with the sugar and cinnamon. Place the pan on the stove over medium heat and simmer the compote for about 15 minutes. (If you don’t like your compote chunky, you can mash it with a potato masher to make applesauce.) PREPARATION OF THE MASHED POTATOES: Peel the potatoes, rinse them briefly, and divide them again if necessary. Bring to a boil in salted water and cook for about 20-25 minutes, until the potatoes are very soft. Drain and let them steam briefly in the pot. Mash with a potato masher or ricer. Add butter and milk and mash until creamy. Season with salt and nutmeg to taste. PREPARATION OF THE FRIED BLACK PUDDING: Cut the black pudding into not-too-thin slices. Coat them in flour. Heat the oil in a pan and fry the black pudding. CAUTION: This goes very quickly; fry for no longer than 2-3 minutes on each side—otherwise, the black pudding will lose its consistency and turn into “meat mash.” Arrange the mash, compote, and black pudding on a plate, top with the braised onions, and sprinkle with chopped parsley. Tips for this recipe: 1) In Westphalia, “Heaven and Earth” is usually eaten by mixing mashed potatoes and apple compote. Fried black pudding is also not usually added there. Both versions taste very good. 2) When buying black pudding, make sure you buy sausage that is not only boiled (in Cologne it’s called “Flönz”), but also smoked (in Cologne it’s called “Blootwoosch”). Boiled black pudding falls apart almost instantly when fried, while smoked black pudding holds its shape a little better. 3) Instead of braised onions, fried onions also taste very good with this dish. To do this, fry the onion rings in very hot oil until brown and crispy.