“An Evening in Austria”? No, it isn’t your routine wine and food experience. In fact Chuck and I have never been to Austria. The only Austrian exposure we have had was tasting a few Gruner Veltiners some years ago at an Austin’s Wine Cellar Austrian/Hungarian wine class. And of course we enjoy Weiner Schnitzel. Other than that, any thoughts of Austria brought to my mind visions of Julie Andrews singing and dancing her way through the Austrian mountains with the Family Von Trapp. That all changed recently when we attended a “Taste of Austria” at Tina’s Cafe and Bakery Vienna in Punta Gorda, Florida. In those few hours Austrian owners Tina and Bernhard Weidinger transported us to an authentic Austrian cafe where they served beautiful and delicious little open faced sandwiches and pastries all paired perfectly with Austrian wine.
Chuck and my wine tasting goal for the past year has been to become more adventurous by tasting wines from countries or regions less familiar to us. We have quite successfully enjoyed Franciacorta sparkling wines from northern Italy, Greek Assrytiko whites from Santorini and Hungarian reds and whites shared with us by fellow winelovers who visited Hungary. Our expectations were not extremely high for Austrian wine, but we went to the Austrian tasting with open minds and taste buds. Were we ever pleasantly surprised! The Austrian whites were excellent and the reds quite drinkable. The Austrian Riesling was really a treat as it is totally different from other Rieslings we have tasted — they are crisp and full bodied. We actually enjoyed it a lot. In fact all the wines we tasted that night made their way home with us to our cellar. And those little open faced sandwiches! They looked so delicious and were ever so tasty. As I commented frequently on my enjoyment throughout the evening to our hosts, Chuck knew what was about to be coming in our future ………..an evening of Austrian wine paired perfectly with typical Austrian foods! And so “An Evening in Austria” was born.
Luckily for us we have a small core of hard core winelover friends who are willing to join us in wine and food adventures. Anita, one of our foodie friends and an extraordinarily talented cook, brought her Austrian cookbook and we developed the menu for the evening. Of course those little open faced sandwiches were a requirement and became our appetizer. 
According to Tina and Bernhard, you will find these sandwiches all across Europe. Many of my actual sandwich ingredients were decided upon researching Duran Sandwiches, a store that features European-style sandwiches in Vienna, Budapest, Czech Republic, Istanbul and New York. European sandwich bread is quite different than the normal fluffy kind of bread traditionally found in our supermarkets, but you can find some very authentic European breads right here in Southwest Florida. I purchased ours from BAM German Bakery and More in Cape Coral, Florida, and used a variety of whole wheat, medium rye, Westphalen, sunflower seed and sourdough. I was also able to purchase Black Forest ham and salami from Geier’s Sausage Kitchen in Sarasota which BAM sells in their deli.
Next up – the salad course. My Austrian research told me there must be some Styrian pumpkinseed oil included somewhere in our dinner. The Styrian pumpkin is also known as the hulless or naked-seeded pumpkin and was developed in the Styria province of Austria. The pumpkin itself grows to about 12 inches and has green stripes. The very unique seeds have a thin coating instead of a shell making the entire seed edible. They are high in oil and can be eaten raw or roasted. They make an absolutely delicious and quite unique oil which is light to very dark green to dark red in color with an intense nutty taste and rich in polyunsaturated fats. Combine it with some balsamic and sherry vinegar, a little canola oil and you have an absolutely delicious vinaigrette with a nutty aroma. 
And delicious it was, served on a salad of roasted pears with goat cheese on a bed of mesclun greens topped with some roasted pumpkin seeds.
On to the soup course. You can’t dine in Austria without some dumplings — in this case semolina dumpling soup or griessnockerlsuppe. I’ve made dumplings through the years and ate many of them thanks to my German & Pennsylvania Dutch heritage, but I had never made semolina dumplings before. Semolina makes perfect little dumplings and with a little practice, they can be beautiful little light golden parsley flecked rounds sitting in a bowl of seasoned beef broth garnished with some fresh chives.
Now for the main fare served buffet style! We decided on some traditional Weiner Schnitzel which is thinly pounded veal scallops in an egg and flour crumb breading, then lightly fried to a crispy golden brown. Delicious with a choice of lemon slices or lingonberry preserves.
Anita’s sausages were perfectly smothered in a bed of seasoned sauerkraut. Our favorite was the Nuernberger weiswurst (white sausages). Several locations for purchasing authentic European sausages are the European Food Market in the Bridge Plaza on McGregor Boulevard in Fort Myers and the German Deli Spot on 41 South (South Tamiami Trail) in Estero, Florida. Oh how delicious was that sauerkraut cooked with apples, caraway seeds and smoked pork butt simmered in some Gruner Veltliner!
No Austrian menu could be complete without some spaetzle! This particular version was similar to an Austrian version of macaroni and cheese – spaetzle topped with Gruyere cheese and caramelized onions and baked until the cheese melted perfectly on top.
Here is a little side note about spaetzle making. It had been many years since I had attempted making spaetzle but it’s basically just some flour, eggs and milk, so how hard can it be? Well it seems it does take a bit of practice. I used a regular colander with large holes for my practice run and found it to be quite tricky maneuvering the colander, spoons, and pouring batter over the top of my hot pot of boiling water. The finished product tasted pretty good, but a little online research came up with a new gadget for my kitchen – a spaetzle maker! Thanks to the wonders of internet ordering, it arrived at my front door (along with authentic Styrian pumpkinseed oil, roasted pumpkin seeds and coffee beans direct from Vienna). This very handy little gadget sits right over the top of your pot, so at least your hands are free to pour the batter, then slide the funnel top to cut the dough, and watch it come out the bottom into a rustic looking doughy “noodle-pasta”. I know you can buy ready prepared spaetzle but that takes all of the fun out of making it!
The dietitian in me said something green needed to be on the plate, and Mariann’s chilled Viennese cucumber gurkensalat rounded out the buffet.
Austria is famous for pastries, cakes and other desserts. Although I love to make desserts and have made many through the years, I started in as a novice Linzer cookie baker. They looked and tasted great, but quite a bit of work for the yield on my recipe – 12 double cookies filled with raspberry preserves and dusted with confectioners sugar.
Next up was Sachertorte, an ultimate Viennese dessert made famous by Franz Sacher in 1832 for Prince Wenzel von Metternich in Vienna, Austria. It seems that December 5 has even been designated as National Sachertorte Day.
The dessert is made of a dense chocolate cake coated with apricot jam, then dark chocolate icing. It is traditionally served with whipped cream. I am sad to report that the recipe I used produced a very dry cake that really needed a l the future. There are so many delicious light and spongy cakes in this world that Sachertorte is not a necessity for me!
What was a necessity was my discovery that Austrian chocolates are some of the best I have ever tasted, and Josef Zotter makes chocolates in Austria that you can buy right here in Southwest Florida. The Zotter Chocolates USA store is located on Pine Island Road in Cape Coral. Zotter is rated among the top chocolate makers in the world and quite possibly the most innovative. Barbara Dolleschal distributes Zotter Chocolates online from her Cape Coral warehouse. You can also visit her display room and see, taste and buy all of those fabulous organic, fair-trade chocolates. The Zotter family produces the chocolates from bean to bar sourcing their chocolate directly from the farmers. The production facility has its own solar power system, and uses organic plastic with no high-gloss coating on the packaging. Zotter also makes chocolate bars with alternative dairy sources such as goat, sheep, rice and soy milks. There are no artificial preservatives used and shelf life varies depending on the type of chocolate. You can read all about Zotter at www.zotterusa.com.
Austrian dessert service can not be complete without a cup of authentic Viennese blend fresh ground coffee, and I had my Helmut Sachers Kaffee beans delivered from Austria by way of a great online source, igourmet.com. I have found them to be a fairly good source of gourmet foods from around the world. Several clicks on my laptop or iphone have saved me many hours of searching. And by all means, serve your Austrian coffee on a silver tray for the full effect!
Did I mention that we paired Austrian wines with our menu? Fourteen of them to be exact! Austria is best known for their white grape varietals; however, there are also a number of really drinkable reds available now. Many of these wines pair well with different foods unlike many whites that “only go with seafood” or reds that “only go with red meats”, so we decided to open all of our wines and line them up on the middle of the table as the table centerpiece. Everyone was able to try both whites and reds with each course. Our unusual centerpiece included white Weissburgunder, Riesling and Gruner Veltliner; a Rose; and red Blaufrankisch, Merlot and Zweigelt. A very special Trockenbeerenauslese TBA 2012 Rosenhof Welschriesling paired perfectly with our dessert buffet, especially Anita’s Austrian Amadeus cows milk mild cheese drizzled with honey. 
So as not to leave out wines from several of Austria’s neighbors, we initiated the evening with a fabulous Kreinbacher Brut Classic Furmint & Chardonnay sparkling from the Somlo region of Hungary. Germany was represented by a red Dornfelder from the Pfalz region of Germany. That brought our wine selections to an amazing total of 17.
You may be aware that there is not a large availability of Austrian wines here in Southwest Florida. After our initial wine purchase from Bernhard at Tina’s Cafe, I discovered the Blue Danube Wine Company located in the San Francisco Bay Area. Blue Danube has quite a large selection of European wines including Austria, Bosnia, Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia, Turkey and Montenegro. Our local Total Wine does have the basic Gruner Veltliner and Zweigelt for those who want to start with the basics. I am sure there are more offerings available in the Naples wine shops if you prefer to shop locally. Several of my winelover friends and myself also utilize the online services of B-21 Fine Wines and Spirits located in Tarpon Springs, Florida.
Sadly our “Evening in Austria” came to a happy ending and so did my months of research and preparation. Now what to do??? After all as a newly retired winelover and foodie I can now choose my own projects, right? I think I hear an Italian adventure calling to me. Fortunately I have several months to devote to it. Stay tuned …………Ciao!
