A menu for Oktoberfest

The Porter Beer Bar in Little Five Points, which recently celebrated its third anniversary, doesn’t designate a particular day or week for Oktoberfest. But husband and wife owners Nick Rutherford and Molly Gunn mark the fall season by pouring plenty of Oktoberfest-style beers and putting German dishes on the daily specials menu.

Rutherford and Gunn met when they worked for chef Gunter Seeger at the acclaimed Seeger’s restaurant. Though the now defunct temple of haute cuisine was known for its artistic and exacting tasting menus, homey touches sometimes bubbled up from Seeger’s German heritage, including those diminutive egg dumplings known as spaetzle.

When we asked Rutherford to create an Oktoberfest menu for home cooks, he drew on his experiences at Seeger’s — making a hearty Bavarian-inspired meal of roast chicken, butter and beer-braised cabbage, spaetzle with mushrooms and Gruyere cheese and Black Forest cake.

“I wanted something very German that someone could easily do at home,” Rutherford said. “Spaetzle is one of the harder things, but the chicken and the cabbage are very simple, rustic-style food. You see those half-chickens coming out at Oktoberfest, alongside those big beer steins.”

For her part, Gunn offered the beer pairings, choosing a malty Oktoberfest-style lager to go with the chicken, cabbage and spaetzle, and a rich, dark doppelbock for dessert.

“Oktoberfest is a beer holiday,” Gunn said. “Oktoberfest beers go really well with a lot of different foods, especially rich dishes. A traditional German doppelbock is a bit stronger and sweeter and makes a great dessert beer.”

Recipes

These German-style recipes from Nick Rutherford, chef-owner of the Porter Beer Bar, were inspired by the time Rutherford worked for chef Gunter Seeger at Seeger’s in Atlanta.

Bob Townsend, for the AJC

Simple Roast Chicken

Serves: 4

Hands on: 15 minutes

Total Time: 1 hr 25 minutes

This is an incredibly simple recipe. Trussing helps the chicken cook more evenly and beautifully. And even if you mess it up and overcook the chicken, simply slather on more butter at the end and it will still be delicious.

1 3-to-4 pound chicken

1 teaspoon Kosher salt

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

6 inches cooking twine

1 tablespoon Kosher salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme

2 tablespoons salted butter

To prepare the chicken:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

Sprinkle 1 teaspoon Kosher salt and 1 teaspoon black pepper into the cavity of the chicken. Truss the chicken using the twine. If you have never trussed a bird before, Google “how to truss a chicken” for a plethora of how-to videos.

Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of Kosher Salt and 1 teaspoon black pepper on the outside of the chicken’s skin.

Place the chicken in a sautee or roasting pan and place in the oven.

Roast until crispy and the juices run clear, 50-60 minutes. To see if juices run clear, cut between the leg and breast, or use a thermometer to check the temperature, which should read 165 or higher in the leg or thigh.

To serve:

Toss chopped thyme in the bottom of the pan and mix with juices.

Baste chicken with juices.

Remove chicken from pan and allow to rest for 15 minutes on a cutting board.

Remove twine, slather with butter, carve and serve with Oktoberfest-style lager.

Per serving: 294 calories (percent of calories from fat, 51), 35 grams protein, trace carbohydrates, trace fiber, 16 grams fat (9 grams saturated), 118 milligrams cholesterol, 658 milligrams sodium.

Butter and Beer Braised Cabbage

Serves: 4

Hands on: 30 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

If you hate cabbage, whether because you tried that cabbage soup diet in the 70s, or you hate the sour sock smell of freshly made sauerkraut, this recipe will change your mind.

1 stick salted butter

¼ cup onions, chopped

7 cups green cabbage, coarsely shredded (about ½ a head)

1 tablespoon Kosher salt

½ teaspoon black pepper

¾ cups German Oktoberfest beer or other malty lager

1 ½ teaspoons whole grain mustard

1 tablespoon parsley, chopped

In a large stock pot, melt butter over high heat. Add onions to the pot with butter and cook until translucent. Add the cabbage, salt and pepper. Cook and stir continuously for 3 minutes or until the cabbage has wilted. Add the beer and mustard. Cover the pot and cook on medium heat for 10 minutes. Turn heat back up to high, uncover the pot and cook for another 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until cabbage is tender. Fold in chopped parsley and serve immediately.

Per serving: 261 calories (percent of calories from fat, 81), 2 grams protein, 10 grams carbohydrates, 3 grams fiber, 24 grams fat (14 grams saturated), 62 milligrams cholesterol, 1,696 milligrams sodium

German Spaetzle Dumplings With Mushrooms and Gruyere Cheese

Serves: 4

Hands on: 30 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

This recipe is adapted from the one used at Seeger’s, where the chefs eyeballed the ingredients and rolled the spaetzle dough on a wooden board and dropped it into boiling water. Home cooks may find it easier to press dough through a large-holed sieve.

For the spaetzle:

1 gallon water

2 tablespoons Kosher salt

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons parsley, chopped

½ teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg

½ teaspoon kosher salt

¼ teaspoon black pepper

¼ cup milk

2 eggs

In a large stock pot over high heat, bring 1 gallon of water and 2 tablespoons of Kosher salt to a boil. Meanwhile, in a large mixing bowl, mix together flour, parsley, nutmeg, salt and pepper until evenly distributed. With a whisk, beat milk and eggs into the flour mixture until you have a uniform consistency. Over the pot of boiling water, press the dough through a spaetzle maker or a large holed sieve. When the spaetzle float to the top, remove them from the water with a basket strainer and set aside.

For the mushrooms:

4 tablespoons butter

¼ cup onion, small diced

½ cup cremini mushrooms, cleaned and sliced

½ cup portabella mushrooms, cleaned and sliced

1 tablespoon Kosher salt

1 tablespoon pepper

1 ½ cups grated Gruyere cheese, divided

In a large non-stick sautee pan over high heat, melt the butter. Add onions and cook until translucent. Add mushrooms, salt and pepper to the pan and continue to cook until mushrooms are soft and cooked through, then stir in 1 cup gruyere cheese.

To finish and serve:

Preheat broiler to high.

In a sautee pan, combine spaetzle, mushrooms and cheese. Put the sautée pan over medium heat and cook until spaetzle begin to get a little color. Transfer mixture to an oven proof casserole dish. Cover with ½ cup Gruyere cheese. Broil in oven until golden on top.

Per serving: 435 calories (percent of calories from fat, 55), 20 grams protein, 29 grams carbohydrates, 2 grams fiber, 27 grams fat (16 grams saturated), 177 milligrams cholesterol, 1,058 milligrams sodium

German Black Forest Cake With Luxardo Maraschino Cherries and Kirsch Cream

Serves: 12

Hands on: 45 minutes

Total Time: 90 minutes, including time for cooling

Seeger was originally chef at a tiny Michelin-starred restaurant on the edge of the Black Forest in Germany, which always made me think of the cake when he would tell us stories about it. But I guess it was a forest first.

1 tablespoon butter

1/8 cup all-purpose flour

2 1/8 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups granulated sugar

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

¾ teaspoon baking soda

¾ teaspoon kosher salt

3 eggs

1 cup milk

½ cup vegetable oil

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

2 20oz jars Luxardo or other gourmet maraschino cherries with juice

1 cup granulated sugar

¼ cup corn starch

3 cups heavy cream

1/3 cup powdered sugar

¼ cup kirsch

Preheat Oven to 350 degrees.

For the cake:

Butter and flour 2 nine-inch round cake pans, cover their bottoms with rounds of wax paper, and shake off any excess flour.

In a large bowl combine the rest of the flour (2 1/8 cups) sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt. Stir until completely mixed Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla extract. Beat with a whisk until well blended and uniform in consistency.

Pour batter evenly into the cake pans

Bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool completely, approximately 30 minutes.

Remove from pans.

For the cherries:

Drain the cherries, reserving ½ cup juice.

In a medium saucepan, combine cherries, reserved juice, sugar and corn starch.

Cook over medium heat until thickened, approximately 5 minutes, and allow to cool.

For the kirsch cream:

In a medium bowl, combine whipping cream, powdered sugar

Beat with an electric mixer until soft peaks form, approximately 5 minutes.

Gently fold in kirsch with spatula

To assemble the cake:

With a long serrated knife split each cake layer in half. You should now have four very thin layers of cake. Crumble one layer and set aside. Place one layer on the serving plate and spread the top with 1 cup of frosting and ¾ cup of cherry mixture. Top with second layer of cake. Spread with 1 cup of frosting and ¾ cup of cherry mixture. Top with third layer of cake. Frost the sides of the cake. Gently press reserved cake crumbs into sides of cake. Frost the top of cake. Spoon the rest of the cherry topping onto the top of the cake and serve with German doppelbock.

Per serving: 646 calories (percent of calories from fat, 48), 6 grams protein, 78 grams carbohydrates, 1 gram fiber, 34 grams fat (16 grams saturated), 139 milligrams cholesterol, 319 milligrams sodium.