Prime boiled beef with dumplings and apple beans

Preparing the gravy:
Brown walnut-sized pieces of beef bones in a little oil. Add chopped carrots, celery root, onions and a little tomato paste and continue browning. Sprinkle with flour and add wine. Cook until thick, then add water or stock and simmer for 5-6 hours, topping up occasionally with liquid. Remove fat and pour through a sieve.

To this sauce add a little of the stock in which the prime beef or Tafelspitz was cooked. Add finely diced pumpernickel and bring to a boil. Season with salt and add a little starch to thicken until the gravy has the desired consistency.

Tafelspitz:
Remove fat and tendons from the meat and bring to a boil in enough water to cover. Add diced celery root, carrots, onions, bay leaves and allspice. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer lightly for 5-6 hours (depending on the size of the beef).
One hour before it is ready add finely sliced leeks.

Apple Beans
Soak white beans in water overnight. Boil for 30 minutes in salt water. Top and tail some fresh green beans, blanch them in boiling water and put them in ice water. Cut up an apple. Melt some butter in a pan, heat the beans in the butter, add the apple and season with salt, pepper and savory.

Potato Dumplings:

Preparing the dumpling dough:
Boil peeled potatoes in salt water. Put them through a potato press (or mash them coarsely) and add salt, an egg, nutmeg and starch. Let stand for 20 minutes.
Shape the dumpling dough into small balls. With your finger poke a hole into the middle of each dumpling, insert a roasted bread crouton and close up the hole. Take care not to get any water into the dumpling, or it will burst when it is heated. Put the dumplings into boiling, salted water in an uncovered pot. Turn down the heat and simmer for 20 minutes. The dumplings are ready when they come up to the surface of the water.

Michael Lettau and euromaxx wish you "Guten Appetit!"