Recipe: Moosbee-Nudl

If I had to choose my favourite recipe for the summer, it would definitely be Moosbee-Nudl (similar to blueberry pancakes)!

Before I start telling you this recipe, I should definitely explain to you the definition and generally the term Moosbee-Nudl. Moosbee are wild blueberries, which grow in the forests in summer. The term is created from the two words "Bee" (a dialect word for berry) and "Moos" (moss), because wild blueberries like to grow on forest soil, overgrown with moss. The berries are collected and then there are several different ways to process them to delicious foods. You can make Moosbee-Muas (blueberry sauce), Moosbee-Schmarrn (like Kaiserschmarr'n with blueberries) and Moosbee-Nudl (similar to blueberry pancakes). I tell you how to make Moosbee-Nudl!

 

Before you start

You find wild blueberries in nearly every forest here in Saalfelden Leogang. As mentioned above, they like to grow on forest soil, overgrown with moss and you find them in July and August. First they are ripe here in the valley and at the end of August, you can find them at higher altitutes. The special thing about them: you cannot buy them. You have to go and collect them yourselves. Another challenge is that nobody is going to tell you where the best places are to collect them - same story with the mushrooms. But the result will be worth all the expenses! However, if you collect the wild blueberries at higher altitutes, you have to be carefull, because there is another sort of berry, which looks nearly the same: the Nebelbeere. The Nebelbeere is also blue, but when you mash them, they are white, and not blue-violet. Generally, the berries as well as the mushrooms, you collect in the forests, belong to the person who owns the forest. However, you are allowed to collect them, as long as the owner does not prohibit it (with signs).

Tips for preparation: 

The most important ingredient for this typically Austrian dish is a real good feeling. Unfortunately, I cannot give you exact indications of quantity here, because it is not always the same. You do not need many ingredients: just blueberries, flour, milk, salt, sugar and clarified butter. Take as much flour, so that all the berries are sprinkled with it and as much milk, so that all ingredients mix perfectly. Keep in mind: the milk has to boil, when added to the flour and the berries. If you poured to much milk, you can add a little bit of flour to compensate it. But it's always better to take a little bit less, because otherwise the Moosbee-Nudl taste doughy. Then add a pinch of salt and fry them very slowly in a pan. Regularly turn them. Finally, when you serve them, put some sugar on them. 

Ingredients: 

  • Wild blueberries
  • Flour
  • Milk
  • Salt
  • Sugar
  • Clarified butter

Preparation: 

  1. Add the flour, spoon by spoon to the berries and mix everything. It is enough flour, when all the berries are sprinkled with flour. 
  2. Add a pinch of salt and mix everything.
  3. Heat some milk until it boils and pour it over the berry-flour mix. Then stir The mix should be firm, but there shouldn't be too much dough. You can see it on the pictures. 
  4. Heat the clarified butter in a pan. 
  1. Put small portions of the dough in the pan, and when you see that the dough is firm enough and they don't break, you can reduce the heat. 
  2. Turn them regularly in the pan and be sure to not let them burn. You cannot see it very good, as the Moosbee-Nudl are black, but you definitely smell it. 
  3. Sprinkle the plates with sugar.
  4. Put the Moosbee-Nudl on the sugared plates and sprinkle some sugar on them again. 

Do not worry, if it doesn't work out the first time. Just try it again and soon you will know how to make them - there is nothing better than Moosbee-Nudl!

Eure Kristina

Pictures: Michael Geißler & Kristina Seer