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We are excited to launch today our new Trade & Catering page which showcases some of the delicious favourites we can supply to trade customers and caterers for their businesses and events! Product ranges are by no means limited to what you see on the page, so do get in touch with us if you are looking for a particular item and we will do our best to source these for you. It is also worth contacting us if you are looking to buy in bulk as we can discuss a trade account with you. 

Co-owner of Monaliciousfood café, Mona Saad, on what it means to be Austrian: “growing up with my grandparents in the countryside and having all this stodgy and amazing food and just being with family running outside in the fields. I just loved it!”

Monaliciousfood Café

Hoxton in East London – the home of Monalicious Café – is quintessential modern London. Every corner brings a mixture of hipster, history, gentrification and grafters. The impressive Mona Saad and Carly Churchill have created a café experience that blends this essential post-industrial London feel with its brick façade, quirky artwork and moreish menu.

Intertwined with this London-feel is an Austrian twist inspired by Mona who is from the beautiful town of Krems situated by the Danube. On the menu you will find gorgeous cakes and desserts like Sachertorte and Kaiserschmarren; the popular Manner wafers and Mozartkugeln; and Austrian drinks such as Almdudler and Meinl Coffee.

Pair Mona’s Strudel with Carly’s Meinl Cappuccino and it all comes perfectly together. We call it the Hoxton Kaffeehaus Traum!

'Zuckermaus' is an Austrian bakery founded by Barbara Leadbetter which operates locally in the Hertfordshire area. Barbara is a passionate Viennese baker that moved to the UK and uses her expertise to bring joy to those who have tried her gorgeous cakes and aromatic breads. Once we met Barbara and tasted her delicious breads we knew we had work with her! 

Barbara is a regular at Hitchin and Harpenden markets and has created authentic bread in the heart of Hertfordshire true to her Austrian roots ♥️

She provides our lovely customers with a gorgeous selection of Austrian goodies, baked fresh on the morning of dispatch arriving the very next day on your doorstep! The breads are perfect for devouring straight away, or divided up with some being placed in the freezer for later. 

Her goodies include: 

• A rye sourdough loaf typically known as 'Bauernbrot'
• An Austrian fruit loaf made with real Stroh rum known as 'Kletzenbrot'
• Three Salzstangerl bread rolls - soft white rolls topped with salt crystals
• A delicious rye sunflower bread - a Zuckermaus speciality!

Starting in February 2020 (yes, bad timing pre-lockdown), Austrian Food UK Ltd was set-up by husband and wife team Erich and Elina. We were inspired by our Omi and Opa (grandma and grandad) who we frequently visit in Bad Gastein - a beautiful and mountaneous region in Land Salzburg. They have a passion for Austrian food and drink that is totally inspiring. Their passion is infectious and has passed onto us - so we want to do what we can to make delicious Austrian produce easily available across the UK. Find us by email, on Instagram, Facebook or hosting a market stall in London! Speak to us in English or Deutsch - uns ist eigentlich Wurst!

We are super excited to reveal our elegant edelweiss design we've been working on with Austrian graphic designer Claudia Fürst for our new, fun shopping and tote bags! 

Claudia was born in Vienna and has a master's degree in business and politics from the University of Bristol, a graphic design and desktop publishing diploma and a digital graphic design course at UAL Central Saint Martins. She works on developing brand identities and print design services for clothing, accessories and merchandise. She enjoys art and designs her own handbag, accessories and sustainable eco-fashion brand which showed at London Fashion Week.

The bags are available in black (a larger, shopper-style bag), and denim (a smaller tote bag). They are made using recycled cotton and polyester, produced in a responsible, ethical way. They encourage a more sustainable kind of fashion and are the perfect lightweight companion for throwing your belongings in and heading out the door. 

There is a specific time and place that the smell of Knödelgröstl (Austrian fried dumplings) takes me to. Opa (grandad) would ponder what to cook us as kids when Omi (grandma) was out and about. It wasn't that he was shy of cooking - he was a magnificent cook - but after a heavy day of gardening, grafting and spending time cycling around with us in the Valley of Gasteinertal, Opa needed quick solutions.

Often that solution was Knödelgröstl. Taking left over Knödel (Austrian dumplings) from the day before and turning it into something to fill the heart and soul.

What folllows are two recipes. The first, how to make a simple Wurstknödel - Austrian dumplings with sausage meat. These can be used in their own right complimented by a soup or sauce (perhaps even Goulasch). The second is an idea of how to transform the Knödel into Knödelgröstl!

Recipe 1: Omi's Knödel

Ingredients:

• 0.5KG Knödelbrot - dry cubed bread. Okay, we clearly use this (https://austrianfood.co.uk/fischer-kaisersemmelw%C3%BCrfel-kn%C3%B6delbrot-uk) but we have also had success with buyng French baguettes, cutting them into 1cm cubes and leaving them to dry for a few days until hard.
• 2 eggs
• 0.5L milk
• 1 tsp salt
• Handful of fresh (ideally) or 1tsp dried parsely and chives
• 250g of cured Austrian-style/German-style sausage (we use this: https://austrianfood.co.uk/stastnik-arlberger-sausage-lower-austria-uk)

Method:

1. Mix all the ingredients thoroughly in a bowl with a wooden spoon or your hands. If it feels is too soft and sticky, add a little extra bread cubes; if too dry, a little more milk. You are aiming for a moist, slightly sticky breadmix.
2. Put a dishcloth over the bowl and leave to rest for 30 minutes at room temperature
3. Use your hands to work the mixture for a couple of minutes. Then mould them into spherical shapes, 8-10cm wide.
4. Simmer - not boil - in salted water for 15-20 minutes depending on the size you went for
5. Voila! If you don't want to eat them all, they are good to freeze.

Transforming Knödel to Knödelgröstel

Ingredients

• 2x Knödel, sliced (about 2cm thick - not too thin or they will fall apart)
• 2x eggs
• 1x large white onion, roughly chopped
• Ghee or clarified butter. If you can't then rapeseed oil will do
• Fresh parsely or chives
• Salt and pepper

Method

1. Warm up the ghee/butter/oil in a large frying pan
2. Gently fry the onions until they are soft and begin to become translucent
3. add the Knödel - you want to fry until a crust develops on them.
4. Season with salt and pepper
5. Throw in the herbs and stir
6. Make some space at the centre of your pan and crack in the eggs. Fry to your taste
7. Job done! Eat, feel very full, lie on the couch

Let us know what you think!

A lot has happened in 2020. We’ve had a surprise pandemic, a renewed global fight for racial equality, a US election that ousted the man with the terrible tan, and a sobering terrorist shooting in Vienna only moments before the country, like many others, went into lockdown again. And we haven’t quite reached the end of the year yet.

Now with days turning dark by 5pm and Christmas rapidly approaching we at Austrian Food UK are keen to find some Christmas cheer to uplift our spirits, along with some good food and drink. We’ve started looking forward to the end of the day when we can sink into the sofa and wrap our hands around a nice, warming hot drink. Our first instinct was to reach for a hot chocolate (mit schlag and marshmallows of course), but we also wanted to have a variation so that things didn’t get boring (and our sugar consumption didn’t get out of control!).

So we’ve been back in the kitchen perfecting a Jager Tee recipe for those nights when an alcohol free drink just isn’t enough, and when we need that extra little buzz and warm spice. Here is our method for concocting our version:

• Add approximately 600ml of water to a pan and heat.
• Add 3 tablespoons of loose black tea leaves (we use ), 8 cloves, 1 medium cinnamon stick, a small orange cut into slices and stir. We like a bit of extra orange so we grate ¼ of the orange and use its zest in the mixture too.
• Pour in a tablespoon of brown sugar, 60ml of Stroh rum (we use Stroh40 unless it’s been a particularly bad day, in which case we use Stroh60!), 300ml of whatever red wine we have open, and 60ml of Schnapps.
• Simmer on medium-low heat for 5 minutes.
• Strain the tea and serve hot!

If we shut our eyes with a big mug in our hands we can almost feel the icy chill of the slope air and the welcoming crackle of the Huette’s fire on our faces, which is enough for us until things return to normal again…