FROM EDWARD SCHOELWER, PRINCIPAL, RED SHELL MANAGEMENT
“This dish would be called a ‘folkway,’ you are likely to find it coming out of the kitchens of Southern Ohio and Northern Kentucky. In my childhood, we ate a lot of geméis, but you would never find it served in a restaurant. It is too humble. Like many peasant dishes, it is very savory, maybe a guilty pleasure. It is a remnant of the large settlement of German immigrants to the Ohio Valley in the mid-19th century.
The German word for vegetable is gemüse. The main vegetables in this boiled meal are green beans and potatoes. I cannot tell you why the Low German pronunciation (i.e. geméis) was agreed upon as the name for the dish.
A one-pot meal, everything about geméis is very easy-going. You can add or subtract to it to taste. The proportions listed below are how I like to do it. Although this recipe calls for kielbasa, the more typical type of sausage used is mettwurst (specifically ‘Hamilton Metts’) or my Irish grandmothers (showing you how common the dish is) would make it with a small ‘cottage’ or ‘butt’ ham.”
SERVES:
4
PREP TIME:
15 MIN
TOTAL TIME:
1 HR
INGREDIENTS
1/3 of a small green cabbage, chopped
1 lb of green beans, stems removed and cut into bite size
½ a medium sized yellow onion coarsely cut
6 small or 4 medium sized new potatoes. Make it easy on yourself, just cut out the eyes and the gnarly parts, but leave most of the peels on, and divide the potatoes into good sized chunks
2 garlic cloves, sliced
1 tsp coriander seeds
½ tsp black peppercorns
½ tsp salt
4 cups water
2 tbs cider vinegar
Dress with olive oil or butter, add salt and pepper to taste
Into a 4 quart pot (or larger) put all of the dry ingredients except seasonings. Stir it around so everything is mixed. All the parts are pretty big so you don’t have to be too precious about it. Add the peppercorns, coriander and salt. Add the water. Put the pot on the stove and bring it to a boil. Then turn down the heat and let it simmer for 45 minutes, keep the lid just slightly so ask to retain the maximum amount of water. The beans and the potatoes should be soft enough to eat, the meat cooked.
Before serving, add the vinegar, and stir it around. Ladle into bowls. Let individuals season as they like with butter or olive oil and additional cider vinegar and salt and pepper to taste. Serve with crusty bread to soak up the de-licious broth.