Berlin is not the first place I think of when going on a culinary world tour (particularly not a spicy one!). When I think of German food I think sausages! Cold meat, smoked cheese, sauerkraut, sausages, pumpernickel bread, black forest gateautoo.....but mainly sausages! There is one sausage of course that is of particular interest to the Spicery and that is the Currywurst! The folk of Germany love it and apparently it’s sold in its millions every year! There's even a song dedicated to it!

Just down the road from Checkpoint Charlie is a museum paying homage to Berlin’s most famous food export. The story of the Currywurstis told here in great detail but to paraphrase goes something like this; a German lady called Herta Heuwar took curry powder (obtained from British troops) and tomato ketchup (from the Americans) mixed the two together and served over traditional grilled, sliced German sausage with a sprinkling of curry powder on top!

There is a conflicting tale (which I prefer!) which says that the dish was in fact invented in Hamburg by another German lady called Lena Brucker who fell down some stairs whilst holding tomato ketchup and currywurst, tasted the resulting mess and hey presto the sausage loving sauce was born!

 

The museum is a very interactive experience. There’s a Currywurststand where you become the stall holder and ‘make’ your own Currywurst, smell booths where you can smell all the individual spices that go into making the sauce, a list of about 150 herbs and spices that could potentially be used in the sauce. At the end of the experience you even get to taste their version of the snack!

Apparently to get the greatest possible dish you have to make your own tomato sauce seasoned with your own secret blend of herbs and spices. So back in the Spicery kitchen I took to developing our own recipe.  

Currywurst Recipe

The curry powder that would have been used back in the 40s wouldn’t have been very spicy (made to suit our fairly bland western tastes at the time) so would’ve contained ground coriander, cumin and turmeric as the main ingredients with a spattering of other spices to create other flavour notes. Here is the Spicery version (but you can alter the spices to suit your own taste!)

Ingredients

4 German sausages (bratwurst or bockwurst)

400g tin of tomatoes

1 onion – roughly chopped

Sugar

Vinegar

Bread or French fries to serve

Spices

3 tsp mild curry powder

1 tsp hot curry powder

2 tsp Hungarian paprika

Method

Fry the onion in 2 tbsp of oil until melted and soft. Add the tomatoes, ½ tsp salt, curry powders and paprika. Simmer for 40 minutes or until the sauce is rich and thick

Blend the tomato sauce until you have a smooth sauce (adding a splash of water if it needs it)

Cook the German sausages as per the packet instructions

Slice the German sausages into pieces

Pour the tomato sauce over the sausage and sprinkle with a bit more curry powder

Walla! You have your currywurst! Serve with crusty bread or French fries