Poppy seed noodles

Michael Kolm from the Bärenhof Restaurant shares his traditional Waldviertel recipe for poppy seed noodles.

Although the small black seeds taste delicious whether used for sweet or savoury cooking, there is one dish that is familiar to everyone – the original Waldviertel Mohnnudeln. Michael, a chef at the Bärenhof Restaurant in Arbesbach, has followed a traditional recipe to make the sweet classic dish. Have you ever made rolled noodles the traditional Waldviertel way?

Graumohn poppy seeds are THE Waldviertel speciality. They are delicate and mild – and therefore mainly used in sweet pastries. The “sehende Mohn”, so named due to the open pores in its poppy seed head, is highly addictive - but not because of its intoxicating ingredients. The narcotic and addictive opium alkaloid morphine in the latex of the poppy seed was bred out of the variety used for food in our region a long time ago. Therefore, there is absolutely no reason to forgo eating poppy seeds for health reasons. The opposite is true: poppies are healing plants that have a pain-relieving and calming effect. Michael from Bärenhof is cooking us a truly comforting dish today.

Recipe:

To start, peel and cook the Waldviertel potatoes for the noodle dough until al dente. Once boiled, drain the potatoes, return to the pot and sprinkle the mix of rye and wheat flour over the potatoes. Next, put the pot in the oven and heat at 160°C until golden. Remove from the oven after ten minutes. Add a tablespoon of icing sugar to the potato and flour mix and knead into a smooth dough. By the way, it's absolutely fine if there are still small pieces of potato in the dough of this traditional recipe.

For the poppy seed butter: Melt the butter. Then mix in the icing sugar and Graumohn poppy seeds and simmer on a low heat.

While this is cooking, make the rolled noodles. They are cooked in sugar water rather than salt water. Add a dash of icing sugar to the water to create a sweet flavour. Michael has another tip for us: Use a plastic spatula to loosen the noodles from the bottom of pan to prevent sticking. The poppy seed noodles are done when they float on the surface. They can then be dipped in poppy seed butter and garnished. At this point, Michael recommends trying another of his secret ingredients: Not only does he serve his poppy seed noodles with icing sugar, he also adds a touch of wild honey. Want to know whether this tastes just as good? The only way to find out is to try it.  

Ingredients:

• 500 g Waldviertel potatoes
• 200 g rye flour
• 60 g wheat flour
• 100 g icing sugar
• 100 g butter
• 200 g Waldviertel Graumohn poppy seeds
• 1 tbsp honey