GERMANY’S new bestselling cookbook is serving up low-cost dishes for the unemployed as the country’s leaders urge voters to tighten their belts for tough times ahead.

The way forward for Germany, the book suggests, is to eat more dandelions, pick rocket leaves from overgrown pavements, improvise meals with stale bread and rustle up turnip stews that were first tried out in the First World War.

It is a case of hard cheese for hard times, says the Hart(z) IV cookbook, which takes its name from Peter Hartz, a businessman who is responsible for the latest stage of the Schröder Government’s labour reforms.

“Collect as many dandelions as you can,” say the authors Sigrid Ormeloh and Nicole Schlier, both chefs, addressing the readers of Europe’s biggest economy. “But use only the young soft leaves, washing them in warm water to take away the bitter taste.”

With unemployment only slowly coming down from a postwar peak of five million and growth prospects for this year scaled down to 0.7 per cent, Germans are beginning to feel very hard done by.

“The Hartz IV reform has become bitter reality for many people,” the cookbook authors say. “But does it have to taste so bitter?” Hartz IV is the name given to the latest reforms. “Do we really all have to become food shoplifters, to loot our neighbour’s allotments or run out of good restaurants without paying the bill?” the authors ask. All three practices have become common.

The recipe for rucola or rocket pesto comes with a useful tip: “Rucola is a robust weed and you should be able to find some growing on the fringes of the car park in front of the job centre.”

According to the cookbook, which has sold out in Berlin, the key ingredient is bread, which is still relatively cheap in Germany and can be used in a dozen different austerity recipes. Stale bread, say the chefs, can become the basis of “Poor People’s Parmesan”. Other austerity dishes include cabbage with coconut milk and carrot curry with currants. One of the turnip recipes is a modern variation of the dish served up in Germany between 1916 and 1918 when food supplies were drying up. Turnips (500g) and potatoes (300g) are peeled and diced. Two teaspoons of sugar are caramelised in a pan. Then the turnips and potatoes are mixed in with thyme, salt, pepper and a trace of chilli. With the exception of the chilli — too exotic for 1916 — this recipe is a direct throwback to even harder times.

An older generation of Germans grew up with austerity recipes; many of them devised by the Nazi-run German Womens’ Guild in Leipzig. Rabbits, known as balcony pigs, were kept as a source of meat. Soon enough the “roof rabbit” — the euphemism for the domestic cat — joined the menu. The Womens’ Guild advised that cats could be served up with nettle soufflé, daisy salad or rosehip soup.

POOR PARMESAN

Ingredients:

200 gms breadcrumbs (1-2days old),
Half a clove of garlic,
1 tbsp olive oil,
1 small chilli,
1 tbsp basil, salt

Method:

Crumble breadcrumbs to the size of rice grains. Slice garlic, dice chilli and add to olive oil to make a paste. With oiled fingers, knead breadcrumbs into the paste until all the oil is soaked up. Add finely cut basil and salt, work mixture with fingers until it is homogenous.

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