Chutney and papadam - how Ursula Winnington stirred up East German cuisine

Berlin newspaper Chutney and papadam - how Ursula Winnington stirred up East German cuisine Article by Lena Lachnit • 4 hours ago Soljanka, Jägerschnitzel and Gräupchensuppe: Many people associate this with GDR cuisine. Ursula Winnington showed that there is another way, although many things were scarce or impossible to obtain. Chutney and papadam - how Ursula Winnington stirred up East German cuisine In winter, she inspired people in the socialist state with recipes for cinnamon pretzels, duck with apples, plums and lemons, gingerbread and gingerbread. When there was an overproduction of eggs in the planned economy, she used them to conjure up quiche lorraine or Chinese dumplings. She helped GDR cuisine to have more variety and internationality. The recipes she wrote for magazines and magazines seemed unusual for her time - and yet her readers were enthusiastic. Ursula Winnington is now 94 years old. The graduate farmer and agricultural scientist no longer cooks that much, but still fondly remembers one of her trips to the big wide world outside of the GDR during the GDR era. She drove all over India at the time, she explains in an interview with the German Press Agency. She accompanied her first husband - a physicist - on a congress trip. In the distant land she discovered papadam, Indian lentil dal, chicken curry and spice mixtures such as garam masala. "Of course I learned a lot and realized that the curry tastes completely different than in the GDR," she says. Back home, her first task was to take GDR powder and find out: "What's wrong here and why are the Indian curry mixtures better?" Winnington wrote recipes and columns for magazines and periodicals such as Das Magazin, Guter Rat and Sibylle. She was also seen in cooking shows. Further trips took her to France, China and Korea. Her recipes ranged from Chinese lion heads to chutneys and French coq au vin. She kept an eye on the food available in the GDR. "Gastronomic hits" were her recipes, according to a letter to the editor that she reads. "Ms. Winnington, you saved my marriage" in another. Of course, there were isolated reactions such as "Nice, wafers, where are they?" or "Where can you buy garlic in Berlin?". However, most of the reader reactions were very grateful and positive. Although your cooking tips were published throughout Germany, the vegetable shops were sometimes supplied differently. Her motto: "In the GDR there was meat, poultry, fish, wine, vegetables, garlic, spices, herbs - and if you can't make anything out of it, then unfortunately you can't cook." With the fall of the wall and reunification, the magazines she had written for disappeared. And not only that - it also lost the niche it had built up over the years. "I wasn't very happy about the turnaround, I felt comfortable in the GDR," says Winnington. After the opening of the wall, she did not cross the border immediately. "I didn't have this longing like other people who have never been abroad." She has published over 1250 recipes in her life, and her eight cookbooks, a collection of her recipes and columns, are still available to buy today. In September of this year, her granddaughter Lilly Böhm recorded a podcast feature with her for the rbb podcast series "Deep Doku" entitled "GDR kitchen - how Ursula Winnington revolutionized East German recipes". Winnington's last book was published in 2012 - it contains recipes such as Mecklenburg jelly or French boeuf bourguignon. Her grandmother always prepares the latter alongside the coq au vin, says her granddaughter. "What I made again the other day was bok choy," adds Winnington, "with red peppers, some jacket potatoes and spices." You can make a wonderful meal out of these things. “First the garlic and ginger are sautéed in oil, then the peppers go in, then the pak choi and finally the potatoes go in the pan. If you have it in the house at the moment, there is plenty of fresh coriander on top at the end - it's a great meal, it's simple and wonderful. "(dpa)