Himmel und Erde

Himmel und Erde is mashed potato folded together with stewed apple and topped with fried blood sausage and onions. It's a Rhineland dish whose name means "heaven and earth" — the apple growing up toward the sky, the potato growing down into the ground, brought together in one mash.

What it actually is

Potato is boiled and mashed simply, then folded together with apple that's been peeled, cored and stewed down soft and lightly sweet, so the mash ends up a pale, faintly sweet blend rather than two separate sides on the same plate. Sliced blood sausage is pan-fried until the outside crisps and the inside stays soft, and a generous pile of onion, fried in butter until deep golden, goes over the top of both.

The apple isn't a garnish stirred in at the end — it's mashed right into the potato itself, which is what makes the dish read as one thing rather than mash with a side of stewed fruit.

How it's served

• Mash on the plate, sausage sliced and fanned over one side, fried onions piled over everything.
• Hot, straight from the pan, the onions still visibly glistening with butter.
• As a full plate, not a side, when the blood sausage is included.

Writing it on a menu

• Note the cured blood sausage and its curing salts, since it's a standard part of the dish rather than an optional add-on.
• Say if a vegetarian version without the sausage is available, since the potato-and-apple mash on its own is naturally meat-free.
• Mention that the apple is mashed into the potato, not served as a separate compote; it changes how the dish should be described on a menu.
• Flag the fried onions as a substantial topping, not a light garnish; they're meant to cover a real portion of the plate.