Spätzle

It may not have been my brightest idea, to start two new blogs at the time of year when I am the most tired, but who says I must post every week? This is my publication, I make the rules, right? I have, however, been taking loads of pictures of cooking, with a mind to blog, and perhaps it´s all become a bit overwhelming.

Let me start with spätzle. This was introduced to me by my youngest sister, who spent a year in her youth in Munich, learning German at the Goethe Institute and working at a diner. I got myself this nifty tool on a trip to Vienna in 2001, and have only recently started using it. It looks a bit like a grater, and you grate a sticky pasta dough into boiling water with it, making droppy-looking fresh pasta. We made some the other night, with elk steak.

I used four eggs, half a liter of wheat flour (about 2 cups), 100 ml water, salt and pepper. I whipped this together, making a very sticky, fluffy dough. I grated this, one dollop at a time, into salted boiling water, and boiled for a few minutes, after which I lifted the spätzle with a perforated ladle and put it on a tray to dry. This made enough spätzle for four portions (two meals) for us, but bear in mind we are not heavy eaters.

Before I serve it, I fry it ever so lightly with butter to heat it up and add some flavour. It is also a classic to bake it with cheese in the oven, a dish called Käsespätzle, often accompanied with fried union.

It goes with anything, like potatoes or pasta. I prefer it to bought pasta, as I prefer anything I can make easily from scratch. I have yet to experiment with wholemeal, I think that would work.

Spätzle-makers can be bought on amazon, all kinds of them (what can´t be bought on amazon?), or, it can be made like this. Or you can use a cullender.