My dashing husband was out the other night and that has started to mean one thing: meat.
He tries to be a vegetarian, or at least eat vegetarian as much as possible. That leaves my son and me craving meat, especially classic meat-centered meals like a nice chop.
So I defrosted some pork chops, pulled out a jar of sauerkraut, and mixed some flour and egg together to make spaetzle.
I’ve seen boxed “spaetzle mix” at stores. Like pancake mix, it’s a convenience item I don’t really understand. How is mixing powder and water really so much easier than mixing flour and egg?
Spaetzle
I never had much luck with spaetzle until I found this formula in The Zuni Cafe Cookbook. This recipe makes a fairly runny spaetzle dough, so those spaetzle makers that have you “grate” the dough into the boiling water won’t work here. Better is a large-holed ricer or colander.
This makes enough spaetzle for 4 standard servings, but my son and I can eat this whole batch. Easily. Luckily, it doubles and triples with great success.
1 1/2 cups cake flour (all purpose flour works too, but cake flour does make a more tender, delicate dumpling)
2 eggs
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add enough salt so the water tastes salty.
Meanwhile, put the flour in a medium bowl and make a well or dip in the center of the flour. Crack the eggs into the center. Use a fork to whisk the eggs and gradually incorporate the flour into the egg. At this point you’ll have a fairly thick mixture that straddles the divide between dough and batter. Add 2 tablespoons warm water and mix. Add up to 2 more tablespoons of warm water to thin the batter out so it can “drain” out of the ricer or colander holes.
Place the ricer or colander over the boiling water. Use a spatula to scrape the spaetzle mixture into your device of choice. Use the spatula to push all the mixture through the holes and into the boiling water. The mixture should break into spaetzle-sized pieces as it drops into the water. If that isn’t happening (that is, if the mixture is thicker than I try to make it), use a paring knife to cut the dough as it comes out of the holes.
The spaetzle will sink, then float. Let them cook for about a minute after they float. Drain like pasta or fish out the spaetzle with a slotted spoon if you’re making more than one batch.
Serve spaetzle while hot or – and this is what I do 95% of the time – saute the spaetzle in a hot frying pan with any meat juices you might have another dish or just in plenty of butter. The spaetzle gets crunchy brown bits that counter the tender dumpling nature of the boiled nuggets to perfection. Add herbs if you’re so inclined.
The other night I seared the pork chops in a frying pan, transferred them to a hot oven to finish cooking, deglazed the luscious pork bits from the pan with about 1/2 cup of beer, stirred in a tablespoon of whole grain mustard, and cooked the spaetzle in that. Then I heated up the sauerkraut and we ate like kings. Stuffed, gluttonous kings.
Marisa | 22-Jan-10 at 11:36 am | Permalink
I’ve always thought that spaetzle was a mysterious and challenging thing to make. I see now that I was very, very wrong, and for that, I am delighted. Thanks Molly!
Nosheteria | 26-Jan-10 at 7:45 am | Permalink
My word, what a glorious meat-centric meal! I love spaetzle.
ileana | 26-Jan-10 at 2:41 pm | Permalink
Hi Molly, I love spaetzle and I´m so glad you posted a recipe of them. I´ll try this one for sure, because I did spaetzle a couple of weeks ago and they didn´t turn out as I wished… maybe the batter was a bit runny… We had them with goulash, they tasted good but I want to improve them. Thanks for sharing!