Spatzle

What good is a goulash recipe without those delicious little dumplings that sop up all that rich sauce?  These little workhorses are great in soup, sauteed in butter, baked or as the mac in mac and cheese.

Check out my Video Vault for a a demo. There are lots of photos in the Food Photos section

Spatzle

30 minutes total time   15 minutes active time   serves 4   cost less than $2.00

You will need a spatzle maker, a large pot of boiling salted water, 2 steel bowls, a carving fork, a Chinese basket or slotted spoon for lifting out the spatzle.

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup eggs, about 4 large eggs
• 1/2 cup of milk or water
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 6 turns of a pepper mill, white pepper if you are lucky enough to have some
• optional: 1 T of whole grain mustard and 1 t of dry mustard

Fill one steel bowl with cold water. In the other steel bowl add all the dry ingredients. Make a well in the center. Mix the wet ingredients together and put in the center well. Using your fork pull the dry into the wet. Let rest 10 minutes. Put into spatzle maker, it won't all fit, and pass the hopper over the boiling water. When the spatzle float remove and put into the bowl of water. Repeat until finished.

No spatzle maker, no problem. You can use a cutting board and a paring knife. Put the dough on the edge of the board and cut little finger size dumplings and scrape into the water. These are a bit bigger and have a little more tooth to them. Make your dough a little stiffer if you try this method.

Clean up time Wash the bowl and spatzle maker in cold water first then hot soapy water. This will remove any dough before it gets cooked on by the hot water.