IMBB #7: Zigeuner Schnitzel with Spaetzle
When I learned that Jarrett, the brains behind Food Porn Watch, was hosting the latest IMBB #7, “You’re Just The Cutest Little Dumpling” only one question sprang to mind. Is Spaetzle a dumpling? So I googled it and found that there was some debate. Some people feel that Spaetzle is a pasta, some feel that it’s a dumpling. Me, I’ve always described it as a little German dumpling, so that’s good enough for me!
I wish I could say that this is an old family recipe, but it’s not. Though my grandmother is full-blooded German, she was truly a modern 1950’s housewife. This meant that in the 60’s, when I was growing up and spending Saturday evenings at her house, the only food she made came out of a box or a jar. One of the traditional meals that she made for her grandchildren: jarred spaghetti sauce spread on an english muffin, with sliced Hormel pepperoni and finished off with a slice of American cheese, then broiled to “perfection”. Voila - homemade pizza!
No, I didn’t get my cooking tendancies from my grandmother. Maybe I got them because of my grandmother! Though I have to admit, she made the best homemade sauerkraut, from scratch, that I’ve ever had. The crockpots in the basement didn’t smell so great, but if you could get beyond that, you were in for a treat.
I could look a generation back, to my great-grandmother who was directly from Pommern. But I have to admit, she was a farm wife who seemed to be famous for her Duck Blood Soup and for using every part of the animal for food - so it’s probably best that I didn’t get many recipes handed down from that direction either.
So most of the German recipes that I make today are my own. And I chose to make a Zigeuner Schnitzel with Spaetzle for the IMBB: The Dumpling Edition!
Spaetzle:
Ingredients:
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 c. milk
2 tbsp. water
1 1/2 c. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
Pinch of nutmeg grated
2 qts. boiling salted water
5 tbsp. butter
1/2 c. toasted bread crumbs
Beat eggs, milk and water. Add flour, salt, baking powder and nutmeg til well mixed.
We don’t have a spaetzle maker - we improvise and use a ricer. We fill the ricer with the dough and push it through the holes and into the boiling water. Boil for 8 minutes.
Drain, and sautee in melted butter. Sprinkle bread crumbs over the dumplings. Continue to sautee until slightly browned.
Zigeuner Schnitzel:
Ingredients:
3 slices bacon, chopped
4 veal cutlets, pounded thin
4 assorted peppers, sliced
1 large onion, sliced
3 carrots, sliced
3 - 4 small tomatoes, seeded and diced
2 tablespoons garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons paprika
1 cup red wine
2 cups beef stock
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons flour
Sautee bacon til cooked through and fat is rendered. Add veal and sautee til brown. Remove veal from pan and set aside. Add vegetables except for tomato, cook til slightly soft. Add paprika, tomato, red wine and stock. Salt an pepper to taste. Bring to a simmmer. Add veal. Cover and simmer on low.
Prepare spaetzle. (recipe above)
Mix sour cream and flour together. Stir in to veal/vegetable mixture. Continue to stir til creamy gravy like consistancy is reached.
To serve, plate veal and spaetzle. Place vegetable mixture over veal. Cover veal and spaetzle with desired amount of gravy.
Serve with a nice wine. We chose a 2000 Ridge Zinfandel, Late Picked Nervo.
The end.
Whoho, duck blood soup! I had that once and didn’t exactly enjoy the experience. In Poland (and Pommern/Pomorze has been yoyoed quite a few times between Germany and Poland), duck blood soup is given to a suitor of the daughter of the house as a way of saying ‘thanks, but no thanks’, so I suppose it doesn’t have to be good anyway. By the way, I did get it from my mother-in-law, but not in the traditional spirit, fortunately.
I did not know that about Duck Blood soup! Hmmm, that could explain why I had so many spinster great aunts.
You are one brave man. I’m pretty sure nothing could induce me to try the stuff!
Just got a Harsch Fermenting Crock to make homemade sauerkraut like my mother used to make. It’s so much better than any of the commercial sauerkrauts around and the probiotic effects aid digestion. One of the guys at work whose into natural foods had one. The fermenting crock has a trough at the top where you put water after putting the lid on. It lets the fermenting gases out, but keeps the air from getting in. That keeps the scum from forming on the top of the fermentation and makes the process odorless. Have my first batch going - should be ready in a month
That crock sounds really interesting. I would love to try to make homemade sauerkraut. Let me know how your batch ends up!
We sell these crocks, just in case anyone is interested.
Gary
Where’d you get that schnitzel recipe? It’s nothing like the recipe I gota couple of years ago from a German friend. As for the duck’s blood soup, if somebody offered it to me I’d take it as a “thanks but no thanks,” too.