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[eri_chan]

So I LOOOOOOOOOOOOVE me some German food, and last night we did our own version of some seemingly German staples with a few new twists - seasoned pork chops with a mustard/onion/sweet white wine sauce, homemade herbed spaetzle, and a "quickie" sauerkraut. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Holy crap was it good

Comments

[subarashiine]

Whoee I LOVE German food so so much... being half German probably helps :D All of yours sounds SO GOOD.

My favorite German meal is browned bratwurst, fried potatoes and onions and sauerkraut between bites.. mmmm...

[eri_chan]

Mmmmm... bratwurst with sauerkraut and onions is the best. I'm so hungry just thinking about it.

Seriously though, I have such a passionate love for spaetzle its almost obscene, but I've never made my own before this. The store-bought stuff just doesn't hold a candle to fresh, and I'll never go back to it again.

My other half is very, VERY German (has about 15 letters in his last name) so he definitely appreciate when we cook like this. I don't think we do it nearly often enough.

[karohemd]

Heh, I had pork chops last night. ;o)

The tradtional method for getting the Spätzle into the pan would be to put the batter on a cutting board and scraping little bits off into the pan but that's very fiddly indeed and you need to be quick because by the time you scraped in the last bit, the first ones will already be well cooked.
In Germany (there might be specialist online stores in the US, too) you can buy specific gadgets, the tradtional one is a "Spätzle plane" (works a bit like a mandoline) or a gadget that looks a bit like a potato ricer which are nice because you get one portion into the water in one go.

[eri_chan]

Yeah I've heard about "spaetzle machines" that do most of the hard work for you, but sadly, I didn't have one. It may be something I look into at a later date though, since I intend to make these a lot more often now that I know how (relatively) easy it is and how much better they taste when they're fresh.

I remember once my mom made spaetzle at home when I was a kid and she used a colander, which is really the first thing I thought of when I decided to make some myself - it was sorta funny to me to find it suggested inthe recipe I was working from as a viable method. I thought my mom was jsut being quirky. :-p

But yeah, I can't imagine doing the cutting board thing - aside from being (I'ms ure) difficult to time, I don't think I have the manual dexterity for that.

[greencow]

yum! you can buy a spatzle maker btw. although a cheese grater or collander works as well...

i've been thinking of making something like brautwurst and sauerkraut with fried onions and smashed taters....maybe i'll do that this weekend.