Herb spaetzle would be a nice accompaniment to those braised beef cheeks from yesterday. Very easy to make, with a texture unique to itself, and more than ready to mix in with that nice braising sauce you made. You will need something in the way of equipment, but it is possible to improvise. There are spaetzle-makers made, however having worked in large operations, I have always used perforated steamer trays and scraped the batter through manually. Basically you need something that can sit steadily over a pot of boiling water that has pea-sized perforations to drop the batter through. A bench scraper or stiff spatula will be needed to force the batter through, then a spider or small strainer to scoop the spaetzle out of the water. The picture below not only shows the technique, it is also the best home-style spaetzle maker I've seen - it's available at AMAZON for a decent price.
You will need:
500 g flour
1 tsp baking powder
125 ml chopped "soft" herbs - parsley, tarragon, chervil
6 eggs
125 ml milk
to taste salt
oil and butter for frying
Method:
- sat a large pot of water on to boil
- if you have a mechanical mixer, load up the paddle, give the eggs a slight whisk, then add all the ingredients except the herbs and start mixing . If mixing by hand, use a strong whisk or wooden spoon and get ready for a workout
- let the gluten develop well - sticky and "goopy" - then add the herbs (adding them earlier would make the batter more green than speckled)
- add salt to the water and set your chosen perforated screen over the pot
- take a bit of the batter, set it on your screen and scrape it through to the water
- when the spaetzle floats, it is cooked - scoop it out and spread out on a sheet pan with paper anda drizzle of oil
- repeat the process until the batter is gone
- return to your sheet pan and mix up the spaetzle in the oil so it all has a light coating and won't stick together
- once cool, you can store in the fridge, or get ready to cook
- set a frypan (non-stick wouldn't hurt) on to medium high heat - add a bit of oil
- add the spaetzle to the pan and saute, letting it get some colour and crisp up
 |
| nicely browned spaetzle |
- serve
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