Ich bin ein Schnitzel - or if I continue to eat any more of them, I will look like one.
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| The final outcome |
Visiting Germany earlier this month to see flickr friends, I was presented with this fine spätzle press and a family recipe for the ratios of the ingredients. Having spent some time travelling since I got home from that trip, tonight was the first good opportunity to make spätzle and of course, schnitzel to go with it.
It turned out perfectly - the spätzle were of the right consistency and behaved exactly as I was told they would (a little rowdy in the pot at first with some singing, but floating like dead fish ultimately). A very pleasant outcome.
My love affair with schnitzel began when I was a lad living in Germany in the mid-1970s. A local restaurant I frequented with my parents did a great schnitzel and I seem to remember it being the dish I always ordered - the variation being whether it had a sauce or not.
To have eaten at Onkel Otto's in Stuttgart this month brought back some of those memories and now with a spätzle press, I can make this fine meal any time I like. So much better than the stuff in a box.
Making the meal
Preparing the veal (you can use chicken or turkey if you prefer - or pork even). I'd already procured very thin strips of veal so didn't have to use my nice new meat basher. Flour, egg and breadcrumb trays ready for preparing the veal.
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| The preparation area |
Having breaded the meat, it's fried in a reasonable amount of olive oil. Clearly this doesn't allow for the higher temperatures but it's what I normally use. The tip here is to use a good deal of oil, enough so that the meat can almost float in it. This way the breading doesn't stick to the pan which is what leads to oily food.
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| In progress |
So here are the final schnitzels. For this meal, I opted to cook the meat first before tackling the noodles.
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| Resting schnitzel |
Spätzle
Now for the Spätzle - I opted to make 2/5th the quantity in Carmen's recipe since it would be enough. Her recipe differed a bit from the one that came with the Spätzle Press so I opted to use hers - a more authentic and trusted source. Flour - 500g, Eggs 5, Water 200ml and some salt. This, I cut down to start with 200g of flour.
As you can see, it's a firmly bound dough that is stiff. Well mixed (by fork), this mix literally filled the chamber of the Spätzle Press so it worked out very well. I used a silicone spatula to clean out the mixing jug.
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| Spätzle batter/dough |
Here it is loaded in the chamber of the Spätzle Press.
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| Press gang |
Strands of the dough extruded through the press into the boiling water.
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| Extrusion |
Nearly ready.... The Spätzle now float to the surface, like dead fish :)
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| Nearly ready |
So that was it. About 5 minutes preparation time, 10 minutes for the schnitzel frying and about 6 minutes for the Spätzle.
