Spaetzle for Supper or a Side

I have a spaetzle maker that belonged to my grandmother. It has a round metal section with holes in the bottom that fits into a hole in a narrow board that goes over a pot of boiling water. There's a handle to hold it steady and a central shaft with a curved plate attached as in an old-fashioned food mill. You turn the plate to force the batter through the holes and into the water. Since I don't make spaetzle all that often, I have trouble getting the consistency of the batter right.

In my family, we remove the spaetzle from the water fairly quickly and chill them to stop the cooking. Then we mix them with bread crumbs browned in butter, giving them a light coating. We put them in a casserole to bake; time depends on whether they've just been made or have been frozen. Leftovers are reheated in a cast iron skillet. Our traditional New Year's Day dinner is roast pork, sauerkraut, and spaetzle.

Some years ago a couple of my younger German cousins were visiting my mother. She made spaetzle for them to give them a taste of home. They were so impressed and told her that their mother always used the packaged ones she bought at the super market!

Ah, spaetzle, also known as nockerln (especially amongst Hungarians). Perfect with goulash, chicken or veal parikash, any other meat and/or mushroom stew you can think of, as well as sauteed with butter and bread crumbs and served with that fine old Berlin delight, kalbsleber (veal liver). In other words, all the great stuff that's considered so politically incorrect by the veggie and fitness fanatics. Green? About as appealing as green beer for St Patrick's Day. (And can you think of anyone in Ireland who would even LOOK at such unappetising stuff?)
Now if only we could once again find such goodies in New York restaurants, anywhere but in our dreams.

My mother and I use the spoon method. Perhaps a little irregular but my sister and I fought for the bigger blobs.

Great wth Chicken Paprikash.

Here is a Spaetzle tour de force starting at 1:35

http://greatchefs.com/filet-stroganof-with-spaetzle-food-recipes/

Made the spaetzle recipe by Mark Bittmann yesterday, with an eye on the one by Mark Tanis. I did not have spinach but compared to see that technique, directions, about the same. Also, did finally look up a video for help. Here it is:

http://www.marthastewart.com/910956/how-make-spaetzle

Was very good demonstration by Martha Stewart and a guest. With the video and the two NYT recipes, was able to make very good spaetzle on first try! Guest said it tasted like in Austria. :) I used a spoon to swirl lines of dough into the boiling water. This created a few rather too-large blobs but they tasted good, too, and nobody really cared. Had it with butter and rosemary. Planning to mix rest with cheese and maybe sausage tonight. Was great! Thanks for the idea!!!

My German-born grandmother used a meat grinder, followed by Mr. Tanis' butter-browning.

Make Rose Mary chicken with spinach in it . Can be called as German rose mary chicken. Make a white sauce with cheese and add boiled paste of spinach . Make a nice creamy sauce and add fried chicken dumplings in it. Eat it with noodles or with boiled rice.

Find a good recipe for Paprikash Chirkeh, say, or a decent Goulash and ladle out huge bowlsful of the hot liquid then top generously with these little guys.

Wunderschone!

(My Hungarian GMa made one of the stew-like European dishes once a month. On Saturdays. Sometimes the work week didn't go fast enough.)

A little freshly grated nutmeg with the Parmesan, pepper and butter is pretty good too.

Brilliant Mr. Tanis! I DO know how to make the dish, thoroughly enjoy it and apparently like you, simply never think about it. My two cents: par-boiled, mostly just to retain their shape, the freeze just fine. A brilliant idea!

getting the hang of cutting them off a board with a knife...well, i didn't have time to learn that, so i bought the tool with the hopper than slides back and forth, pushing the batter into the water. works great, but the steam will start to cook the batter onto the tool. i like them with sauteed onions, tossed with swiss cheese, butter and parsley and lots of ground black pepper.

Having recently failed for the 5784th time at making gnocchi, I'm so happy to see this article. I'm going to try some spaetzle, regain some confidence, and then try again. Sigh.

Punch holes on one side of a clean styrofoam plate/tray. Using a bench scraper or spatula, squeegee the batter from the solid side of the tray through the holes.

I believe that the best are Käsespätzle: spaetzle mixed with grated cheese (typically Emmenthaler) and fried onion.
As to adding spinach puree to spaetzle -- well, this is a matter of individual taste. To me it sounds like adding marmalade to the batter.

They also freeze very well. Put a little bit of neutral oil in them when they are cold and put them in zip lock bags.

I push spaetzle dough through the potato ricer. Works like a charm.

I've taken to making spaetzle in a rice cooker lately. Mine has a steam tray with a bunch of round holes. I fill the rice cooker half way with water, let that start to steam, then push the batter through the steam tray with the back of a wooden spoon. It works really well! It does help to grease the tray with butter, and you have to work pretty quickly. Thanks for the recipe!