Spaetzle

To go with my Slow Cooker Pot Roast I decided to take a page from my mom and my Grandmother. Mom served spaetzle with her pot roast that inspired mine and when I was home over Thanksgiving my father pulled out a bunch of recipes from my grandmother, one of them was for spaetzle. What is spaetzle you ask? According to Wikipedia (and what I know from my mom) "are a type of egg noodles and small dumplings found in the cuisine of Germany". They are perfect with any kind or beef dish in place of potatoes or rice.

Since it was Saturday and we were taking it easy it seemed like the perfect opportunity to try to make spaetzle from scratch and I liked that I had my grandmother's recipe to guide me. Below is the recipe and she wrote it, with my tweaks in red.

Spaetzle
makes 6 servings
Printable Recipe

2 eggs
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp salt
water
1/3 cup butter or margarine (not sure anyone still uses margarine, but it's on the card)

1. In a large bowl, using a fork, combine eggs, flour, salt and 1 1/2 cups of water until smooth. Add enough additional water, about 1/4 cup, to form a thick smooth mixture.
2. Into a large pot of boiling water (I used 1 1/2 cups chicken stock and 1 1/2 cups water), press the batter through a large-holed colander or spaetzle maker. Gently boil 5 minutes, then drain. (I didn't have a large hole colander or a spaetzle maker to I used a method I saw Guy Fieri use on Guy's Big Bite. Place dough mixture on a clean cutting board. Flour both sides of the dough and roll into a long rectangle, approximately 12 by 2-inches and 1/8-inch thick. With pizza cutter, cut into strips, 2-inches in length and 1/4-inch wide. )
3. In a large skillet melt butter and cook until lightly browned but not burned. Add spaetzle and toss to coat well.

I'm so happy I have now added one of my grandmother's recipes to my arsenal. The boy had never had spaetzle before but really liked it. I know, I know the browned butter is completely not figure friendly but it would be a mistake to skip it and not have the nice crunchy & golden pieces of spaetzle. Do it, once in awhile won't hurt and I promise you won't regret it.