Archive for ‘Noodles’

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October 18, 2006

Butternut Squash and Gouda with Fusilli Noodles

My school is on fall break until November, which means that I have quite a bit of time now to travel and explore Germany. This means, however, that my posting is going to be much more sporadic than I would like. The main draw-back to vacation (is there such a thing??) is that despite Germany’s stereotype of being incredibly organized, they really aren’t. They decided not to coordinate the university schedule with the school schedule, which means that the two weeks of fall break at the Gymnasium are the second and third weeks of classes at the TU Dresden. So, I went to visit my parents this last weekend, but had to return to Radeberg by Tuesday to attend my two courses (one on second language acquisition and one on teaching German as a foreign language). Little did I know that both classes would be cancelled: the first permanently, due to lack of enrollment, and the second just for the day because technicians had to fix something in the room we were using. Lovely German university system!

So, my return to Dresden was a bit superfluous. However, on my way back to the train station from the university last night, I saw a sign at a restaurant advertising a pumpkin and gorgonzola sauce with sunflower seeds on fresh noodles. It sounded very good, and I remembered my mom’s butternut squash soup we had eaten that weekend. Coincidentally I had some butternut squash waiting for me in my fridge, left over from a soup I had made earlier, and thought to scrap the original dinner plans and try my own rendition.

I combined my mom’s recipe with the restaurant’s (well, I actually have no idea what the restaurant’s recipe was because I neither saw it nor ate the dish) and added a bit of my own flair. Since I didn’t have gorgonzola, and wasn’t entirely sure that I liked that combination, I substitutued Gouda cheese instead. While I didn’t put it into my sauce, or in the recipe, sautéing a bit of ginger with the squash would be a very tasty addition. It would also be, a bit thickened, a wonderful filling for fresh home-made ravioli, topped with a chanterelle-cream sauce. This ended up being a quick and tasty meal, perfect for a cold fall evening!

Butternut Squash and Gouda with Fusilli Noodles*

1 medium Onion, coarsely chopped
2-3 cups cubed Butternut Squash
2 tsp Curry (Caution! With each type of curry its strength will vary!)
½ cup Water
Salt and Pepper, to taste
1 ½ cups Gouda cheese, finely grated (or any other cheese, a sharp Cheddar would be
very tasty!)

Sauté the onions with the curry on medium-high heat until the onions are clear, then add the butternut squash. Continue to sauté for two more minutes, then add water and lower heat to simmer until squash is soft (about 5-10 minutes, depending on how small your cubes are). The squash should fall apart on its own, but use a woosh-woosh machine to purée the squash and onions into a nice, smooth sauce. Add salt and pepper and melt cheese into sauce. Serve on top of hot fusilli noodles and top with toasted seeds, such as pumpkin or sunflower.

* The portions here are eyeballed and I have not yet had a chance to verify the amounts. If you try this recipe, please tell me what worked/didn’t work and what portions you would suggest.

Posted in Creams and Sauces, Noodles, Recipes, Vegetables & Sides | Leave a Comment »

September 29, 2006

Spätzle and Kitchen Knives

I promised to write an entry on spätzle (see previous post), so here it is.I managed to flatten my spätzlebrett, which I then took to Dresden last weekend where some of my fellow Fulbrighters and I made Kässpätzle, spätzle baked with cheese and topped with caramelized onions.I also had promised them the recipe for spätzle, which I had forgotten until last night when I was celebrating the purchase of my very own knives with a spätzle dinner.

Buying kitchen knives has been a difficult process and has taken me over a month and a half.It has been so tempting to reach for the 100+ Euro knife sets that were on sale by Zwilling and Henkel and WMF (a German knife and kitchen supply company that makes my mouth drool).I have decided that if I win a million dollars, I would first put aside enough money to put a WMF-outfitted kitchen in my dream home, and then give the rest to charity.I’m not exactly sure what my dream kitchen would look like, but I know it would have every utensil and appliance I would ever need (within reason of course), including – but not limited to: a food processor, a kitchen aid, a stove (preferably with oven!), and a “woosh-woosh thingy” (those blender sticks that are so handy for soups, milkshakes, frozen juice concentrate, and anything else that needs a quick “woosh-wooshing”).And, of course, my kitchen would have the ultimate: a tool whose only purpose is to scrape off dough that is stuck on the counter after kneading it.That, my dear friends, is a priceless tool.No knife can come near its efficiency in scraping dried dough and flour mixtures off of granite or linoleum!

However, I am getting off topic:the knives.It hurt very much to go to Karstadt, Germany’s biggest department store chain, and pass all the beautiful shiny knife sets to go to the hidden “Back Shelf of Shame” and buy the cheap non-brand-name knives.Of course, it’s just not practical to be buying the shiny amazing knife sets because I have no idea when I will stop moving around and be in one place for a long period of time.And it really is silly to be carrying around a knife block that weighs half as much as my baggage allowance on international flights.So, I picked out three rather nice-looking knives: a large chopping knife, a smaller chopping knife, and (I just couldn’t resist) a small serrated knife for tomatoes from WMF’s beginner’s line.

All three proved to be decent knives last night when I got to work peeling, chopping, and cutting mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, and more for my dinner.As I sat down to eat dinner, including my first green salad since I got here (I have resisted buying a salad spinner, without which I find it very difficult to make salad – but that’s an entry for another day!) I began to think of all the food I can make now in my Amelie Kitchen.Being able to julienne opens up so many possibilities!

Spätzle

Note: this is a very difficult recipe to understand without having actually seen someone “scrape spätzle.” I am attempting to describe the process here, but I will continue to think of ways to improve this recipe and would welcome your advice as well!

Serves 4

500grams Flour
4 Eggs
½ tsp Salt
Water

Crack eggs into bowl, add a dash of water, flour and salt.Beat violently (yes, violently!) with a wooden spoon.When the dough forms bubbles on its own when you stop beating it is ready.

Bring a full pot of saltwater to the boil.Make the spätzlebrett wet with cold water and place a spoonful of spätzle on top.Dip knife into boiling water and then scrape off the spätzle dough in small, thin pieces into the water.After scraping off all the dough from the board, let the spätzle float at the top and then take out with a sieve and place in a casserole dish or an oven-proof bowl.Continue scraping the rest of the spätzle dough in portions, keeping the finished spätzle in a warm oven.

Serving options:

Kässpätzle: sprinkle cheese (Swiss, cheddar, or any other favorite cheese, preferably a sharper, aged cheese) into the spätzle.Caramelize some onion rings and top the cheese/spätzle with them.Place in 350۫ F oven until cheese is melted and as crispy as you like.This is a quick and yummy option, especially for singles on a tight budget and time-crunch (once you get the hand of making spätzle of course!).

Spätzle are very tasty, and fancier, served with any roast and topped with a gravy made from the roast’s drippings.

Spätzle can also, as in the photograph, be made with pork chops: brown pork chops on both sides in a pan with olive oil.Remove and keep warm in an oven.In the same pan with the drippings, sauté finely-chopped onions for 2-3 minutes, until clear.Add your favorite mushrooms, sliced, and continue to sauté until the mushrooms’ resulting juices have almost cooked off.Add a dash of white wine, and broth or water (optional), about a teaspoon or two of tomato paste, and seasonings to taste.Allow the alcohol to simmer off, then return the pork chops into the sauce (with the juices that have formed from them) and simmer until done (if the chops are thin, which is recommended, this shouldn’t take long).Serve hot with spätzle and a green salad.

Posted in Noodles, Recipes, Tools & Techniques | 3 Comments »

September 19, 2006

The First Documentation of the Fruits from My Amelie Kitchen

I’ve been very active in my kitchen lately. While I still have to make culinary contacts in the area, I am well on my way to experimenting with some traditional German recipes. I call it my Amelie Kitchen, because I found her kitchen in the movie to express so many of her deepest emotions: from love to loneliness, from camaraderie with the old Renoir painter to working out her plots to brighten other people’s lives. She doesn’t only cook in it, she lets down her mask and lives in it. This is what I find most appealing about cooking: not only the cooking itself, but also the humanity that results from mixing various ingredients together.

When my parents came to visit me last week, my mother gave me a cookbook with traditional Schwäbisch recipes in it. Schwabenland is where my mother grew up, and where I have spent most of my time in Germany. I was very excited to find beautiful pictures and very clear directions of dishes that I grew up with but have no idea how to cook on my own. Traditionally such cookbooks assume you already know how to cook the dishes and just need a reminder that you have to add “some flour” to the noodle dough. While my way of cooking from a book is rather liberal, I was very happy to have detailed descriptions on how to prepare my favorite dishes.

Over the weekend I successfully attempted making spätzle, a traditional noodle/dumpling carbohydrate, with the special cutting board my father (expert spätzle maker) gave me the last time I was in Germany; however, I was disheartened to wake up yesterday morning to find my precious spätzlebrett sitting on the dish drain warped into a sad frowny-face. I’m working on re-shaping it, and therefore must postpone writing the spätzle entry for another day.

However, another carbohydrate, which doesn’t require the use of deformed wooden utensils, provided a tasty alternative for tonight’s menu. Schupfnudeln, thick noodles made from a potato dough, require some planning ahead and at least an hour or more of work before you want to put your food on the table, but are worth every bit of the gooey mess that is a common side-effect. They can be served sweet or savory. Originally I wanted to serve them with some sauerkraut, though unfortunately my kitchen went on strike again: I didn’t have a can-opener. So, the tin can was placed in the cupboard to wait with the spätzlebrett for another day and out came the reserve jar of apple sauce (unfortunately not homemade, but alas, I cannot have everything). Because, as my boyfriend will tell you, I cannot have only sweets for dinner, I made a delicious appetizer of zucchini soup as well. Overall it turned into a delightful meal, with plenty of leftovers for the fridge and freezer.

Schupfnudeln

Note: This recipe has been translated from German to English, but still remains (for the time being) in metric units. Recipe adapted from “Landfrauen-Rezepte aus Schwaben” by Claudia Daiber.

Serves 4

1kg cooked potatoes (to be cooked a day ahead and cooled completely)
150g flour
1-2 eggs
Salt
Butter or Sunflower Oil

Peel the cooled potatoes and mash or finely grate them. Knead in the flour, egg(s) and salt to form a dough. With plenty of flour in your hands, pinch off sections of the dough and roll into thin strips with pointy ends, about 1cm in thickness. Lay them on a floured surface. Place in batches into a pot of boiling water. When the noodles float at the top, remove them and place them in a dish. (Note: The noodles may stick together a bit, but the water from each batch will “loosen” them from each other enough until the next step). When all the noodles are cooked, melt the butter in a pan on med-high to high heat and sauté the noodles until they are crispy brown, 1-2 minutes, turning them once halfway.

Serve with warmed sauerkraut or fresh homemade applesauce. For a non-vegetarian option, cooked pieces of bacon can be mixed in with the sauerkraut. Schupfnudeln freeze very well. First freeze them flat on cookie sheets and then put them into freezer bags. This will prevent them from sticking to each other.

Posted in Noodles, Recipes | Leave a Comment »

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