Spatzle and Noodles...

The Daring Cooks challenge this month (Okay, so I'm late posting...) has been fun. It was presented by Steph of Stephfood, and she challenged us to make noodles without the use of modern gadgetry. We have had a lot of noodles in this house, this month. Some were good, others not so good. I even bought a pasta machine, and had a go at making my own pasta (a hand cranked machine it was) but that wasn't so successful. I did manage to get enough for a small bowl, but I don't know if I will attempt that again! By far, the favourite was the spaetzle. We had this several times, and it is so quick and easy that I have even made it for lunch once or twice. The first time I attempted this, the dough was quite difficult to press through the holes, but after watching a chef make spaetzle on you tube, realised I had too much flour so just had to try again - the result was wonderful! Instead of the plain flour, I used soya flour for added protein since the starch in plain wheat flour does have a certain affect to my system that is not so desirable! The soya flour gave it a lovely nutty flavour and those undesirable affectations were not present at all.



The dough



Put a large pot of salted water on to boil while you prepare the dough. Then mix together 2 eggs and 1/2 cup of milk, then whisk in about 1 1/2 cups soya flour. (This is approximate measurement - I added the flour until the dough was the right consistency, which is a bit more stiff than a pancake mixture; not runny, but soft enough to push through a potato ricer.)

Once the dough is ready, you need to place the dough into the potato ricer and push the dough through the holes into the boiling water. Once you have all the dough into the water, the dough will rise to the surface when it is cooked. I waited until all the dough was in, then left it to boil a minute or so before removing with a slotted spoon.

The spaetzle was fairly long, and my potato ricer has a choice of two different size holes. I tried both and found that the better spaetzle came from the smaller hole.

The finished spaetzle, with some browned butter and pine nuts added. It was so tasty!

And since I had a new potato ricer, and was enjoying how you can mash the potatoes so easily with it, I had to try the gnocchi as well! I loved how you didn't have to peel the potatoes but just push them through the holes, and in the bowl you had mashed potato, and the skin was in the machine. No more burnt fingers! The gnocchi was also served with the burnt butter and pine nuts, with a bit of cheese sprinkled on top. The recipe is below for the gnocchi - it is so easy, and doesn't take long and was very filling. I didn't use the soya flour for the gnocchi, so I'm not sure how it would go.

As you can see in the photo, I made the gnocchi into small balls, then flattened the balls and indented each ball with my thumb. I found the other method to be very fiddly, and this was quick and easy.

Gnocchi Recipe:

4 medium sized desiree potatoes
1 egg
2 cups plain flour

Steam/boil the potatoes until just cooked. When cooked, peel and mash the potatoes (or put them through the ricer). Season with salt (and pepper if desired). Add the egg and mix well. Add the flour in 2 or batches, mixing well after each addition. The dough should be fairly firm. Roll the dough into a long "sausage" and cut the dough into pieces about an inch long, so that each piece is about the size of a walnut. Roll them into balls, and then indent each one with your thumb.

Bring a large pot of water to the boil and then add the gnocchi. They will sink, but as they cook, they will rise to the surface. Remove them once they have risen to the surface. Add the sauce you desire over the top and enjoy!

I used a litte butter, melted in a pot and browned. Add some pine nuts (walnuts are also good), garlic to the butter and cook briefly before mixing into the gnocchi. Sprinkle some cheese on the top.