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I’m slowly working towards some simplicity within the home, but hey! It’s a lot of hard work!

I love having a go at growing my own veges and always use herbs fresh from my garden. I try to plant from seed whenever I can and have learnt to save and share my own seed for the following year. I make Award Winning preserves and pickles; and my husband brews Award Winning boutique beers as well. I love to stockpile and try to limit quick trips to the shops. I dabble in bread making and enjoy making my own stocks too.

I enjoy feeding my family good hearty meals, nothing like those tiny restaurant stacks you have to look for on the plate. My husband maintains our vehicles and machinery and we both enjoy fabricating on a small scale mostly relying on metal & timber recyclers for any materials needed.


While I don’t always have time to reply to comments, I love reading them. I hope you enjoy your stay and I hope you learn something new because I love sharing what I learn, and I'm always looking for another new skill myself.

Cheers!

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Spaetzle with Kefir Milk

Welcome to all my new followers...I usually have time to individually say hi to you ...but I have mum with a torn tendon behind her knee, which has been keeping me extra busy...I'll be planning a give-away shortly...so look out for that in the near future.....


I've just made some spaetzle for lunch and thought you might like to have the recipe......seeing I don't have a spaetzle maker It took a few experiments to work out what to use...but its all fun here.

I still have plenty of batter to make up more tonight for dinner for the whole family.

Spaetzle...serves as a side dish 6-8 people

3 eggs
1 cup milk (I used kefir milk...and about 1/2 cup extra)
3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
Beat the eggs until foamy with a wire whisk. Beat in the milk until well combined. Mix together the flour and salt and then stir into the egg mixture a little at t time. The dough should become stiff and elastic.
Bring a big pot of water to a boil. *Using a spaetzle maker, fill the square basket with the dough. Rest the unit over the pot and slide the basket back and forth, watching little bits of dough plop into the water. You’ll know the noodles are done when they rise to the surface, which should take about 2-3 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon to a bowl. Cover while you finish with the remaining dough.


*I don't have a spaetzle maker...but I found this potato press in the op-shop the other day for $2...and couldn't help but try it on the spaetzle...I had to thin the dough to more like a thick batter....but you could just use a colander to let the batter drip through....



Too thick...the batter wouldn't drop
Too close together, they stuck to each other.

Changed the holes...

A bit too chunky..but it works.

Test: Thinned some batter with more Kefir

The batter runs almost freely.

A much better size.
 After making what I thought would be enough for lunch.....I strained it more...and added some chilled chicken stock (jellied) and some of my kitchen mix that I always keep in the fridge....



I have posted about this mix before here  and here. To make my kitchen mix just blitz a couple of bunches of spring onions, and a few bunches of herbs, what ever you have really...and a jar of good crushed garlic...then blend in Olive Oil to mix..it will set in the fridge as Olive Oil does...but thats ok...it melts back down if you leave it out of the fridge.....I use this to add to a cup of soup...pasta....even on a slab of fish when cooking it...smear in on a steak....the uses are as long as your imagination......but very handy to have....and lasts for ages in the fridge........

Here's our lunch from yesterday...


Here's a side dish for one....I had enough to serve the 5 family members.



It just shows...you don't always need to have the gadget they suggest.....although I could have just used a colander...but I got this potato ricer at the op-shop for $2...and was looking for an excuse to use it...

Mum and I enjoyed our very filling hearty lunch, and hubby didn't believe I had made the pasta...lol...he should pay more attention and not watch so much wrestling...lol.


Although I haven't made spaetzle heaps of times (YET)....I do plan to try different ways of making it...with a stiffer dough...my knife skills aren't that great to cut thin slices off a chopping board into the boiling water (the German method)...and I can't imagine being quick enough to be productive for a family of five.....but I was thinking of almost freezing the dough..then grating it on a grater....I wonder if that would work? Any ideas?

3 comments:

  1. You're a good cook! That looks really good. love,andrea

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh I have tried it cutting it from a chopping board and it actually went quite well. I made it with a Hungarian friend,thanks for bringing back that happy memory.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Andrea: Thanks, it was really good too.

    Aficanaussie: Hi there, don't know if I would be brave enough to do it that way....lol

    ReplyDelete

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