Oh, Vienna

We were watching Rick Stein's series about weekends away.    The ones on Berlin and Vienna  were particularly interesting as - many years ago now - we holidayed a lot in Germany and Austria.  Rumpsteak mit Zwiebeln (steak with specially cooked onions) was a particular favourite of mine, although I had forgotten all about it until the programme.

When we saw the part about Gulasch and Spätzle,we decided we'd have to try making both.  The Gulasch was easy (although the method Rick used on the programme was different to the method given on the programme website). http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/viennese_gulasch_96419

Pic from DaringGourmet blog. Our spatzle were mych mor irregular

Google helped us with finding an authentic Spätzle recipe.    I liked this lady's recipe, mainly because of her writing style and her pics.  Just scroll past the info about her home town. http://www.daringgourmet.com/homemade-german-spaetzle/

I meant to halve the quantities for the Spätzle.  This went well until I stopped concentrating, and ended up adding a full amount of milk.  I then had to go back and add in the dry ingredients again, and we could see that we were going to have a lot of noodles.

I watched a video of someone using a board and knife to make the Spätzle.  I also saw someone using something which looked suspiciously like a potato ricer.   We don't have one of those, we were planning to use the colander method, as Rick had done in the programme.  Then  I remembered we had a mouli in the cupboard, and that seemed to be ideal. We had the right sized holes, and the winder would be much easier than trying to scrape dough through the bottom of a colander.  Result!

Or not.  The mouli was a complete failure.

The colander method was painful, but it worked.  We boiled all the noodles,  using only about a third of them, heated in butter,  to serve with the Gulasch.  Both were lovely.

The remainder was divided into one portion for the fridge and one portion for the freezer.   

Pic from DaringGourmet's blog post for Kasespatzle

The next day, we had Käsespätzle which is spaztzle, caramelised onions and cheese, layered and baked in the oven.   Because we'd liked her Spatzle recipe, we followed the same lady's  recipe for Käsespätzle http://www.daringgourmet.com/kaesespaetzle-swabian-german-macaroni-and-cheese/

Another winner!

The third lot, currently in the  freezer, we intend to cook until crispy.  No idea what we'll serve them with,

Definitely delicious, and we'll definitely make again.   I will probably buy a ricer to make them, but I'll wait until we're actually going to make them before I purchase.

I might see if I can find a recipe for the Steak mit Zwiebeln.  It must be 25 years since I've eaten it.