Once the Gulasch was in the slow cooker, we started on the dough for the spätzle. She asked if she could eat some raw (she has a thing about raw flour-milk-egg batter), and I said no. After 15 minutes or so of the food mixer beating the dough, it had changed to a very sticky and glossy mass of stuff. She ate a small piece. (shudder).
Last time we made spätzle, we used the bottom of a colander to make the noodles. It was tedious, alhough the resulting noodles were delicious. After last time, I looked online to see what ricers could also be used for spätzle, and was a bit put off by the price. And the size. It wouldn't be something I'd use for anything else. In the end, I went for the cheap option of buying a metal plate thing, which fits over a saucepan lid. The recipe I was following said that this would result in shorter stubbier noodles, but these were perfectly acceptable.
It took ages to make the noodles - mainly because I'd made such a large quantity of 'dough'. Every few seconds, I'd stop spreading, scoop out the cooked noodles into SP#' waiting colander. Then I'd go back to spreading dough, and she dropped the cooked noodles into cold water.
SP wasn't impressed when I started to complain about getting cramp in my hand, so she decided to have a go herself. I held the plate for her, and she worked the dough across it. She quickly realised it was harder than it looked.
The tray thing actually worked quite well. It was similar to the colander, but the holes were bigger and there were more of them. The edge is also shaped so it sits securely on top of a saucepan of water. I'd be tempted to get a ricer-type thing now, but I'd need to see one in action to assure myself that it would be easier overall.
When all the spätzle were cooked and cooled, I drained them and rolled them in some butter. The bowl then went in the fridge until we were ready.
Rice Krispy cakes next.
When the Gulasch was ready, I fried the spätzle in butter to heat them upk adding a good grinding of pepper. They were lovely! We ate loads. There was no Gulasch left but I froze the gravy to use another day with toad in the hole. I also laid most of the remaining noodles on a tray and froze them, popping them into a bag when done. I can then just hoik a few out when we fancy them. I also kept some unfrozen in the fridge to use in the next few days.
This is the spätzle recipe I followed, I found the pictures really helpful in making sure my dough was beaten propely https://www.daringgourmet.com/homemade-german-spaetzle/
