The Art of making Spatzli

[Hari Covert]

Well we have our next dinner dates in just seven days and I have been checking out my recipes and making sure all is OK for our "Chocolate Fest"

Our main course dish will be Braised Beef Olives in a Mole Sauce that will be served with Spatzli. This is a southern German/Swiss pasta that requires the use of a specialist piece of kitchen equipment. The Spatzli Sieve... mine was purchased over twenty years ago from Swiss supermarket chain Migros and is still going strong.

I used a recipe dear to me that is from my now dog eared copy of Practical Professional Cookery by Cracknell & Kaufmann - both taught me when I went to college too many years ago to remember!!!

You take 500g of a strong flour(bread) and to this you add 4 eggs, 4dl of milk and a touch of nutmeg. This will make a very wet batter that you then scrape through the holes in the sieve into a pan of boiling water. Once poached for a few minutes or until the little droplets float to the top you strain and chill. To finish off you then pan fry the pasta in a little butter, season and lightly colour.

This should go well with the rich but punchy sauce of the beef...will let you know what my "guinea pigs" think of it all a bit later...

Pudding is a freshly made Tarte aux Poires... just wondering if a hot chocolate sauce will go well with this along with a raspberry wheat beer from Whitstable that I picked up yesterday in my local supermarket... well will let you all know later

[Hari Covert]

Hi Jay
The spaetzli was fab... the lunch guests took a bag of it home with them... Migros certainly do some good stuff.. their chocolate is yummy - my wife especially loves their truffle chocolates and they are considerably cheaper than the major brands... normally have to travel light when we visit Zurich just to fit the chocolate in!!!
Cheers
Hari

[JayKays-SupperClub.com]

The spaetzli sound good...
Yep, Migros make good stuff, I used them a lot when I lived in Zurich.
Hope all goes well with the meal.
Best, Jay.