German Night At Almost Heaven South, Sausage, Kraut, Spaetzle

Do you remember my June 5 post where I mentioned that daughter, Wende, had brought us a new supply of sausages from The Wurst Kitchen in Aurora, IL or the July 15 post about making our first homemade kraut in several years or the August 14 post that included homemade spaetzle?  Well, it’s okay if you don’t but they are all involved in this meal that is timed to use our newly made kraut which has been fermenting for nearly seven weeks.

Since they also enjoy kraut, we invited our neighbors, Pat & Steve, to join us for supper so they could experience the difference between fresh and canned kraut from the Mennonite Amish Market (very good for processed kraut) and eat spaetzle for the first time.

The menu for the meal was pan fried bratwurst, homemade kraut, and homemade spaetzle using the following recipe which we amended from the last time to get a better consistency - I watched a pro make it on TV.

Easy German Spaetzle

The Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp salt

4 large eggs

½ cup milk + more as needed

1 tbsp. butter

The Instructions:

1. In a bowl, whisk together the flour, eggs, milk, and salt. Stir until the batter is well combined and develops bubbles. You can also use a mixer. The batter should neither be too thin nor too thick or it will be difficult to make the spaetzle with your spaetzle maker. Let the batter sit for 5-10 min.

2. Put a colander into a bowl to drain the Spaetzle once cooked and bring a large pot of water over high heat to a boil, add about 1 Tbsp of salt to the water, and reduce temperature to a simmer.

3. Press batter through a spaetzle maker, a large holed sieve or colander into the simmering water.  

4. Work in batches, after using about 1/2 of the batter stop adding new spaetzle and let them cook for about 2-3 minutes, or until they float to the top. Stir occasionally. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the spaetzle to the colander so that excess water can drip off.

5. Put the spaetzle in a bowl and add 1 or 2 Tbsp of butter to the hot spaetzle to prevent them from sticking together and cover to keep warm.

6. Melt three tablespoons of butter in a frying pan.

7.Add the cooked spaetzle to the pan and cook until just a bit golden.

Since kraut loses its some of its crunch and flavor when cooked, we just nuke it enough to warm it.

We served family style and this is my plate with the spaetzle and kraut side-by-side and topped with a brat.

Serve with good mustard.

The Verdict:

I cooked the sausage ahead of time and kept it warm in the 160F toaster oven and Bev pre cooked the spaetzle so all we did was finish in the skillet just before serving.  This plus just nuking the kraut a little made it very easy to get the meal on the table at serving time. The meal turned out great and was a big hit with everyone.  Our kraut is not yet tangy enough for me but it’s very good and was preferred by some diners – I mixed the two.  Our spaetzle needed a little more than ½ cup of milk but the new maker worked great.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

08/24/22 meal date