Spaetzle

I am kick starting my blog with a food blog event, Monthly Blog Patrol (MBP). This event was started by Coffee , and involves browsing through the food blogs and picking recipes to cook.

This month's MBP is being hosted by Nupur of One Hot Stove and the theme is Less is More . Bloggers have to choose recipes, calling for 5 or less ingredients only, from other food blogs. To make things simple salt, water (or stock) and fats are excluded from the count of the ingredients. Also tempering or tadka can be counted as one ingredient.

It gives me a big high to start off with an event hosted by Nupur, because it was with her blog several months ago that I started browsing the food blogs.

Recipe for Spaetzle (pætsl) was shared by Arundhati. I also got some very good tips and tricks for it from ChezTeddy. I have put down my version of the recipe.

Ingredients:
1 C All-purpose Flour
2 Eggs
1/4 cup Milk
2 tsp Oregano
1/2 T Oil
1 T Butter
Salt, to taste
1.5 L Water

In a bowl mix the flour, eggs, milk, oil and salt, to form a smooth paste. Leave it to rest for 15-20 mins.
To cook the spaetzle, bring the water to boil in a vessel (I used a wok for it), add 1 T Salt to it. Wipe a flat board (cutting board would do) and a scrapper with water. Put the mix on the board to make a flat strip of about 5 cms width and 4 mm in diameter, this will solely depend on weather you like your spaetzle thick or thin. I like mine thin.

Spaetzle can be made either By Hand, scraping the dough strip from a board into the boiling water, or with a Spaetzle Press, the shape will hence differ based on the method you used. The ones made with the press will look just like noodles, as for the ones made with hand...keep reading.

Hold the board at the edge of the vessel at an angle, and scrap small pieces from the dough into the boiling water. Make sure you had your hands washed with water before starting with this; it will protect your hands from the steam of the boiling water. Once they are cooked they will float on the surface. Remove and put into cold water. Leave them in there for 5 mins.

In a pan heat the butter and add oregano to it. Add the cooled spaetzle, toss for a minute and Voila! It's done. I garnished it with the greens of the spring onions.

While making the second batch I grated some cheddar cheese on them. Cheese enhanced the flavor of Spaetzle. By the time I realized I had to take a photo of it, we were nearly done with it.