German Family Dinner

We are making dinner monthly family dinners for S’s parents. This month he spearheaded wanting to make a full German dinner. Initially he wanted to make it for just us 2, but wow are we glad that we decided to share with with his parents. We still have leftovers…

The dinner included 4 homemade dishes (the 5th, as you’ll read on later was out of a box, so I’m not counting it as homemade).

• Semmelknödel (Bread Dumplings)
• Spätzle (Egg Noodles)
• Braised red cabbage​
• ​​Zigeunersoze (Red Pepper & Paprika Sauce)

Overall a tasty meal, and I love that the dishes were either from family recipes, or were found on the internet to represent dishes that he’s had with his German family.

Semmelknödel (Bread Dumplings)

Prep Time: 30 min Cook Time: 20 minServes: 4 servings
Recipe from Allrecipes.com

Ingredients

• 1 (1 pound) loaf stale French bread, cut into 1 inch cubes
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
• 2 eggs
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 pinch ground black pepper
• ½ cup dry bread crumbs

Preparation Steps

1. Place the bread cubes into a large bowl. Heat the milk until it starts to bubble at the edges, then pour it over the bread cubes. Stir briefly to coat the bread. Let soak for 15 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add the onions; cook and stir until tender. Stir in the parsley, and remove from the heat. Mix into the bowl with the bread along with the eggs, salt and pepper. Use your hands, squeezing the dough through your fingers until it is smooth and sticky.
3. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. The water should be at least 3 or 4 inches deep. When the water is boiling, make a test dumpling about the size of a small orange or tangerine, by patting and cupping between wet hands. Gently drop into the boiling water. If it falls apart, the dough is too wet. In this case, stir some bread crumbs into the rest of the dumpling batter.
4. Form the remaining dough into large dumplings, and carefully drop into the boiling water. Simmer for 20 minutes, then remove to a serving plate with a large slotted spoon. They should come out soft, spongy and delicious!

Spätzle (Egg Noodles)

Ingredients

• 250g flour
• 3 eggs
• ½ cup water
• 1 tsp salt

Preparation Steps

1. Combine ingredients with wooden spoon or stand mixer. Mix until dough is tough and bubbling.
2. Set aside dough to rest and a large pot of salted water to a boil.
3. Optional: add small amount of oil to the water to prevent Spätzle from sticking
4. Fill Spätzle press to 3cm below the top rim.
5. Keep the Spätzle press about 20cm above the water and press slowly, frequently stopping and starting pressure. Let the Spätzle break off and fall into the water by themselves.
6. Loosen the boiling Spätzle with a slotted spoon to prevent clumping.
7. Remove Spätzle from the water once they rise to the surface.
8. Repeat until all dough is used up. Move Spätzle to a colander and let drain thoroughly.
9. Serve on a warmed plate. Optionally, Spätzle can be pan-fried with butter, breadcrumbs, and/or finely chopped onions before serving.

Braised Red Cabbage

from popsugar.com
Serves: Serves 6 to 8

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 plant based sausage
• 1-1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 medium leek, cleaned, halved lengthwise, and sliced into 1/2-inch pieces
• Kosher salt, to taste
• 1 granny smith apple, peeled, cored, and thinly sliced
• 1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
• 1 medium head red cabbage (about 1-3/4 pounds), quartered, cored, and thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup, preferably grade B

Preparation Steps

1. Preheat the oven to 300°F.
2. Add the olive oil and bacon to a large straight-sided oven-safe skillet (12 to 13-inch) set over medium heat; cook until the sausage is just cooked through and has begun to crisp up, 
3. Add the butter to the sausages and toss in the leek, cooking (stirring occasionally) until it wilts, about 2 minutes. Season with a hefty pinch of salt, add the apple and ginger, and stir to distribute evenly.
4. Increase the heat to medium-high and add the cabbage, and cook, stirring frequently until the cabbage has begun to wilt and looks glossy, about 6 minutes.
5. Add the cider vinegar, maple syrup, and reserved sausage pieces, then cover the skillet with its lid and place in the oven. Cook for about an hour, or until the cabbage is tender, taking it out of the oven every 20 minutes to stir.
6. Remove from the oven and season to taste with salt. Serve warm or at room-temperature.

Boxed Dumplings

S found these at the German deli and wanted to give them a go. Verdict: box dumplings are boring – they’re literally potato starch in cloth bags (according to S). They were edible.

Zigeunersoze (Red Pepper & Paprika Sauce)

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp Olive oil
• 2 Cups onion, finely chopped
• 6 Cups Red pepper (orange or yellow also ok) – about 2.5 peppers or 350g
• 4 pieces cloves garlic, minced
• 3 Tbsp Flour
• 4 tsp Paprika
• 4 Tbsp Tomato paste
• 4 tsp Hot paprika
• 28 oz Low sodium stock
• 4 tsp Honey
• 4 tsp white sugar
• 2 Cups Sour cream

Preparation Steps

1. Cook onions and peppers in a saucepan.
2. When onions and peppers are soft, add garlic, paprika and flour and mix well. Cook a few more minutes. Add tomato sauce, sugar and honey. Continue to stir.
3. Add stock a bit at a time and simmer.
4. Let cool slightly and transfer to blender. Blend until smooth.
5. Before serving, add sour cream a bit at a time. Stir each time and taste the sauce.

What we learned…

• One type of dumpling is enough
• We’ll be making some edits to the recipes.
• I wanted more salt in the red pepper & paprika sauce. Actually, there was no salt in the recipe. No wonder it was bland. S will update the recipe because this is an absolute tragedy.
• We used regular paprika for the entire sauce, so it was also lacking the flavour kick from the hot paprika.
• Semmelknödel needed nutmeg.
• I usually don’t like cabbage, but this cabbage was delicious! S would use more vinegar or add red wine and add a little liquid smoke to add a similar flavour in lieu of bacon. The plant based sausage was delicious. Next time we’d add another sausage and cut it in bigger pieces. The smaller pieces got lost in the cabbage.