a productive Sunday!

What you see before you is fried spätzle with mushrooms and "Vegan Tender Chunks" (by the same company who makes the oh-so-chickeny veggie burger).

I tried to make a Lebanese sweet and sour eggplant dish I found in the NY Times. It calls first for roasting eggplant slices. In my gas oven where the heat can come either from above or from below... the bottoms of almost all the slices burned.

With some quick thinking between me and Boyf, we agreed on this lovely, easy and quick German pasta with a couple extras.

I've tried my best to convert the flour measurement online, but answers vary widely. It's best to use a kitchen scale, I think. Yes, the European has converted me.

Spätzle 

adapted from Marions Kochbuch
serves 3

prep time: 10 minutes
cook time: 5 minutes

ingredients:

250 g (2 cups minus one tbsp) flour
2 eggs
1 tsp salt
1/8 liter (1/2 cup) water

directions:

In a deep bowl with flat sides, mix all the ingredients together using a wooden spoon. Don't be afraid to whip it around.  Smack it against the sides of the bowl until the batter is elastic and you see bubbles form.  (Boyf's dad swears by using sparkling water to do the job; his mom uses tap water.  Or is it the other way 'round?)

You then have two choices: spread small batches onto a wet cutting board and try your hand at slicing the Oobleck-like mixture in 1/2-inch slices, or use a spätzle maker.  For a real Schwäbsiche Mama showing you how the pros do it, check out this video... which is in charming Swabian dialect.

In either case, the results go straight into a pot of boiling water. With the spätzle maker, hold the contraption directly over the boiling water and slide the hopper back and forth; the batter will drip through the holes into the water.  With the spätzle board: Well, you saw Frau Lutz!  Neidunge!!

The spätzle are done when they float to the top of the water, which happens pretty quickly.

You can serve them as is, with a sauce (a favorite in this house is Zürcher Geschnetzeltes, which some day when we make it I'll translate the recipe), or dump 'em into a buttery pan and fry them.

Tomorrow morning, I'm going to attempt pumpkin fritters for breakfast.  The puree not used in lunch's chili is sitting out to drain overnight.

Tomorrow afternoon, my parents arrive! Apart from doing a bit of traveling, we may go out to eat so the blog will probably get a bit quieter.

As always, happy cooking.