German Comfort

« Baked spaetzle ala Finland with sausage, aura cheese, pineapple, vegetables, sour cream and caramelized onions. »

Surprisingly, my baking apparently isn't deadly enough to raise Jarkko's 'bad' cholesterol levels much at all in spite of only using butter, the much demonized clogger of arteries along with eggs. Since he seemed to get a bit enthused at the prospect of my baking more savoury dishes, I thought I'd try a bit of variety since you can't live on dessert alone. I also have sworn off the company cafeteria so the leftovers make for a far more tasty and less deadly lunch. I've lost four pounds in four weeks just from foregoing lunch in the cafeteria and having a sandwich at my desk instead. I went through the line the other day and saw a vat of green gunge in a glistening pool of green oil that was supposedly the vegetarian option. It's fascinating how food services can serve food that is simultaneously swimming in oil and tasteless. It's a difficult job making food for the masses, but some try harder than others to make it palatable. I figure that if I can lose four pounds just by avoiding the deadly lunch downstairs, I could probably lose 20 in the same amount of time if I gave up bread, but that ain't going to happen.

My mother's family was from the Alsace region of Germany and I grew up loving the spaetzle she used to make for its hearty and comforting simplicity. I had a heaping plate of them in a brewpub in Prague and seriously thought about ordering a second helping. The tasty noodles are lovely just with a bit of butter and pepper, but apparently parts of southern Germany also bake it together with cheese and onions to liven it up a bit. I thought that if you can put cheese and onions in with spaetzle, why not add meat and vegetables and make it a whole meal? To give the dish a decided Finnish flair I substituted aura blue cheese for gruyere and added chopped pineapple and sausage. After an afternoon of walking across the snow-covered sea, which is like wading through a sub-zero, white Sahara in hell, it was a welcome meal that I'm sure I ate more of than was good for me, but couldn't help myself. :)

I'm curious as to why Finnish cuisine seems to lack dumplings or noodles like spaetzle. Russia and the Baltics have a reasonable variety of them as do the Germans and most of Eastern Europe. All these cultures influenced Finnish food to some degree so why didn't dumplings catch on? Perhaps I just missed them on the buffet while I was frozen in horror staring at the vat of butter mixed with caviar as I suspect there is some unwritten rule that every country must have its own national dumpling or noodle.

Baked Spaetzle ala Finland

Makes: 6 servings
Time: spaetzle - 20min, assembly - 20min + bake time
Special tools: spaetzle maker, pizza pan with holes or colander

• 1 batch of spaetzle (see recipe below)
• 350g or 12oz sausage (e.g., kielbasa) or meatballs
• 150g or 5.5oz crumbled aura blue cheese
• 200g or 7oz frozen peas or root vegetables
• 150g 5.5oz drained pineapple chunks
• 1 small tub kermaviili or sour cream
• 1 medium onion, sliced and caramelized
• salt and pepper

1. Prepare spaetzle and set aside.
2. Brown sausage or meatballs in a skillet or your casserole dish. Drain fat. Cut onion in half lengthwise. Chop crosswise into thin slices and cook in meat fat or olive oil until soft and brown.
3. Combine meat, blue cheese, vegetables, chopped pineapple, sour cream, salt and pepper in a covered casserole dish. Stir in spaetzle. Top with caramelized onions.
4. Bake at 200C for 30-40 minutes. Serve hot with blue cheese garnish and mustard.

Spaetzle

Makes: about 4 cups
Time: 20 minutes

• 4 eggs, beaten
• 2/3 cup or 1,6dl milk or water
• 1 teaspoon table salt 
• 1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper finely
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg 
• 3 cups or 7dl unbleached all-purpose flour 
• 4 tablespoons butter, room temperature

1. Beat eggs, milk, salt, pepper and nutmeg in a medium bowl. Whisk in flour to form a thick, smooth batter. Allow batter to rest for 10 minutes.
2. Heat water in medium saucepan to a boil. Set a clean bowl with a small amount of butter in the bottom nearby for the cooked spatzle.
3. (If using a spaetzle maker) Spoon a small portion (~1 dl) of the batter into the the square container and with the grater resting on the pan rim, move the metal container quickly back and forth along the grater until the dough has been pressed through the grater into the boiling water. Transfer spaetzle that float to the surface to the warm bowl using a slotted spoon or strainer. Repeat until all batter has been used. (If you don't have a spaetzle maker, you can use a pizza pan with holes, or anything else with similar holes, and a spatula.)