dumplings | The Rambling Epicure

A Swiss Reader’s Tale of Knepfle

Published by Jonell Galloway + Wednesday, April 2, 2014 Permalink 0

A Swiss Reader’s Tale of Knepfle

by Dee Rintoul

I grew up with “cheater” knepfle. I learned from my Oma, who had a Southern German background, but was Romanian-born. She made all kinds of noodles and pasta dishes — spatzle, real egg noodles that were dried and stored, but for everyday use. Knepfle were child’s play. In our own home, we made them for lunch and threw them into Lipton chicken noodle soup (which was not something we’d ever find in Oma’s kitchen!). God. That woman could cook…

Anyway. The way we did it was to beat an egg or two (depending on how greedy we felt at the time), add a pinch of salt and some dried parsley if we thought of it or wanted to impress schoolmates, then beat in all-purpose flour until it was so stiff it wouldn’t take any more and/or became too difficult to stir. Then we’d drop pieces in a pot of boiling water with a fork and a teaspoon, dipping both implements into the simmering soup in between to help the stiff dough drop. Once they were all in, we put the lid on, turned down the heat, and kept it covered for a few minutes.

When we finally lifted the lid, we found gorgeous, fluffy-looking, but very chewy little dumplings, all floating together on top of the soup. We loved these so much that as kids we used to scorn dumplings as being “too soft”. To our minds, dumplings, or anything that remotely resembled knepfle, ought to be quite al dente.

I still make these for chicken soup (and I try not to rely on Lipton but make my own as often as possible!).

Switzerland: Swiss-style Knepfle Pasta

Published by Jonell Galloway + Thursday, June 13, 2013 Permalink 0

by Jonell Galloway

Switzerland: Swiss-style Knepfle Pasta

Knepfle is originally from Alsace in France, but it is also eaten in Switzerland, in particular in the Jura region, which borders Alsace.

You can buy them at the supermarket, but they’re much better when you make them at home.

Swiss-style Knepfle Recipe

Ingredients

3 1/3 to 4 1/10th cups unbleached white flour

3 eggs

2 cups milk

About 1/2 cup water

3 large pinches of salt

1 oz. butter

Large pan of water for boiling knepfles

Coarse sieve with large holes

Instructions

Put eggs into a bowl. Add milk, water and a pinch of salt. Beat with wire whip.
Little by little, use wire whip to add flour until a heavy dough is formed. The dough should fall naturally off the whip.
Let dough rest for 30 to 60 min.
When time is almost up, bring large saucepan of water to boil. Add 2 pinches of salt.
Heat an oven dish large enough to hold all the knepfles.
NOTE: The hard part: Real pros push the dough through a coarse sieve, but this can be a bit tricky. If this is your first time making knepfles, I suggest that you drop the dough by teaspoons the first time, and try using a sieve the next time. Make sure you have a sieve with large holes before trying this.
Leave water to boil gently and start dropping teaspoons of dough into water, in several goes.
Let knepfles poach until they rise to the surface. This should take about 15 minutes.
Use a slotted spoon to remove them. Do this carefully so they don’t fall apart. Drain well. Place in heated oven dish.
Do this in steps, until all the dough is used up.
To serve, over medium to medium high heat, melt butter in a frying pan (butter should be sizzling).
When hot, add dry knepfles and brown, carefully turning them from time to time. Cook until browned, about 15 minutes.
Serving: There are many ways to serve knepfles: plain, with cream or bacon bits, or with other sauces.

One American’s Synopsis of Chinese Food

Published by Jonell Galloway + Friday, May 27, 2011 Permalink 0

by Gayle Black

In China, there are at least seven styles of cuisine. They vary according to region. While living in Jiangsu Province in the central eastern part of the country, I was mainly exposed to one, broadly defined as “spicy.” Many of the dishes were spicy, but not extremely so for my American tongue. In northern China, the preference tends to be for noodles and dumplings, rather than rice. The bread available is very good, even when produced on a mass scale. The Chinese are excellent bakers.

In Xuzhou, where I lived for half a year, the mutton is fresh and readily available. They slice it in an artful way and bring it to the table to be enjoyed for visual beauty as well as taste. A popular form of dining is called “hot pot.” Restaurants provide two pots of boiling water, and diners are able to cook various meats and vegetables at the table. Wonderful sauces for dipping complete the experience.

I especially enjoyed the fresh fruit available in China. The mandarin oranges were sold with stems and leaves, which kept them particularly flavorful. There were also small mangoes, which had a better texture and more delicate flavor than the larger ones most of us are familiar with. Fruit markets were common on many streets. There were also many flavorful dishes sold by street vendors. Of course the buyer had to be careful. I bought a good pancake with vegetable filling. I would have been hesitant to buy a meat-filled one.

In order to discover the many varieties of Chinese cooking, a traveler short on time would do best to visit Shanghai. It is a beautiful, cosmopolitan city where all manner of Chinese food and every other type of Chinese creation can be enjoyed.