Petit Riz

guest post by Emmanuelle Tang

When I’m at a restaurant, I always carefully scan the menu, my eyes quickly searching for  “brie”, “rocquefort”, “cheddar” and the like. If there’s cheese in one of the dishes, chances are it is the one I’m going to order. I can’t say no to cheese. I guess it’s even my primary source of fat protein.

When I first arrived to Bayreuth, Northern Bavaria, Martin took me to a brewery for dinner. As I studied the menu, I knew what word I was looking for: Käse. And then I saw it. The ultimate dish. There was no need to go further. I put down my menu and started sipping my wheat beer.

“Do you need me to translate anything? Do you know what you’re going to order?” he asked.

“Of course. Käsespätzle.”

It was delicious. A rich flavor of cheese and caramelized onions.

“You know, my mom makes them even better”, he said after trying my dish (he was eating a boring Schnitzel with no cheese).

A few weeks later, I spent an afternoon in Gabi’s kitchen, Martin’s mother, learning about Käsespäztle: “Spätzle” is Swabian dialect for “kleine Spatzen”, which literally means “little sparrows”. They constitute a popular side dish in Swabia, a region of southwestern Germany, and are made out of wheat flour and eggs. In that regard, they are similar to Italian pasta. I even remember reading somewhere that Käsespätzle were like a German version of mac and cheese, only better.

Gabi is an authority when it comes to Käsespätzle: her own mother, Oma Ursula, is a true Swabian lady and her grandmother Walburga, was born and raised in Altusried, Allgäu, a part of Swabia famous for its dairy products. Working on an alpine dairy farm of the region, Walburga knew where to find the best emmental cheese and taught her granddaughter how to make real Allgäu Käsespätzle.

At this time of the year, it is the best winter comfort food one can ever imagine.

Ingredients:
1 kg flour
3 onions
5-6 eggs (depending on their size)
½ tbsp. salt
350 gr. grated emmental

Tools:
1 large bowl
1 large saucepan
1 frying pan
1 spaetzle grater (don’t worry if you don’t have one, you can always cut the dough into tiny pieces using a small kitchen knife and a wet cutting board.)
1 large pot

Directions:
In a large bowl, mix the flour and the eggs using a spiral whisk. Add salt and pepper. Very slowly, pour water into the mixture while constantly whisking (approximately 400cL), until small bubbles appear. Fill ¾ of a large saucepan with water and bring to boil. In the meantime, heat the large pot in the oven. In a frying pan, cook the sliced onions in butter with a teaspoon of salt until you obtain a nice golden-brown color. Once the water boils, cover the saucepan with the grater, pour a quantity of dough over it and start grating with a large spoon. Skim the spätzle as they rise to the surface, put them aside in the pot, cover with emmental and repeat the process again, making layers of cheese and spätzle. Cover with caramelized onions. Use the pan to melt more butter (this is no diet food!) and pour it over the spätzle. Mix everything together. Serve with a salad and a Kellerbier.

NB: originally, Kellerbier (“cellar beer”) was the beer that the brewmaster drafted from a special beer tap integrated in the barrel for tasting purposes, before the filtering process. It is therefore quite strong and matches well with the emmental and the onions.