Spätzle

The other day I finally got a round to making spätzle. My friend Matthias made them for me when he was living in New Zealand, and when I was in Germany in 2005 I hunted and hunted for a spätzlepresse but couldn't find one. I finally got one in Edinburgh - it was sold mainly as a potato ricer, but it has a couple of extra plates and one of them is for spätzle.

Flour and salt …

… milk (should have been water) and egg …

… mixed to a batter and left to rest:

Onions fried …

… until soft and caramelised:

Out with the potato ricer …

… and in with the spätzle screen:

It takes two hands to press the batter through the holes into boiling water, so no hands left for photographs, but this is what they look like when they're cooked:

They rise to the top of the water and you scoop them out into a colander to drain.

Then, a layer of onions in an oven dish …

… a layer of spätzle …

… some cheese, and more onions …

… and so on until everything is used up …

… then into the oven to bake until all brown on top:

I should have left it for longer but I was hungry.