Spätzle - made with sour dough discard (updated)

Anyone who maintains a sour dough starter knows that, with sour dough starter comes sour dough discard... What to do with the discard? 

Initially I would bake discard bread.  Those recipes simply use a little bit of starter in a more or less regular bread recipe made with instant yeast.  But there is only so much bread any one person wants to eat - even a German person; and my freezer also has limited capacity.  What to do with the discard?

The Internet is a beautiful place.  King Arthur has a whole collection of discard recipes.  Unfortunately, I am a recovering diabetic, so the cakes, cinnamon toast and even pancakes are not part of my diet. 

Bread is part of my diet despite the carbohybrates, because bread is heavenly.  Bread is what I choose to eat as my carbs for the day.

Recently, I found another beautiful place on the Internet - a Facebook group "Perfect Sour dough" where people talk about - what else - sour dough.  Someone there mentioned that you could make noodles with sour dough.  This is how I had the idea to make German noodles - spätzle - with sour dough discard.

Here is the recipe I'm going to use:

Spätzle (German noodles)

350 g flour 

50 g sour dough discard

4 eggs

1 tsp salt

12 TBsp water (200 ml) - adjust to desired consistency

50 g butter

The flour/sour dough ratio can probably be adjusted to your taste, but this is what I used.  With the eggs in the mix, I imagine that not much of the final hold comes from the gluten.

Mix flour, sour dough, eggs, salt and water into a dough. 

Push the resulting mixture through a ricer into boiling salt water.  

Fish the dumplings out of the water using a colander. 

Heat butter in a separate pot.  Add the dumplings into the pot.

If you have never made spätzle, I wrote a blog post "Taste of Home: Spätzle!!!" a few years ago.  It contains pictures and detailed instructions.  

Sour dough bread for the rest of us - or - Relax! It's gonna be OK.

Sour dough bread for the rest of us - or - Relax! It's gonna be OK.

Sour dough bread has always intimidated me.  The initial set-up, the feeding, the measuring, the timing, the commitment ... Maintaining a sour dough is like having a pet - and I'm not good with pets that don't remind me that they would like to be fed.  A sour dough was not likely to survive in my life.

But then, a few years ago, I set up a sour dough starter with the help of my adopted son. Truth be told, I did it primarily to entertain said son, but it has become a part of my life since then. In the beginning, for a few days - maybe even weeks, I obsessed over it, measured, fed, kept notes... but then, when I realized that this thing was doing just fine, I relaxed a bit.

Sour dough bread, it turns out, only sounds intimidating.  Once you get over the fear, it's really simple - and both the maintenance of the sour dough and the bread baking can be adjusted to work for the schedule of regular working folks.

Thai Potato and Vegetable Yellow Curry (vegan)

The theme for our Monday night dinner on 7/11/16 was Thai.  I love Thai food.  The first time I ate Thai was in Chicago, at a small hole-in-the-wall restaurant that I wished I could remember either the name or the location of....  I remember reading the menu and wondering what coconut milk would taste like in soup since I only knew coconut as an ingredient in sweet dishes like cookies and cakes,

To my surprise, it tasted absolutely wonderful - and to this day Tom Kah soup is one of my favorite dishes ever. Unfortunately, I can't make Tom Kah soup for Monday night dinner since it does not contain potatoes - and the potato challenge is still in full swing.

My daughter was not going to be able to make it to Monday night dinner since she would be out of town for a conference. That meant that I would not have to consider her food sensitivities when cooking.  Peppers were going to be added to this one!

As usually, my dish started with an evening of googling "Thai potatoes".  Of course I also had to make sure that I didn't repeat the Thai potato recipe I made last time.  When I came across a Thai yellow curry potato recipe that called for a homemade Thai yellow curry paste, I knew I had found a winner: Thai potato and vegetable yellow curry it was.

Imperfect Whole Grain Bread

My whole grain bread is definitely still a work in progress.  The end-goal is to create a loaf that is dense with grains, but that's not sunken in the middle - and not soaking wet.

I'm writing it down here because I don't want to forget what I did so far - and because a friend, who tasted the bread, actually asked for the recipe.

Potato Challenge: Super Easy Cajun Roasted Potatoes

This week's recipe was so easy, it almost does not deserve to be called a recipe.  My source was a recipe called "Way too easy Cajun potatoes" that I fancied up a bit by adding garlic to it.

These are the kind of potatoes that you can make instead of going out - they're that quick.

Potato challenge - Kroketten (croquettes)

On November 16th 2015 I made Croquettes.

I don't think I have ever had croquettes in the US.

In the area of Germany where I come from, croquettes are a (sit-down) restaurant side dish that has equal status to french fries.  As the images below show, Germans eat croquettes with a gravy sauce.  (Note that we do the same thing with french fries.  Also note that the German gravy is not as thick as the gravy I am used to in the American south.)

Picture from http://www.bavariankitchen.com/sides/kroketten.aspx

The Potato Challenge - Overview

Since it's going to take a little while to turn the previous potato dishes I made as part of the potato challenge into blog posts, I'll put an overview here until I get around to writing them.

Once they're written, this can serve as a table of contents of sorts.

Monday, August 31, 2015

• Theme: Grilling Out
• My Dish: Cheesy Hash Browns
• Source Recipe(s): Crockpot Hashbrown Casserole

Potato Challenge: Spanish Potatoes (Patatas Bravas)

Our local Kroger is having a "Taste of Spain" promotion this week. What better week than to select "Spanish Foods" for Monday night dinner?

Before the start of this week I only knew of 2 Spanish foods: Paella (I LOVE, LOVE LOVE paella - Thank you for making it, Leanna.) and tapas.  I knew about paella from having eaten it in Spain and about tapas from David Sedaris' essay "6 to 8 black men" where he asserts that "[Santa] certainly doesn't eat tapas".  By the way, the essay is definitely worth a read - or even better - a listen.  I enjoy David Sedaris' works most when they're read by the master himself, but I digress.

After discovering that there are quite a few Spanish potato recipes, I selected patatas bravas for this week.

Potato challenge - Cheesy hashbrowns

This hashbrown casserole that I brought to dinner on 8/31/15 was one of the dishes that started this whole potato adventure, so technically it's not really part of the potato challenge because the challenge didn't exist yet, but I have decided to overlook that little detail in favor of this perennial favorite.

Potato Challenge: Chorizo Potato Tacos

I have to admit that, when I was told last Monday that the theme for this week's Monday night dinner was going to be "tacos", I was a little concerned.  I had never heard of a taco filled with potato.  I mean, a starch inside of a starch - there was no way.

Imagine my surprise when I found several recipes for Chorizo Potato Tacos on the all-knowing Internet.  That's what I would be bringing.

Breakfast Hash Brown Casserole (enhanced with Bacon)

This week's theme for Monday night dinner is "breakfast foods".

I love American breakfast foods.

Growing up in Germany, breakfast was not my favorite meal.  Unlike today, where the German breakfast includes a variety of toppings for rolls (and is really good), back then it was rare to find sausage or cheese on the breakfast table.  A typical breakfast would be either Muesli (a mixture of oats, fruits and nuts in milk) or - more often - bread or rolls with butter and jam, and if you were lucky, a soft boiled egg. Today's German breakfast still differs from the American in that most German breakfast foods don't require cooking - and that it includes the fresh crunchy rolls that really are to die for.

My mother was obviously familiar with my dislike for anything sweet, so she would actually serve sausage (Aufschnitt) or cheese for breakfast at home, but I remember quite a few instances on vacations where my breakfast choices consisted of a hard-boiled egg, a roll or bread, unsalted butter and a few varieties of jam.  I'd often just put some butter on a roll and salt it for some flavor.  Sometimes I'd put egg slices on the roll, but none of it was very satisfying to me.


When I was 6 or 7 years old, my parents took me on a trip to Great Britain.  This is when I discovered the British breakfast for myself:   Bacon, eggs and the wonderful fried tomato. Not a glass of jam to be found anywhere. I was in heaven!

Potato Challenge - Potato Filled Spring Rolls

The theme for this Monday will be "Spring" - as in "light, healthy and/or indicative of a new start" (Brad, 2016).

My dish will be neither, but it will be a potato dish!  Instead of making a healthy dish, I will interpret the theme literally, because - according to Google - there is such a thing as a potato filled spring roll. Who knew?

You don't believe me? Check this out: Grand Lux Cafe Copy Cat Spring Rolls and Loaded Baked Potato Spring Rolls.  The latter was apparently inspired by the same restaurant as the former. Maybe this spring roll is more of an outlier than it is a "thing".

Either way, this sounds like something I need to try, especially because I have never made a spring roll before - also, because it involves potatoes.

Taste of Home: Käsekuchen (German cheesecake)

I'm actually not a fan of sweets in general, but growing up in Germany, I made an exception for cheesecake.  After I moved to the States, I discovered that American cheesecake is quite different from the stuff I grew up with.

American cheesecake is dense - brick-like.  You could probably hurt someone by hitting them with a New York style cheesecake.  It's also rich; I don't even want to know how many calories are in a slice of American cheesecake. 

German cheesecake is light and fluffy.  It's got a crust that's to die for and a creamy melt-on your tongue filling.  It's great stuff - and almost low cal.  (OK, that last one may be an exaggeration, but it's good stuff, if I may say so myself.)

Unfortunately, as many German cheesecake lovers discover when they get to the States, one of the necessary ingredients is not available for purchase in many parts of the United States.  Making cheesecake requires "quark" - a white cheese that has the consistency of sour cream, but the flavor of a cottage cheese or ricotta.  Here in Kentucky, I can purchase quark in Cincinnati at Jungle Jim's for about $7 per 1/2 lb or so. If I ignore the cost of the road trip to Cincinnati, that amounts to a $30 cheesecake, and that's just a bit much for an everyday cheesecake. 

Taste of Home: Kartoffelsalat (German potato salad) UPDATED!

At my house making potato salad used to require planning, because the recipe I blogged about before  called for an overnight stay in the fridge.  In addition, I would always cook potatoes specifically for the salad, because I was convinced that refrigerated potatoes would not work.

But then, during a trip to Germany, my son asked my mother to make potato salad for dinner - about 30 minutes before dinner was to take place.  I figured that it could not be done.

Apparently, my mother disagreed.  She pulled out some boiled potatoes from the day before from the fridge and fixed German potato salad in about 10 minutes flat. At dinner, my son remarked: "Mom, Oma's potato salad is still better than yours!" Back in the US I worked on improving my recipe - and I do think it's much better now, if I do say so myself.

So, without further ado, here is the recipe I use now:

Taste of Home: Zimtsterne (Cinnamon Stars)

It's that time of the year again - I am baking.

Cinnamon stars (Zimtsterne) may just be my favorite cookies - ever! They also don't last long when I share an assortment of Christmas cookies with my colleagues at work.  Turns out, they're not hard to make - and they're even gluten free!

Taste of Home: Kartoffelsalat (German Potato Salad)

There is nothing quite like discovering - at 12:45 am - that you forgot to make the potato salad you need for a pot-luck right after work the next day today. Did I mention that said my potato salad needs an overnight stay in the fridge for optimal flavor development? Oh well, sleep is overrated anyway.

While I am making potato salad, I might as well be blogging about it....

Eating in: Pizza

My son asked for pizza the other night.   I don't like ordering pizza. It's just too expensive - and I don't see what a meal that was invented to use up the leftovers in a kitchen should all a sudden cost $20 .

For me, it's back to basics - and leftovers....

This time I was trying a recipe I had found on King Arthur Flour a while back: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/pizza-crust-recipe

It was late when I started making it, but I told my son that it would only take about an hour to make, so it would not be much longer than what it would take for a delivery to get here.

Unfortunately, I didn't read the full recipe before I made that promise...  This recipe calls for 2 (count them - 2) 90 minute rises. So this will take longer than your standard delivery time.

Needless to say, my kids were less than amused when I figured that out at 8 PM....

Luckily, King Arthur Flour has another pizza crust recipe:
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/now-or-later-pizza-recipe

We had the "now or later pizza" that night.

We had the other one the next day - and it was good!  It had a nice thick crust reminiscent of restaurant pizza.  And, if you like a pizza dough that tastes slightly yeasty, this is the pizza crust for you.

Sorry, no pictures.  The pizza was gone before I got a chance to take pictures.

Baguette

This post was inspired by the post "Why Making Your Own French Baguette Is Empowering" on the Cook's Corner blog.

I have been wanting to make a decent baguette for years.  I can make a mean loaf of bread in the breadmaker, and I made a reasonably good roll following my Mom's recipe, but baking a baguette is one of those skills that still eludes me.

The above blog post got me closer than I have ever been by linking me to the King Arthur Flour baguette making blog entry as well as the recipe entry.

So I tried my hands at baguette, yet again.

Taste of Home: Semmelknödel (Bread dumplings)

This one's for Sergeant T. ....

Taste of Home: Kartoffelsuppe (potato soup)

Turns out, I love cooking.  However, the best part of cooking is when other people eat - and like (!) the food you make. 

The other day I made Dampfnudel and brought them in to work.  There are a few typical side dishes that are served with Dampfnudel: Vanillesosse (vanilla sauce), Weinschaumcreme (zabaglione(?)) or potato soup.  Since I prefer savory dishes over sweet ones, I made the potato soup to go along with it.   After tasting it, several of my work colleagues asked for the soup recipe.

So today, it's nothing fancy, just a basic potato soup, that ended up being (almost) vegetarian, but does not have to be.