As I had promised in yesterday’s post, I am back to report about our trial dinner for Krautspudel. I had made the minimum portion (half the recipe) just to give it a trial run, and it is all gone!! Believe it or not, I am on my second batch of already, making it once more!
Before you start with the Krautspudel….:
Have Kammfleisch (regular pork chops) browned a bit and two cans of Sauerkraut (drain juice, add water to pot, beef/vegetable soup cube, 4 Tblsp of sugar, cloves) ready and heated before starting with the dumpling. Let it simmer until your dumpling is ready to be put in.
Ingredients for the Krautspudel:
500 gr flour
1 package of yeast
a good dash of salt and sugar
260 cl of milk
80 gr of butter or margarine (melted)
Instructions:
Place flour in bowl leaving a dent in the middle
Crumble package of dairy yeast or add dry yeast (package) into the middle
Add milk and melted butter/margarine, salt and sugar
Mix well
Let sit for 30 minutes in a warm spot (oven at a very low temperature will do)
When the dough has approximately doubled in size, it is ready for the final part.
Place a cotton cloth on top of the Kraut and meat (make sure its sides are not overlapping onto the hot part of the burner – cut down to size). Place raised dough in the middle of the cloth, spread it out a bit if necessary, and cover it at medium heat for 20 minutes. Do NOT lift the lid while cooking.
The meat and Kraut will be tender and soft by then and the dumpling will be done. Of course, during those 20 minutes, while your Krautspudel is cooking, you should prepare the gravy. Any packaged brand will do – but my mom’s secret ingredients were: some ketchup and sugar. This will make all the difference!
After watching this steamed lid for twenty minutes, smelling this wonderful food, and fixing the gravy on the side, we were ready to consume.
As a matter of fact, the second Krautspudel is in the making right now. We will have it once more late this evening…. As we say in Franconian: You can eat yourself deppert and damisch on this one.
If there is anything I omitted, please let me know.
Making yeast dumplings from scratch is on the way out in western society. Let us keep this wonderful dish with easy-to-get ingredients alive. All it requires is some local meat, some local cabbage, yeast and flour. The cost of logistics is kept low in regards to our environment as well. Sustain yourself on local food.
Enjoy this precious recipe.