Uncle Tim's Rouladen and Homemade Spaetzle

Since we have gotten to my parents house in our transition moving to Wisconsin, Bubba has been getting fed really good stuff! My brother Tim is a master chef when it comes to the smoker grill and we have been enjoying various smoked meats this week.

He also has many other specialties like his Galumpkis, Banana Bread, homemade tortillas (recipe soon to come) and many other delicious things. I had never actually had his Rouladen and spaetzle before and even though I am told it is his version of our great grandmother "Oma's" recipe, I do not remember ever having hers either. So this was Bubba, my husband's and my first time having it.

We have been missing out. It was delicious!

I decided to have him write his instructions for cooking again because it really is funnier when he describes it. (Just check out his description of making Glumpkis)

Ingredients:

Rouladen:

1 Onion

4 + Slices of Bacon

 Thin sliced beef

 Dill pickles

 Beef bouillon 

Spaetzle:

1 1/2 cups Flour

 1/2 teaspoons Baking soda

3/4 teaspoons Salt

2 Eggs

1/2 cup Milk

Sprinkle of Nutmeg

Butter

Dice up an onion and a few (4 or more) slices of bacon. It's sometimes preferable to microwave the bacon a bit prior.

In a pan, fry up the bacon and onion on high heat until the onion starts to brown and the bacon starts to crisp. Take it off the heat so it can cool somewhere.

Wash the sliced beef and cut them in half; they're long, so each slice makes for two Rouladen. Fill a measuring cup with one cup of water and a beef bouillon (1 cube or 1 tsp). When the bacon/onion filler is cool enough to handle, place a spoonful of filler along with a quarter of dill pickle onto a beef slice and roll. Apply toothpicks where necessary to hold it all together.

When all the Rouladen are rolled, scrape any remaining filler into the measuring cup of bouillon. Brown the Rouladen in the sauce pan on both sides at high heat, (oil regularly, the damn things are that wonderful combination of delicate and stubborn) and fit them all in a large clay bowl (good luck).

Pour the bouillon/filler over the Rouladen, add a splash of red wine, cover the bowl and cook at 350 for an hour or two.

(Excuse the blurriness. Bubba was getting antsy and I didn't know
how to work the zoom on the camera since my photographer
was otherwise occupied)

Spaetzle

This is coming straight out of the Joy of Cooking, modified for personal use.

Mix up the dry ingredients, (flour, salt, baking soda, nutmeg) 

Then mix the eggs and milk in a separate bowl, and add gradually to the dry mixture stirring constantly  (there's a very specific consistency we're looking for, somewhere between peanut butter and bread dough, any thinner and it's ruined, but getting it mixed properly sometimes means adding more milk, then more flour to compensate). 

Should look like this. Liquid but viscous, thick, and kind of sloppy.

You need a large pot of salted (careful) water, brought to a boil, a colander of some kind and a rubber scraper to mash the stuff through and a strainer to drain them. 

When the water's boiling, press hard through the colander letting bits of dough fall through (you'll know you doing it right if your forearms are on fire) the dough cooks quickly (<2min), 

Scoop them up and let them drain. Continue until you run out of dough, put them safely somewhere until you're ready to fry them. 

Back to the Rouladen

Take out the rolled Rouladen and remove the toothpicks (if you feel like it). 

Then pour all the liquid into a saucepan.

 Add flour (~1/4-1/2C) and whisk over low heat until you have a fairly thick gravy. 

Then put everything back into the clay pot and into the oven, while you fry the Spaetzle.

It takes a fair amount of butter. High heat, stir often.

(Add more butter when no one's looking)

As it continues to brown, replace stirring with flipping with a spatula to get all the lovely brown bits.

Pour yourself some wine and ignore the peanut gallery.

Enjoy. (We were so excited to eat, we forgot to take a close up of the finished plate)

One of Bubba's new favorite meals!