My German cousin and his family have been gone only about two weeks and I miss our nightly meals together. I enjoyed cooking typical American favorites such as hamburgers, tacos, casseroles, and barbeque beef burgers for them to taste, but my favorite dinners are when my German house guests cook for me! Last year my kids and I had lessons in Spätzle making, so this time around I suggested Klöße, also known as Knödel, which are German dumplings. My cousin's sweet wife, Kathrin, had showed my daughter how she makes them at home in Sommerhausen when we were there two years ago:
The trick with making them here in the states, however, is to find the right dough, so Kathrin and I drove to the local German delicatessen to find the brand she likes best, called Henglein Seidenknödel.
No luck, so we bought these packages instead:
These are powder mixes, which Kathrin didn't think would taste as good as the fresh dough in the Henglein package. But we forged ahead, with all four kids blending, mixing, and ball-rolling.
The rolled Klöße are placed in a pot of boiling salt water but should be immediately removed from heat and allowed to just gently simmer for 20 minutes.
We made the Klöße as a scrumptious side dish to Geschnetzeltes, sliced pork tenderloin with fresh mushrooms in a cream sauce.
The meal was enjoyed by all and the kids were very proud to have taken part in the cooking, of course. Of the two varieties of Knödel in the packages we bought, we thought the bayrisch, not the halb & halb, tasted a little bit better, but overall Kathrin still prefers the Henglein fresh dough she buys at home in Germany.
I've got to try that recipe!
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