cook.
Käsknöpfle
Soft dumplings scraped into boiling water, layered with mountain cheese and deep-fried onion...
Ingredients
400 g plain flour
4 eggs
200 ml water or milk
1.5 tsp salt
0.25 tsp grated nutmeg
300 g aged alpine cheese (Bergkäse), grated
3 onions, sliced thin
80 g butter
black pepper, to taste
300 g apple sauce, to serve
Method
Beat the flour, eggs, water, salt and nutmeg into a thick, sticky batter - it should fall from the spoon in a slow ribbon, not pour. Beat it hard for 5 minutes until bubbles appear; that beating is what gives them their bite.
Rest the batter for 20 minutes.
Fry the onions properly: cook them in half the butter over a medium-low heat for 20-25 minutes, until they are deep brown and sweet with a bitter edge. Golden is not far enough - this is the flavour that carries the dish.
Scrape the batter into a wide pan of boiling salted water, a little at a time, off a wet board or through a Spätzle press. They are ready about 30 seconds after they float.
Lift them out with a slotted spoon straight into a warmed dish, letting them drain.
Layer, do not stir: a layer of hot dumplings, a handful of grated cheese, another layer, more cheese, and so on. The heat of the dumplings melts the cheese between them; stirred through, it turns into a single rubbery mass.
Pour the remaining butter, browned in the pan, over the top with the fried onions, and grind on plenty of pepper.
Serve at once with apple sauce on the side. The sourness is not optional either - it cuts the fat.
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