August 26, 2010 - 9:53am
Spätzli And Game, A Swiss Specialty
Spätzli is a speciality in Switzerland. It is a type of dumpling that is almost always served with game. The hunting season starts in a few weeks for about 3 weeks and restaurants and those of us who love game will be preparting a lot of Spätzli.
http://turosdolci.wordpress.com/2010/08/26/spatzli-and-game-a-swiss-specialty/
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We love them. My grandmother taught me to make them almost half a century ago and my own kids and grandkids are hooked on them. They are the most requested thing for me to make when we have people over for dinner. I haven't ever tried to make them by using the board like you are doing, we drop them by tiny teaspoon full into the boiling liquid or drop them thru a large holed strainer. I did eventually buy one of those spatzle makers but the thing rusted after the first use so I just do them the old way nana taught me. My favorite things to serve them with is pot roast or swiss steak Any way you form them you sure can't beat the homey taste of them with gravy or fried in a little butter!
Mattie
www.inthekitchenwithmattie.com
Mattie,
As you can see the fingernail polish in the picture is blue. My granddaughter is making them in this photo. They also love them and have learned to make them at a young age. This is my mother-in-law's recipe and the old fashion way o making them. Honestly I think the gadgets they sell to make them is much more cumbersome.
Regards,
Patricia
with a touch of nutmeg....
Seems like everytime I want to make them, it takes more time to find that plate with the holes in it than to use a wet cutting board.
If these tools get you the results that you like then and you find them easy to use then that is what it is all about. I like that people make these recipes their own. Boiling them in broth or adding nutmeg gives some variety to them. As I mentioned in my post adding spinach, beets or carrots also gives some variety and color. They are delicious however you make them.
Thanks for all the responses.
Patricia
Hey Patricia,
I'm adding to the Spaetzli and "Hirschruecken" "Rahm Morchelsauce"
And also the game is "aus eigener Jagd!"
Thomas
What I wouldn't give for some good old mushrooms I harvested in the Black Forest way back when....
Thanks for your additions, I should have added the German titles but but I didn't think anyone would undertand it. I adore Rahm Morchelsauce not only with hirsh but also with kalpfleisch.
The photo's are great! Hope you have a a good Gute Jagd this year. I know in Germany it is a lot longer then in Switzerland. We often bought venison in Germany well after the season.
Regards,
Patricia
Bow hunting starts September 18 in Wiscosin, I can't wait..............
Thomas
whereas here in the States there doesn't seem to be an FDA approved store.
I believe in the US in most States if not in all, it is illegal to sell or barter wild game. What you can buy is from game farms and tha's not the same....
Thomas
Our employees use to bring us a bucket full of mushrooms they picked in the forest in Bayern. We made them just with a few herbs and wine and feasted on them. So nice to be able to talk to people who have experienced the same delights as we have.
Regards,
Patricia
To answer your queston about where to buy Morcheln. We buy them at the farmers markets in Switzerland. Actually they have an abondance of them in the markets in the French Region but are only available in small quantities in the Swiss German and Italian regions. I have no idea where to buy them in the US., but they must grow here because I have found some in my daughters yard in New England. You can buy them dried and they work well if you want to make a cream sauce. We always have some packages of dried Morcheln on hand. Check markets like Whole Foods, Fresh Market.
Good Luck,
Patricia
Frische Pfifferlinge with homemade Spaetzle in the beautiful Black Forest after a day of fishing in the Wutach and Haslach, I still remember...............
Thomas
and those big Steinpilze ....
.... in a beautiful risotto hmmmm.....
The Morcheln we find in our woods in the Driftless area in South Western Wisconsin. We always go up in May for a week, fly fishing, turkey and muschroom hunting.
Thomas
Dude ...I think we'd get along! Those are some good eats! Wild steak-on-the-hoof, mushrooms, and spaetzli! I miss my trips to Germany and Switzerland!
Are Morcheln the same thing a Morels? They look the same to me...
Brian
I'm glad that you like venison too. A lot of locals just make sausages out of it or even worse throw most of it away... and in Switzerland it is such an expensive delicacy.
And you are right Morcheln are morels here.
Thomas
I've been eating deer, mostly blacktail, all my life ...and moose, caribou, elk. I still like the blacktail the best, or maybe the caribou if it's not a buck in the rut. In Switzerland, I used to love the thin steaks that they'd make, seared on the outside, very red on the inside, creamy morel sauce on top ...serve it beside a pile of Rosti and I'm in heaven! My wife and I are going back for our 10th anniversary ...gonna spend most of a month there.
Brian
Brian,
If you are going in the Fall you won't have any problem finding game on the menu's. But if you are renting an apartment then go to the market and make it at home. You will find venison and elk in just about every market. Also they will sell hirshpheffer, a venison stew that you can take home and just heat up and goes great with spätzli. They often serve these with carmalized chestnuts, which you can also buy at the market.
Let me know if you want a rosti recipe, I will send it to you. Also be sure to go to Klosters & Davos and the Sertig. The pictures I have on my post are from there as I live in Klosters. Unfortunately I'm traveling and building a house here in the US right now so won't be there for quite some time. I have listed a few posts I've done on Switzerland. If you have any questions about Switzerland that I could help you with, please feel free to send me an email and I will try to answer them for you. One of the posts has the address of a small hotel in Cully, (near Lausanne) where I've lived for several years on Lake Geneva in the wine country and is paradise. They are friends of mine and the hotel is right on the lake, the address is on the post. It is a World Heritage Site and simply a beautiful area. When will you be going?
turosdolci@pturo.com
Have a great time
Patricia
http://turosdolci.wordpress.com/2010/07/28/zurich-a-city-of-contracts/
http://turosdolci.wordpress.com/2009/10/18/the-swiss-alps-graubunden-words-are-not-enough-the-news-is-nowpublic-com/
http://turosdolci.wordpress.com/2009/09/11/funf-dorfer-the-5-villages-along-the-wine-route-of-maienfeld-switzerland/
http://turosdolci.wordpress.com/2009/09/09/racelette-a-swiss-cheese-specialty-named-by-wilhelm-tell/
http://turosdolci.wordpress.com/2009/07/30/motorcycling-in-the-swiss-alps/
http://turosdolci.wordpress.com/2009/09/04/“route-du-vin”-lavaux-switzerland/
Thank you very much for all the information, and yes, happey to receive a recipe for rosti anytime. I picked up a few Betty Bossi cook books while I was there last time. I have to translate them from French to use them, but at least from my uneducated swiss cuisine perspective, they appear to be good enough. Are they? Or do you have suggestions on other books that are good, cook books on Swiss cuisine that is?
Brian
Brian
It sounds like you had "Entrecote an einer Morchelrahm Sauce mit Roesti".
Enjoy your stay in Switzerland, to eat game you have to be there in the fall and don't forget your wallet....
Thomas
PS: You are not trying to avoid the mayoral race in your home town in Alaska.....
Haha! No, going to Switzerland is because I love it there and my wife's never been. The mayoral race in Wasilla has GOT to find someone better than who's been in the news about it lately ...everybody here knows the guy is a loser, an ego, an empty suit on a narcissistic trip. He's not going anywhere.
Brian
I have faith in you and the people of Wasilla!!!!
Thomas
Where I live they would never throw game away. We don't eat a lot of red meat, except for venison or elk. We can buy venison sausage from local farmers. And there is a speciality called bunderfliesh (air dried venison) and hirschpfeffer(marinated in red wine and a stew). Some restaurants only open for the few weeks during the season serving only venison. When the local venison and elk are sold out they close. We then get it from Austria and Germany as they have a longer hunting season then Switzerland. We can get it several months a year but the local game is usually sold out in a matter of weeks after the season.
Can you buy fresh morels in the US. I am in the US now and have never seen them fresh in the market.
Patricia
Unfortunately it happens in the area we hunt. As Swiss it is difficult to understand.
Morels can be bought fresh for a very short period of time in May. But I have never seen them in stores it's more from the farmers and maybe at some specialty markets.
Thomas
Yes Morels are the same and you can buy them dried. They work great with risotto and with a morels cream sauce.
Patricia