This weekend, my wife and I decided to make some German-style food. I was craving some veal and she wanted to make her grandmother’s spaetzle (German dumplings). To make spaetzle, you mix 2 cups all-purpose flour with 1/2 teaspoon salt. In a separate bowl, beat two eggs with 3/4 cup milk. Slowly drizzle the egg/milk mixture into the four and stir until you have a smooth batter:

Next bring a pot of salted water to a boil. This is where it gets a little complicated – and messy.

Since you’re working over a pot of boiling water, I recommend using two people. One person should hold a sieve or colander (whichever has the larger holes) over the pot. The second person should pour the batter into the colander a little at a time and work the batter through the holes with the bottom of a ladle:

The spaetzle only takes about 3 minutes to cook. As a general rule, they’ll float when they’re done. You might want to work the batter through the colander in two stages, removing the cooked dumplings with a slotted spoon after each interval.

Once they’re finished cooking, you can season them with salt and pepper, toss them with butter and serve. You really need to get some kind of liquid on them or else they’ll stick together. My wife’s grandmother throws them into a pan with a lot of butter and coats them with breadcrumbs to add a little more taste and texture:

Cook them just long enough to evenly coat the dumplings with breadcrumbs.

While my wife was busy with the spaetzle, I was working on the wiener schnitzel. I bought about a pound of veal scallopini from the grocery store. Even though they do a pretty good job of flattening it, I still pound them at home to ensure even cooking. I just put the veal in a ziplock freezer bag and pound it, one piece at a time, and then season the meat with some salt and pepper:

Next, I set up my breading station on my new kitchen island. It’s basically the same process as with the eggplant parmesan except I added 2 tablespoons of cream to the eggwash and used panko breadcrumbs instead of Italian:

I know what you’re thinking; Japanese breadcrumbs in an Austrian dish? Trust me, it works:

Next, you fry the veal over medium-high heat in a mixture of 2 tablespoons each of olive oil and butter. You may need to add more butter to the pan in between batches:

Finally, let them dry on some paper towels. I usually squeeze the juice from a half a lemon over the veal just before serving:

The veal came out very good, especially the panko crust. We like our spaetzle with just a little salt and pepper, but next time I might use the pan drippings from the schnitzel to make a red wine and mushroom sauce to pour it over the dumplings.

On Sunday, we tailgated and watched the riders compete in the USA Cycling Professional Road Race Championship. We took a cooler with some drinks and used the leftover wiener schnitzel to make some veal parmesan hoagies:

They really hit the spot. In a remarkable twist of fate, we happened to sit next to the woman who lived in our house for over 20 years. She asked if we lived close, and we told her the street name. She excitedly inquired about the exact address, and then she hugged me after I told her. It turns out that she’s the one who built the garage, the back deck, and extended the kitchen onto the old back stoop. And it was her father who built the dining room built-ins that I tore down and replaced. They only live a few blocks away, so I told them to stop by whenever they’re walking or driving by. I hope they come. I have lots of questions I’d like to ask.

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