Recipe for Käsespätzle: Käsknöpfle for 2.20 euros

Last weekend, a colleague shared a screenshot from her weather app on Instagram.

You could see the cities you last visited: Berlin was sweating at 36 degrees, Stuttgart at 35 and Vienna at 30. And then there was Hamburg, with 16 degrees and rain.

Of course, climate change is no joke.

But the latently lousy weather in Hamburg is also an unfunny running gag if you have to live here yourself.

Instead of gazpacho or summer salad, today there is hearty feel-good cuisine.

After Thailand, Iran, South Korea and India, I let myself be inspired by foreign cultures that I haven't had any relation to at all - southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Today we have cheese spaetzle with caramelized onions!

They taste good at any temperature, in sub-zero temperatures in front of the fireplace or after a long summer hike on the (Hamburg) mountain.

I realize that this will probably alienate more people than any other episode of this column.

Starting with the fact that I don't know if spatzle, spaetzle and knöpfle are actually the same thing.

A contact point for angry readers:internal letters can be found below.

Quite apart from the linguistic confusion, the prerequisites are extremely bad.

First of all, I'm not allowed to use any unusual kitchen accessories in this column - such as a spaetzle slicer.

And secondly, I've never been to a mountain hut myself.

So I only know spaetzle from northern German restaurants with tavern cladding, where they are usually the only vegetarian alternative on the menu.

Despite the actually cheap ingredients, the sparrows are often sold here for 15 euros.

I can do it myself for less money.

This is what you need for two portions of cheese spaetzle

• 200 g »grippy« wheat flour*

• 50-100ml milk

• 2 eggs, size M

• 200 g cheese, roughly a mixture of Emmental and mountain cheese

• 4 medium onions, alternatively roasted onions

• 50g butter or oil

• Some salt, sugar

• Optional some chives

*

Grippy flour is ground a little coarser than fine flour.

As a result, it absorbs liquid more slowly and is better suited for spaetzle dough.

Unfortunately, this fact is rarely printed on the flour bags in the north.

After a bit of searching, I found type 550 flour with the attribute "handy" at the discount store.

What does this cost?

I spent 2.20 euros per portion for the ingredients used.

How long does it take?

About an hour - unless you have to make the dough a second time like I did.

Then twice as long.

This is how you make Käsespätzle, Kasspatzen or Käsknöpfle

I'm starting on safe ground, taking care of the

first .

If you want well caramelized onions, you need rest and time.

We know that from the onion soup.

So quickly peel the onions, cut them into thin slices and then slowly cook them on low heat (about 1 of 3) in the pan with a little butter.

Stir every few minutes to keep the onions from frying and roasting.

The low heat caramelizes the naturally occurring sugar in the onion, without the addition of granulated sugar.

If you want to shorten the process because of too little time, you can help with a little sugar.

In any case, you should let the onions steam along for at least 40 minutes while you tend to the sparrows.

For the

Mix the flour, eggs, half a level teaspoon of salt and 50 milliliters of milk with a wooden spoon until the dough bubbles.

This is definitely an endurance sport and can take five minutes or more.

At the end, the dough should be so viscous that it slowly tears off the spoon but does not flow.

Unfortunately, my first attempt was almost bread-like and could not be processed properly later.

This can also happen if the ingredients are measured exactly, for example because the flour is too old or because the eggs were too small.

Learn from my mistakes and take a look on YouTube at what texture the dough should have before you have to mess up all your kitchen equipment with dough paste and start over.

If the dough is too stiff when beating, you can add more liquid without hesitation.

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil on the stove.

Professionals simply scrape spaetzle down from a wooden board into the pot.

But I would rather have buttons and therefore try to press the rested dough through the steamer attachment of my pot.

To do this, I simply put part of the dough in and press it over the small holes with a spatula, spatula or large spoon so that small drops of dough fall out at the bottom.

The first attempt happens: nothing.

My firm dough cannot be pressed through at all, and the metal steamer is getting hotter and hotter and the dough harder by the second.

Will this be my Waterloo?

I'm about to give up and swear.

I would love to shoot cannons at the sticky sparrow dough that is now sticking to my hands, camera and earlobe.

In the meantime I would like to cheat and secretly use my potato and spaetzle press - unfortunately the dough comes out as an indefinable mass.

At that moment, I would definitely have wished for a nice grandmother from the Allgäu to show me which tricks to keep in mind.

Instead, I start a second attempt on my own with more liquid dough and press it through my 1-euro plastic pasta sieve - that works much better.

A spaetzle slicer is certainly the less stressful option.

Gradually prepare the dough in small portions and when the knobs float to the top of the water, fish them out with a ladle and place them in a preheated bowl.

Put some grated cheese on top and then layer another portion of sparrows on top.

Stir well a few times, adding a ladleful of the cooking water if needed for extra creaminess and even better melted cheese.

Now just spread the hopefully well browned (and shrunken to a fraction of the original amount) onions and some chives on the spaetzle and quickly serve it so steaming hot that you can at least imagine how summer feels in other places.

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