• Capital: Berlin
• Population: about 83.7 millions
• Area: 357 168 km²
• Currency: Euro

For my german recipe I made rouladen with kasespaetzle. Rouladen are rolled pieces of beef with bacon, onions and pickles inside cooked in a wine and broth sauce. With that I made kazespaetzle which are small little dumplings baked in the oven with cheese. Aewesome!

Rouladen

Ingredients:

• 1 pound beef roast or any piece of beef that can be thinly sliced in 6 long pieces
• 3 pickles
• 1 onion
• 6 slices bacon
• 2 carrots
• 1 leek
• 3 tablespoons mustard
• 1 1/2 cup red wine
• 2 cups beef broth
• 2 tablespoons butter

Directions:

Prepare the meat by slicing it in 6 long flat pieces. Cut the pickles in half lengthwise (see next picture). Cut half the onion in slices and chop the other half. Peel and thinly cut the leek and carrots.

Take a piece of beef, spread 1/2 tablespoon mustard on one side, put a slice of bacon on it, add 4 to 5 slices of onion and a pickle cut in half lengthwise. Roll the meat with all the fillings inside. Once the meat is rolled, tie it on both ends with a piece of string and tie a piece of string in the middle too. Repeat with all the beef.

In a sauté pan, heat some oil until it starts smoking. Put the rolls in it and brown on every side. Once the meat is browned, transfer the roulades in a large pot.

In the same pan, melt the butter and cook the chopped onions, the leek and the carrots on medium heat for 4 minutes.

Turn the heat on high and pour 1/2 cup of wine in the pan. Cook until the wine is almost fully evaporated. When the wine is almost all gone, add another half a cup and cook again until the wine is all gone. Finally, add 1/2 cup of wine and cook for a 30 seconds. Pour the vegetables on top of the roulades in the big pot. Add some beef broth until 2/3 of the roulades are in the liquid. Bring to a simmer, cover, reduce the heat to low and let simmer for 45 minutes.

After 45 minutes, stir the roulades in the sauce. Cover again and cook for another 45 minutes.

Once the roulades are cooked, taste the sauce and add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with kazespaetzle.

Kazespaetzle

Ingredients:

• 6 eggs
• 500g tipo 00 flour
• 10 cl milk
• 1 teaspoon salt + some for the onion
• 1 1/2 cup grated emmentaler cheese
• 1/2 onion
• 1 tablespoon butter

Directions:

To start, peel and chop the onion. In a sauté pan, melt the butter and cook the onion on medium high heat until golden brown. Add about 1/2 teaspoon salt to the onions and reserve.

In a large bowl, mix the flour and the eggs together. Gradually add the milk and keep mixing. Add 8 cl of water and mix. The dough needs to be sticky and slightly runny. Keep on adding water little by little until you reach the right consistency. When you put some dough in a spoon it should slowly drip but be very thick.

Let the dough sit for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, preheat your oven at 350F and start boiling some water in a large pot.

To make the spaetzle you can either use a specialized tool that looks like this:

Just put this tool on top of the boiling water, add the dough on top and push it through the holes with the red spatula.

If you don’t have this tool you can use a spatula and grater with large holes. Put the grater above the water, add the dough on top of it and push it through with a spatula. Work in batches.

The third method is to use a cutting board and a knife or a spoon and put the dough on top and push small bits in the water like this:

Whichever method you use, work in batch and the speatzle will first sink to the bottom of the water and come up after less than a minute. When they come up, they’re cooked! After each batch, use a slotted spoon to get the spaetzle out and reserve them.

Once you finished using the dough, in a baking dish, layer 1 layer of spaetzle, some onions, some cheese and repeat until you run out of ingredients.

Put the baking dish in the oven and let it cook for about 15 minutes or until the top layer of cheese is slightly browned.

Guten appetit!