I love all food, but I definitely have a special place in my heart for German, specifically Bavarian dishes. Not sure why, maybe it’s in my blood (<50% German) or maybe it’s just the flavors they often use like rosemary, onion, nutmeg, ginger, and vinegars. Yum! Well, a few years ago I started a tradition at Christmas where I choose another country and make their traditional Christmas meal. One year I choose Germany and found these two recipes, they seemed fairly simple for me but still interesting and delicious. Oh man, were they good! And now I often make spaetzle dumplings when I am making soups and stews in place of traditional noodles. They are just so easy, delicious and I just adore the texture.
Now, off to Bavaria for some spaetzle and pot roast!
First take your pot Roast and brown it on all sides with a little salt and pepper and some Olive oil.
Once all sides are beautifully caramelized remove into either a large crockpot. Or this can be cooked on low right in the dutch oven for a shorter time, but I like the ease of my crockpot so I am going that route.
Add your diced onion and saute until the onions start to brown and caramelize and a small crust forms at the bottom of your pot (not burned.) Then add 1 cup of whatever beer you have on hand or If you don’t have beer or don’t like using adult beverages in cooking you can substitute beef or chicken broth for this. This is a critical step because this will allow you to get those amazingly delicious flavor morsels that are stuck to the bottom of your pot. In chef speak this is called Deglazing, but I like to refer to this step as “getting the yummy bits off the bottom” but whatever you call it, don’t let those delicious little flavor vehicles go unharvested!
While the beer is doing its part in the pot. Take about 1 cup of water and mix in white vinegar, salt, black pepper, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg .
Pour the Spice mixture over the Pot Roast and top with the delish caramelized onions.
Cook on low for 4-6ish hours on low. Check the meat to make sure it is not over cooking and getting dry.
Once the roast is cooked and you are ready to eat. Remove the Roast for slicing and pour the juices into the dutch oven to make a gravy. Remove about 1/4 cup of the juice into a small bowl or measuring cup and make a slurry with about 2-3 heaping Tbsp corn starch. Add Slurry back into the pot. Turn up the heat and whisk into liquid. This will thicken into a gravy as it heats up and the fat, juice and starch interact with the heat.
Stir regularly. Stir it enough to Keep it from burning or scorching, but you don’t have to stir constantly like many gravy recipes say. My opinion of course…
Slice that beautiful Roast Beast.
Replace the sliced roast and Gravy back into the crockpot to keep warm until you are ready to serve it.
Now on to the Spaetzle! (you actually can make this while the Roast is actually cooking, but only for sake of the blog am I doing it now)
In a large mixing bowl combine white all purpose flour (I know , I know, whole wheat flour gets gummy), nutmeg and salt. In another bowl combine milk and eggs. Then add liquid ingredients to dry ingredients and with an electric mixer, mix until well combined.
The dough will be very sticky but with a little stiffness. Some Spaetzle recipes call for a very runny batter, but I think a slightly stiffer one is easier to work with.
Place your handy spaetzle maker over your salted boiling water and drop small dumplings in. You can also drop batter through a colander or squeeze through a small hole in a bag (you can google what these options look like), but if you want to make Spaetzle more than once every 5 years, I would definitely invest in a Spaetzle maker. I think I got mine for less than $20 online.
When the batter first drops in the water it will sink and then it will rise to the top, allow it to float for about 1-2 mins and scope out with a slotted spoon. And repeat in batches until you have used all the batter.
Because I am serving this with a gravy, I just add a little fresh ground pepper. Often spaetzle makers will saute/fry these little dumplings further in butter or bacon grease, but that’s not the route we are going, they are so enjoyable just the way they are.
Enjoy!
- For the Pot Roast:
- 1 (~3lb) beef pot roast
- 1-2 Tbsp Olive oil
- 1 cup water
- 1cup beer or beef broth
- ½ heaping cup diced onions
- 1Tbsp white vinegar
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ginger
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
- ~1-2tsp Coarse Sea Salt - Few Pinches to salt meat while browning
- Fresh Ground Pepper - Season meat while browning
- 2-3 Tbsp Cornstarch for gravy
- For Spaetzle
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup milk
- 3 eggs
- ½ tsp nutmeg
- ½tsp coarse sea salt
- ¼ tsp fresh ground pepper
- Fresh parsley (to garnish at end)
- extra water to thin batter if needed
- In Dutch oven pour Olive oil and place roast in pot. Sprinkle course salt and pepper on all sides. DOn't go crazy with the salt, but use enough to meet the needs of this large piece of meat. Brown all side.
- When all sides are nicely brown, remove roast to a large crockpot. Add onions to the dutch oven to saute in the rendered fat. After they are sauted and a little getting sticky to the bottom of the pan, pour your beer or beef broth in to deglaze. Scrap all the yummy flavor vehicles off the bottom of the pan. Cook for about 5-7 min to remove alcohol from beer.
- Meanwhile in a small bowl combine water and vinegar, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. Pour into the crockpot over the Roast.
- NExt top the roast with the caramelized onions and replace the lid and cook for 4-6hours on low. Be careful not to over cook the meat.
- If making a gravy with juices, remove roast to slice and pour juices back into dutch oven. Take about ¼ cup of hot liquid and mix with 2-3Tbsp corn starch make a slurry. Then whisk slurry back into juices and combine well. Turn up heat to med-high heat, whisking occasionally to keep it from slicking or burning. Will thicken in 5-10 minutes with occasional stirring/whisking.
- For the Spaetzle:
- Mix flour salt and nutmeg in a large mixing bowl
- In a separate bowl, beat eggs and add milk.
- Add liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and combine. Batter will be pretty sticky, more like a runny muffin batter than a bread dough.
- Using a Spaetzle maker or colander, drop the batter into boiling water in batches. The dumplings will sink then float to the top. Allow them to float for 1-2min then remove with a slotted spoon and reserve on a plate. Continue until you have used all the batter
- Add Fresh ground pepper and parsley wanted and serve under pot roast and gravy
- Enjoy
