Sausage and Knoephla Recipe
If you had an opportunity to check out my January meal plan, you may have been a little puzzled when you came across yesterdays meal: Sausage and Knoephla. I can just see you scratching your head thinking, what on earth is knoephla??? Well let me tell you friends it is some of the most comforting food I've eaten. A big part of that is because it is a family recipe that the Germans from Russia brought with them when they settled in North Dakota. Knoephla simply put, is a dumpling. As I was doing a little research on this dish I read on another food blog that outside of North Dakota it is a dumpling but within the state is't knoephla. There are lots of ways you can cook with knoephla with soup being one of the most popular. While my grandmother on my dad's side of our family makes the most delicious knoephla soup, my favorite is to simply fry it up in butter, end of story.
Now, I have one very strong opinion of knoephla and I apologize in advance if I offend anyone but here goes. If it isn't homemade from scratch (sometimes you can find it frozen in the grocery store) then it doesn't even count. I'm sorry but knoephla from the store, to me, tastes over processed and artificial. Making knoephla from scratch is no small feat. I'm not gonna lie it takes time; from start to finish about an hour to hour and a half depending on how much you're making at a time. Believe me though, when it is made from scratch you can taste all of the love and hard work that went into the making. So without further hesitation, let me share this North Dakota staple and tradition in cooking with you!
Ingredients:
-2 c. flour
-1 egg
-milk (I will explain how much below)
-1 tsp salt
- 1 potato
Directions:
1. Fill a large stew pot with water over high heat. Peel and quarter the potato. Add it to the water. ***Skipping this step will alter the taste of the dumplings. There have been times where I go to grab a potato only to find we don't have any and decided to go ahead without. To be honest, if that happens it usually ends up being a pizza night.***
2. Mixing the dough: Before I had my fancy Kitchen Aid mixer I mixed my knoephla dough the old fashioned way: Add flour, egg, and salt into a bowl adding enough milk to make a stiff dough. In my family, we often don't measure but just dump until what we are making looks right or tastes right. Not super helpful but the more you make this recipe you'll know how much milk to add just by looking. ***Keep in mind you can always add more milk as you mix but be careful not to add to much in the beginning because you cannot take it away. You can add more flour but then you're knoephla will be less fluffy and much more dense.*** Now, when it comes to the actual mixing, my mom taught me the best way to mix the dough is to take off all your rings and just dig in with your hands and believe me when I say she was right (you're welcome Mom!). If you have a Kitchen Aid mixer simply use the dough hook to mix the dough.
3. After the dough is mixed, place it onto a floured surface and knead it a little so the dough all comes together.
4. Using a floured rolling pin, roll the dough out until it is approximately 1/4" inch thick. Next use a pizza cutter, yes pizza cutter, to cut the dough in long strips approximately 1 inch wide and then those strips into 2 inch pieces.
5. Once the water comes to a boil, drop 15-20 peices into the water at a time. If you add much more than that they will stick together in the bottom of the pot. You will know when the knoephla is ready to come out when it floats to the top. Pretty scientific huh? Have a strainer on top of a bowl standing by so when the knoephla is ready to come out you can scoop it out of the pot and into the strainer for the excess water to drip off. When I scoop out the last batch I also scoop the potatoes out into the strainer as well.
6. Frying: Place a non-stick frying pan coated with butter over medium to medium high heat (depending on your stove). Now this is where this process gets a little tedious. In order to obtain a more even frying, I only place enough knoephla in the pan to cover the bottom. I also use a tongs to individually flip the knoephla. When the knoephla is a nice golden brown color, remove into a serving dish repeating the frying process until all the knoephla is fried. Be sure to coat the bottom of the pan with butter in between batches to help the knoephla fry and not burn. With the last batch I also add the potatoes that were taken out of the boiling water in the beginning and fry those as well.
And that my friends if how we prepare kneophla in our family. Add a little salt over the top as they come out of the pan and YUM! Also traditionally in our family, when we make fried knoephla we also make sausage to go with it. Because the boys in our family love to hunt, deer venison makes an easy pairing. If you start boiling the sausage at the same time you begin boiling the water for the knoephla, the sausage and the knoephla usually finish at the same time. I sure do love it when that happens!
This is one of those meals that is a staple in my meal plan from month to month. For one thing, the ingredients are pretty cheap but what's even more important than that are all the memories that come flooding to my mind even as I'm just preparing this meal. It's one of those meals that begs to be served as a sit down meal with the whole family gathered around the table.
Hope you enjoy this little slice of North Dakota tradition and culture!
