The German version of Mac'n'Cheese?!
Originally it was planned to make enchiladas but we didn't have all the ingredients, so we went for the next best option: Kaese Spaetzle! It's a German specialty consisting of homemade pasta in a thick cheese sauce. Well, traditionally it's obviously supposed to be cow cheese but by now y'all should know that I'm not going to be a dumbass and use cow cheese :)
My Mom started preparing the dough for the pasta (for 4 people) by mixing 700 g (according to my online
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| Spaetzle maker (Google) |
converter that's around 17.5 ounces) of spelt flour, 700 ml (~ 3 cups) of water (it was a little bit too runny so you might want to use a bit less), 2 tablespoons more of spelt flour (you can also use corn starch or any other kind of flour of course), a pinch of salt, pepper and a few tablespoons (just try until it starts to taste a bit like something) of dried vegetable broth. Then moving on to the cheese sauce I poured some rice milk into a frying pan, because...well...because my Mommy told me to do so haha. I was quite skeptic if this was going to turn out anything like it's supposed to, because rice milk has a significantly lower level of fat than cow's milk or even soy milk. Since I didn't have soy milk I just had to use rice milk. You wait until the milk is boiling and then you sprinkle the (vegan) cheese (I used the same kind as I wrote about two posts ago) in the pan. I used about six slices of it and in the beginning it really didn't look too well, because it seemed like it didn't want to melt the way I needed it to. After waiting, stirring and letting it boil a while more it turned out quite gooey and cheesy! While working on the sauce you might want to get the water boiling for the Spaetzle. To make this kind of pasta you actually need a Spaetzle maker, but you can get one of those in pretty much every department store or you just improvise. Glazed onions taste really (and I mean REALLY) great with this meal also, so if you can live with shedding a few tears over this meal you should cut up some onions and
gently fry them in a pan. You place the Spaetzle maker on top of the pot of boiling water and just slice them right in there. Let them cook until they come swimming back on top and then put them in the sauce pan. Stir, season with salt, pepper, the onions & a few cut up tomatoes and TA DAAAAA you have some cheesy, traditional German Kaese Spaetzle with a hint of American Mac'n'Cheese.
I hope I don't bore you guys with these food posts. If you ever try this recipe I'd love if you would let me know how it went! Or not. That's fine too...
Seriously though, you won't regret trying this out!
Thanks for stopping by and I hope to see you around here again someday!
Katie Lynn :)
PS: This is where we got the idea btw and they have so many more awesome recipes! http://www.veganguerilla.de/kase-spatzle/
Hola my pretty faces :)
I'm back after my Easter break (+ one extra
week of just PURE laziness) and I have something super cool (at least in my
opinion) to review! A grocery store line close to my home just started carrying
ONE brand of vegan cheese. FINALLY! I have been waiting for this for YEARS! I
know American vegans have it much easier, because you've already had grocery
stores carrying vegan cheeses for quite a while. But I'll give that one to you,
because y'all also have so many more yummy non-vegan temptations to withstand
(a.k.a. Taco Bell, ...). I could have ordered some cheese through various
online shops, but that would be quite expensive and I didn't feel like it would
be worth the hassle.
So, the cheese I got at Merkur (the grocery
store) is called Wilmersburger Scheibenkäse and it cost 2,79 € per 150 g (that
would be around $ 3,70 per 5.21 ounces) if I remember correctly. It’s not
cheap, but it’s not something one is supposed to eat on a daily basis anyways
so I think it’s alright. Now moving on to taste and texture. The structure is
just like cow cheese slices and the color is pretty close to cow cheese as
well. The taste is just like what’s known as American cheese or sandwich
cheese. That might turn some people off, but I have always liked that sort of
cheese and if I’m not completely crazy it tastes EXACTLY like Hochland
Scheibenkäse (which I used to love, but we never bought it, ‘cause it was more
expensive than other brands). I was pretty surprised at my family’s reaction to
the taste as well. I almost expected them to make choking noises and spit it
out haha. But they were good sports and confirmed the taste to be like American
cheese. (The things written on the package mean: free of lactose, free of milk, purely based on plants and obviously vegan haha)
Of course I wasn’t satisfied with just trying
a little piece of it. I made tortilla wraps with rice, guacamole, tomatoes and
said cheese. I wasn’t sure if it was going to melt, because apparently some
kinds of vegan cheese don’t. This cheese melts really good though! I was so
happy when I saw how yummy my wraps looked haha. They tasted great!
To sum it up, I am VERY content with taste,
texture, color and the ability to melt of this cheese. I’ll definitely buy it
on a regular basis and recommend this to you guys as well :). I’ll have to really control myself though, ‘cause I’m typing
this right now while eating a tortilla shell stuffed with literally only this
cheese. Summer will be here soon, Katie, have some discipline damn it!
Thanks for reading this! Hope to see you again soon :)
Katie Lynn :)
PS: I tried making sweet potato fries again while
I was at my parent’s house yesterday and they (the fries, not my parents haha) turned
out just great! They only took about half an hour and weren’t burnt. So, I’m
just going to blame my previous almost-catastrophe with them on the oven in my
dorm’s kitchen.
PPS: If you guys can figure out the commenting function on this site (or on Twitter/Tumblr), let me know if you'd be interested in the actual ingredients of the cheese so I can post a picture of them.
