How to Make Nokedli

Nokedli is a kind of egg noodle with soft feel commonly used in Eastern Europe namely, German, Austrian, and Swiss cuisine just to name a few. This is similar to Germany’s spatzle that is made by processing the dough through a grater to from a noodle into a pot of boiling water. A colander will do if you don’t have the luxury of having a noodle grater or you can use your spoon or knife by scraping tiny portions of dough in to the water.

This is best served with chicken paprikas and it can be an additional ingredient for any dish served with very thick gravy. In Hungary, nokedli is commonly used as the primary ingredient including Linsen, a dish with lentils, and skinned frankfurter-style sausages; Kasespatzle, nokedli mixed mixed with finely grated Emmenthaler cheese and fried onion rings; Gaisburger Marsch, a traditional Swabian beef stew; Krautspatzle, nokedli mixed with sauerkraut, butter, onion and spices namely marjoram and caraway.

Special considerations

Before starting to cook, clean your workplace, read the recipe, and gather all the things you need for the dish. Lay out all the ingredients and utensils. Use gloves, or a thick cloth in getting hot things such as pots because you probably use one now. The most important thing that you must remember in cooking is cleanliness. You must have clean utensils in preparing your ingredients, clean workplace and most of all clean hands. If you happen to have cough and colds, put on a mask to prevent droplet transmission of germs to your needed ingredients. This is a standard precaution not only applied in medical field but in food preparation as well.

Things you need

• Large mixing bowl
• Kitchen knife
• Spoon
• Chopping board
• Large saucepan or pot
• Wooden ladle
• Whisker
• Colander
• Strainer
• Noodle grater
• Measuring cups
• Measuring spoons
• Faucet for water source
• Apron
• Pot holder
• Tong
• Rolling pin
• Frying pan
• Plastic food wrap
• sieve

Ingredients for Nokedli

• 3-4 cups of flour (all-purpose)
• 2-3 cups of water
• 4-5 large eggs
• salt
• 2 tablespoons of canola oil

Preparation time: 10-12 minutes

Cooking time: 20 minutes

Procedure:

• Boil the water in a large saucepan or a pot for 2 minutes. Add 1 tablespoon of canola oil and 1 teaspoon salt in the boiling water.
• Mix the flour and salt together in a large mixing bowl.
• Using a wooden ladle, stir in the eggs and adequate water enough to make a wet and pourable mixture. Don’t make it smooth that the texture is more like a cottage cheese.
• Let the dough rest by covering it with a plastic food wrap and wait until the water comes into a boil.
• In cooking the dough, you should do it in three to four batches to prevent overcooked dough.
• Place a noodle grater over the large saucepan of boiling water.
• Lay a cut portion of dough in square section of the noodle grater and move it back and forth on the grater.

Tip: if you don’t have a noodle grater, you can use a spoon to scrape tiny pieces of dough. You can also use colander, coarse grater or any equipment that resemble a strainer.

• Repeat the procedure until you grate all the three to four batches of dough.
• While the dough is in place in the boiling water, you must constantly stir the dough to prevent the dough to stick to the bottom of the saucepan.
• Wait until the nokedli floats onto the surface, give a little minute or so to cook.
• Taste one noodle to make sure that it is already cooked.
• Use a slotted spoon or sieve in transferring the cooked nokedli into a large bowl with dash of canola oil settling at the bottom. You can also use colander.
• Run the cooked dumpling with with water from the faucet.
• Stir the nokedli to coat the cooked dumplings in order to prevent them from sticking.
• Do it all over again for the remaining next batches.
• Serve it with stews or in soup.
• The remaining cooked dumpling can be stored in the refrigerator or frozen for good results.
• You can reheat the cooked dumplings in a frying pan with mixture melted butter and a little bit of canola oil.

Tip: in frying using melted butter, you must add a little dash of any cooking oil so that the butter will not burn and it will result to a bitter taste.

• Don’t let the cooked dumplings get too brown.