We have made some more Meyer Lemon puree and I was looking for other uses for this condiment. The first thing that came to mind was to flavor spaetzle. Our cooking has taken us into the world of whole grains. We are using flours and ground legumes that we just had not picked up before. Flour is just convenient, easy, and it works. What is exciting is we are now gaining experience with a whole new arsenal of ingredients.
I began work on a new spaetzle recipe. As I started compiling ingredients I remembered the Meyer lemon puree and how I had wanted to use it in spaetzle. I blended graham flour with sorghum flour and used a
bit of milk and an egg blended with a hefty amount of lemon puree to make the dough base. As I was working the dough, more like a batter, I noticed I just did not have the elastic nature of my past spaetzles. I needed to integrate a bit of gluten into the dough to bring things together. I reached for some high gluten flour. As I said, it is convenient, easy and it works. Yet, the main components of the dough were the graham flour and the lemon puree.
The resulting spaetzle was tender and redolent of lemon. The texture had a bit of snap without a long chew. I was happy in that the spaetzle sauteed nicely getting crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. We served the spaetzle with Petrale sole and sauteed gai lan. The spaetzle brought both texture, floral notes and acidity to the final dish, complementing the gai lan and piquing the flavor of the fish.
