Staples

Every pantry includes the basic and necessary food items for a particular cook's kitchen. Launching Gatherings and the Culpable Cook in 2016, I thought I might focus on the Homemade Staples I rely on in my cooking. As I transition from one college town to the next, one home to the next, one kitchen to the next, I want to remind myself that my family's defining foods will remain to comfort us through the changes ahead. Just as our personal props, our core belongings that define us no matter the context, will accompany us to a new stage, so will our favorite foods and dishes accompany us for new gatherings on location in a new setting.

The week after my last post, Launch, about digging into bread pudding, I made an old family favorite of German origins for Julia, Jenny and David's daughter, who is a good friend of my older daughter. Spätzle, a soft egg noodle of southern Germany, are often eaten at our house as dumplings in chicken noodle soup or along with Schnitzel.

These delicate noodles were a regular part of my diet during my junior year abroad, studying in Freiburg, Germany. You can use a slotted spoon to make them, but I received a Spätzle maker from my sister many years ago, and it has gotten plenty of use. If you make Spätzle and enjoy them, this utensil is quite affordable and readily available now on the web.

If you are pressed for time, you can skip the garlic entirely and make a simpler egg noodle without it, although the garlic does lend an incredible amount of flavor. For Julia, I made a traditional dish of Spätzle with cheese and ham called Käsespätzle und Schinken which also follows. Traditionally, I like to add a side of something sweet like apple slices or applesauce and tart like pickled red cabbage to complement the Emmentaler and ham and complete the meal.

Spätzle

1 head garlic

Olive oil

½ cup milk

¼ cup finely chopped Italian flat-leaf parsley leaves or basil leaves

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

¼ teaspoon sea salt

3 eggs, beaten

2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour

1. Brush garlic with olive oil, wrap in aluminum foil, and roast at 450˚F for 1 hour until soft. Cool.
2. Squeeze roasted garlic cloves from their skins into a bowl and mash with a fork to a paste. Add milk, parsley or basil, butter, salt, and eggs, stirring until smooth.
3. Put flour into a large mixing bowl; form a well in center. Slowly pour in garlic-milk mixture, stirring with a fork to form a smooth batter.
4. Bring a 5 quart pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Set Spätzle maker over the pot. Work in batches, scraping batter through holes into water and cooking until dumplings rise to the surface, about 1 minute. Use a slotted spoon to transfer dumpling to a baking sheet.
   

Käsespätzle und Schinken

3 tablespoons butter

1 medium yellow onion, chopped

2 cups diced ham

1 cup grated Emmentaler cheese

5. Heat butter in a large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Saute onion until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add dumplings, stirring constantly, cook until lightly browned, 6 to 8 minutes.
6. Stir ham into dumplings and continue cooking until warmed through; sprinkle with cheese.
7. Broil with rack 5 inches from heating element until cheese melts, about 2 minutes.

Yield: 4 to 6 servings

Launch

"Do you think any generation before has ever been this obsessed about food?" Jenny asked as four of us sat around her small, round kitchen table.

It was early January, and I had just walked across the street and through the neighbor's yard to her house just cater corner from my own for an impromptu gathering in the early afternoon. I joined another friend, Melissa, Jenny, and her husband, David, for a cup of tea and the fleeting opportunity to try English Christmas pudding, David's masterpiece and a family tradition.

As I thought about it, I came to the conclusion that food has always been an obsession for our species, primarily for survival. Now, some of us on this planet are privileged enough to obsess about food in search of the freshest ingredients to make the most tantalizing recipes, using the finest techniques. Somehow, the juxtaposition of our plenty with the food desert so much of the world's population still experiences puts me to shame.

Yet, sitting with my friends, I was reminded that in our modern, technological era, food serves a most primitive purpose. It connects us to cultural histories, familial traditions, and some of our fondest memories. As David sliced his Christmas pudding, moist and dark with dried fruit soaked in port and served with custard, he shared a piece of his English heritage.

The original family recipe hung on the wall above us, typed, matted, and framed, a family heirloom proudly displayed. David showed us the pudding molds with lids, large for gatherings and small to gift at the holidays, and added that coffee tins make excellent substitutes. Of course, the shared experience led to discussion about our parents and childhoods and holiday traditions.

I absolutely loved the pudding, and hope to try my hand at it, too, next December. More importantly, I will remember the gathering, the friends who extended the offer and shared so openly, and the reason food is one of my obsessions: the gatherings. The conversations and connections at the table with food in hand nurture relationships and cultivate learning in exceptional ways.

So, I hope you will join me as I divide my efforts in the blogosphere between two blogs. First, I will continue A Measured Word as a vehicle for me to write reflective pieces about my life and life in general on the better side of 40. Second, I am launching Gatherings and the Culpable Cook to focus on recipes, all things culinary, and the art of hosting the simplest gatherings at home with friends, old and new. As I contemplate my hand at beginning my own business in our new hometown next year, I hope to use these blogs as a springboard for things deeply personal, my internal, and daringly public, my external persona. If you like what you read and see, subscribe and join me on the journey.