A Rogue’s Rations: Schupfnudeln! (German Potato Dumplings/Gnocchi)

Greetings from the campfire, fellow rogues!

While adventuring, it’s important to keep up strength and morale. Despite what he may try to tell you, listening to the paladin eulogise about himself is not the best way to do this. A far better solution is good food at the campfire when you rest! In my last post, I was casting about for a picture to include, and decided to use one of the previous night’s dinner – Schupfnudeln. I don’t usually photograph my food (shut up, anyone who kept an eye on my Twitter feed while I was in Sharjah!!), but this occasion demanded it! Anyway, a couple of people asked for the recipe, so I thought I’d share it. I’m afraid on this occasion I only have the one photo, and no prep photos!

 

Hausgemachte Shupfnudeln! Homemade Schupfnudeln – kind of like German gnocchi that you fry. Broccoli is there for ‘token healthy thing’. A perfect winter food (they stick to your ribs a bit, but tastily).

 

The base recipe is taken from Thaddäus Troll’s ‘Kochen wie die Schwaben – Original Schwäbische Hausrezepte’ (Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, München, 1977; this one is the 2 Verlag, 1988). This translates more or less to ‘Cook like the Swabians – Original Swabian Home Cooking Recipes’, and is packed full of traditional Swabian things to eat, from soup to dessert. It’s telling that there is an entire chapter devoted to ‘Kartoffelgerichte (Potato Dishes)’.

The Wizard, although not from Swabia (he hails from a little further North), grew up with many of the dishes in this book as childhood favourites, such as Schupfnudeln and Maultaschen. I personally have a deep and profound fondness for yet another rib-sticking Swabian staple, Spätzle, particularly the cheese-drenched variety. If you all like this stuff, we’re planning on working our way through this hilariously straightfaced, anecdotal cookbook, so I can post more recipes. Do let me know if you’d like to see more Rogue’s Rations!

Anyway, the basic recipe:

(I’ll enter it in the original German, and then in my English translation)

750g gekochte Kartoffeln (750 g cooked potatoes – skins removed)

600g Mehl (600g flour – white wheat flour is the only variety we’ve tried)

1 Ei (1 Egg – size unspecified, but if you have a large one you can beat up and use according to your judgement, this works)

Salz (salt – to taste)

Serves: lots. OK, so these are pretty hefty. I’d say the full recipe would serve a good 6 people (as a main), or more as a side (or one hearty Swabian family from 1977, perhaps). Recipe credit in the book is to one Beate Bundschu from Stuttgart. You don’t even have to finish them all at once – the boiled ones keep in the fridge just fine for a few days (three or four in our case – they could have gone longer I guess). The recipe is awkward to divide because of the one egg, but if you use a small egg you should be OK to 3/4 or 1/2 the recipe.

Method:

Die Kartoffeln werden mit einer Gabel zerdrückt und zusammen mit Mehl, Ei und Salz verknetet.

Mash the potates and knead them together with the flour, egg and salt – we used a cake mixer with the dough hook to do this, but obviously you can do it by hand to build up your Popeye/Fighter biceps as well.

Aus diesem Teig wellt man auf einem bemehlten Holzbrett bleistiftdicke Nudeln, die man stückchenweise durch Abschneiden, ‘Schupfen’, trennt und in kochendes Wasser gibt.

On a floured surface (here a wooden board, but we used a plastic chopping board), roll the dough out into pencil-thick noodles. Cut these into basically any size morsel you want,  and drop them into a pot of boiling water. We actually just tore off blobs from the (somewhat clingy) dough ball and hand rolled them into large maggoty shapes (sorry, they really do look like that) – you can see the size in the photo compared to the fork. It works either way.

Schwimmen die Schupfnudeln auf, werden sie mit einem Schaumlöffel herausgenommen und zum Trocknen auf einem Holzbrett ausgebreitet. Danach werden sie geschmälzt und serviert.

When the Schpfnudeln rise to the surface, lift them out of the water and lay them out to dry on a wooden board (we just put them onto a clean dinner plate. They don’t stick much). Finally, they are fried in lard (this is traditional – we fried them in salted butter instead) and served.

As for toppings: it’s really up to you. Whatever you would put on gnocchi, you can put on these. We sauteed onions, garlic and little bits of lean salami on one occasion, adding zucchini and eggplant to the pan on another occasion. We served them with steamed broccoli and cream cheese/sour cream. The Wizard used to eat them with tomato sauce (pasta sauce). They’re fried potato dumplings. Antyhing that tastes good with potato and can be easily carried into a dungeon or lost catacomb will be fine 😉

Anyway, as you can see, it’s a really simple recipe. It’s pretty foolproof, really, as all good basic recipes should be. Something that can be easily carried in your pack and fried up over the campfire to restore everyone’s HP and morale (if make them a bit slower – perhaps best eaten before a *long* rest).

What do you think? Would you try making some Schupfnudeln? Would you like to see more ration posts? 🙂

 

Until next time, don’t forget to check your ration levels!

Syl

As usual, the photos are all the property of Sylirael the Rogue, while here the recipe is taken and lightly adapted from the book referenced in the post (Troll, T. Kochen wie die Schwaben, Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, copyright 1977 – this edition the second one, 1988 – p. 111. Original Schupfnudeln recpie credit to one Beate Bundschu of Stuttgart). Any theft of the original images and content on this blog will be viewed dimly by the legal trolls, who will come and drape their dirty underpants over your head. For starters. *pointed look*.