A Tasty German Recipe!

Growing up I was very blessed to have not only my grandparents still living and active in my life, but also my great- grandparents.  I was able to get to know my great-grandparents and spend a lot of time with them.  During the school year each and every Wednesday my Great Grandma Irma would fix dinner for our entire family.  This was no small feat.  Looking back I realize what work went into those delicious meals that she fixed for us.

My favorite meal that she fixed for us was fried fish and gnipflin. (We pronounce the word nifflin.) My Great Grandpa Rob loved to fish and caught all of it, then Grandma breaded and fried it all up for us.  To go along with the fish grandma always fixed gnipflin.  Gnipflin is a German fried dumpling.  If you have heard of this before, you have probably heard the dish called spaetzle.  I searched for the word gnipflin on the internet and found nothing, I am thinking this is just what our family has always called it.  Basically Grandma Irma made a very wet dough, scraped it off into boiling water, then fried it with sauerkraut.  It is still one of my favorite dishes and reminds me of my Grandma every time I have it.  

I made gnipflin for my family a couple weeks ago and thought I would share the recipe with you all. The dish is very simple, but takes a little patience.  If you love German food and sauerkraut then you will LOVE this!

This is the dough ready to be scraped off into boiling water.

Recipe:

3 cups of flour

2 eggs

1 cup of water

Beat the ingredients well.  It will be VERY sticky.  Bring some salted water to boil.  Put the dough on a plate and scrape it into the water in small pieces.  The smaller the better in my opinion.  Boil it for 10-12 minutes.  Pour it into a colander and rinse with cold water.  Then add the gnipflin to a skillet with hot oil or lard.  Add a drained can of sauerkraut and fry it all together until it is lightly browned.  I salt and pepper my gnipflin to taste as I fry it.  

This is the size I try to make gnipflin.

I had to borrow this picture of finished gnipflin from allrecipes.com, my picture disappeared.  

For my family I usually make two batches.  My husband's family is also German and he grew up eating gnipflin, only his family ate it without sauerkraut.  I make one batch with sauerkraut and one without.  It is tasty either way, but I think gnipflin and sauerkraut must be eaten together!

Grandma Irma, Ella and I at a mother-daughter banquet in 2009.

I love making things that remind me of my loved ones!  There were so many "easier" dishes that Grandma Irma could have made for our Wednesday night suppers, but quite often she found herself making gnipflin for us.  I know that it is because she knew that we loved it.  I am thankful for memories like the ones of eating at she and Grandpa Rob's house.  They cause me to want to give similar happy memories to my girls and future grandchildren (I know we are a long way from that.)
 Grandma Irma left a legacy of lovingly serving her family.  I hope to leave that one day!

Melissa