Something comforting even without sauce

This dish I serve pretty often. It's one of our all-time-favourites. I posted it already in German. But since I have a new camera I thought about to publish it again to show you some better pics. I made already a potatoe salad with Kipferl and Desiree potatoes this weekend for a BBQ with friend and my children complained that they don't even get a single spoon of it. Hence I made the presented dish yesterday for us.
I decided to write this post in English so others than German speakers can read (and cook) this as well. And I made some measurements during the preparation to give you the more or less exact amount of the ingredients I used. The amount will be right for 5 to 6 persons.

Viennese veal schnitzel,
Swabian spätzle
and my grandmother's potatoe salad

Ingredients for the potatoe salad:

750 gnew potatoes (You can use those delicious Kipferl or any non starcky potatoes as well. But here in Singapore it's hard to find other potatoes than those tiny, sometimes only 2 cm in diameter large, local new potatoes and russet [burbanks])
1cucumber
1medium sized red onion
3 Tbsptarragon vinegar
4 Tbspsunflower oil, cold pressed
1 tspsalt or a bit more as you want, it depends a bit to your potatoes
1/6 tspground black pepper
½ tspcaster sugar

a few chopped chieves and cherry tomatoes


Preparation:

Boil the potatoes, peel them and cut them in equal slices.
Pell the cucumber and the onion and grate them. Sprinkle a pinch of salt ofter them, mix and let stand for a while. Drain (this is what my grandmother used to do, but you can add the cucumber juice as well to the salad especially when your potatoes are dry ones, like the Kipferl, then you will need as well more of the spices, oil and vinegar), and add to the potatoes together with the other ingredient. Stir carefully.
Sprinkle some chives over the salad and serve it with some tomatoes if you want.



Ingredients for the spätzle/Swabian dumplins:

8eggs
650 gpasta flour
1 Tbspsoftened butter
1 tspsalt
1hint turmeric powder or a few saffron strands, optional (I added turmeric only for the yellow colour)

4-5 lwater (better a sparkling one or as I use it nowadays here in the Tropics icecold sodawater from my siphon)
1 Tbspsalt


Preparation:

In a bowl whisk the eggs together with the butter until even. Add the other ingredients, stir until mixed and beat the batter with a wooden spatula until there are bubbles in the batter. Let stand, covered, for at least ½ an hour.
In a large saucepan bring the water to a boil. Add the salt. Let simmer.
Beat the noodle-batter again and fill a laddle full of it into a special spätzle press. (You can use a potatoe mashing-press, a strainer, a sieve or a foodmill as well if it is perforated with about 4 mm diameter-holes. Look at the German recipe, there you can find the press as well as a video about making spätzle.)


Press the batter through the spätzle press into the simmering water. Stir and put them into a bowl using a slotted spoon, cover with a lid.
Repeat until all the batter is used.
It's best to cook them right before serving. But you can keep the spätzle warm over the simmering water. Or give them all together again back to the simmering water and drain 'em. An other opportunity is to pour them into a hot pan with melted butter to preheat them.


Ingredients for the Viennese schnitzel:

700 gveal steaks
160 gbread crumbs (If you have and if you want to try I read once that panco, special Japanese bread crumps made with white bread, will offer a crunchier crust. Once I coated kohlrabi in the same way by using it.)
2eggs
1/8 tspground black pepper
1 tspsalt
½ tspHungarian paprika powder (optional)
½ cupall-purpose flour (as almost always I used an unbleached organic one)
4 Tbsppork or goose lard, alternatively ghee/butter fat

some organic lemon wedges


Preparation:

Prepare the steaks by cutting away fat and blood vessels. You can cut the steak into half or even into three peaces. Put each steak into a plastic bag and flatten it with a steak hammer. This will tenderize the meat and make your steaks thin enough that they will be done before the coating will be burnt. Pad dry the flattened steaks. (I use to give the cut-away fat to our cat, but please don't feed cats raw chicken and pork meat this could harm them.)






Combine the eggs with the spices and fill them in a flat dish. Fill the flour in another dish. As well as the bread crumbs.
Cover each steak thoroughly first with the flour, than with the egg batter and press it into the bread crumps until well coated.





Over medium-high heat heat the lard in a non-sticking pan. Stir-fry the schnitzels in it until golden brown, turning them only once.

Serve the schnitzels with the lemon wedges.






You can use the leftover bread crumbs as a topping for the spätzle by frying them in pan with butter.

If you like to have a sauce make it with some veal jus or beef stock. Season to your taste and thicken it with cold butter.