Mushroom Stew with Spaetzle

Another drastically modified recipe from Cooking Light, my favorite source of inspiration! The original was a vegetarian recipe out of the November 2010 issue, and called for a metric truckload of expensive cremini mushrooms as well as specifying a very difficult, messy, and culturally inaccurate method for making the spaetzle. I've been to Alsace and base my own spaetzle off of what I ate while I was there (it was amazing, FYI).

Incidentally, spaetzle are simple handmade noodles, enriched with butter and eggs, and are very easy to make. I don't have kids but I'm pretty sure spaetzle-making would be fun for children.

Ingredients:

1 pound lean beef stew meat, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 package cremini mushrooms, sliced thickly
1 large package white button mushrooms, sliced thickly
1/2 ounce dried porcini mushrooms
2 yellow onions, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup red wine
1 1/2 cups beef or vegetable broth
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp flour
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
Ground pepper to taste
1 tsp balsamic vinegar

For the spaetzle:
1 egg
1 egg yolk
3 tbsp butter, very soft
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tbsp milk
~1 cup flour
1 tbsp margarine or butter

Brown the beef over high heat in a dutch oven. Remove with a slotted spoon, letting the juices remain. Cook those juices until the bottom of the pan is dark brown. Meanwhile, put the porcinis into a small bowl with half a cup of water and microwave for one minute. When the mushrooms have hydrated and become soft, remove them (save the mushroom liquid!) and chop them finely.

Add the vegetables, sauteeing quickly to get most of the brown bits off the bottom of the pan, for 5 minutes. Add the red wine and scrape the rest of the browned bits off while the alcohol cooks down.

Put the meat back in the pot and add the broth, mushroom liquid, and salt. When it begins to bubble, turn down the heat and simmer, covered, for about an hour or until to desired tenderness, stirring frequently.

Meanwhile, make the spaetzle. Put a medium-sized pot full of water on to boil. Mix the soft butter, the eggs, the milk and the salt together in a bowl. Add about half the flour and mix with a sturdy spoon until smooth. Add in as much of the remaining flour as you can, a bit at a time, until you have a soft dough. (For non-bread-bakers, this is similar in stiffness to cookie dough.)

Turn out onto a well-floured surface, ideally waxed paper or a Silpat, and roll out with an equally-well-floured rolling pin to about the thickness of pie crust, which is to say about 1/8 - 1/4 inch, into a long oblong. Slice the oblong dough shape along the short side into strips 1/4 inch wide, then cut them the other direction so they're about three inches long, or whatever length you want (shape doesn't much matter). If you're doing it, use a big chef's knife to make the job easy and fast, but if it's your kids, have them use a butter knife or a dull pizza cutter.

When the water is a rolling boil, drop the spaetzle into the water all at once. Boil for 3 minutes. They'll float when they're done, so if you've rolled them very thick or cut them into large shapes and they aren't all floating after 3 minutes, let them cook another 30 seconds or so. Then drain and put into a bowl. Toss with the margarine until it melts.

When the stew is done, stir half of the parsley into it and add the vinegar. Mix the 2 tbsp flour with about 1/4 cup cold water, then pour it into the stew, stirring constantly until it thickens. Serve with the spaetzle, and sprinkle the parsley on top.