Speckknödel!

There is a number of recipes intended to use up bread that is getting old - and I'm rather fond of this type of food. Whenever bread hereabouts threatens to get too old, it gets cut up into cubes, these are dried, and then they get packed away until needed. (Because we buy our bread in relatively small units in the bakery close-by, this is a rare occurrence... but then, there's the Textile Forum, where the caterers tend to bring way, way too much bread. Which, you've guessed it, gets cut up into cubes... and travels back home with me, causing much joy and serving as the base for quite a few servings of bread-based meals. It's not only delicious, it's also cutting down on food waste. Two good things in one.)

[caption id="attachment_5086" align="alignnone" width="486"] Bread mix, soaking. As you can see, it's a wild mix of all kinds of different breads... which can be a little surprising sometimes, when there's suddenly some pumpkin seed turning up!


One especially delicious way to use up that bread are Speckknödel (bacon dumplings). I was first introduced to those in Austria, and they are wonderful. Wonderful. It's basically old bread soaked in milk and/or water to make it soft again, mixed with egg (to hold it all together), onion, and smoked bacon, seasoned with salt and parsley, and then simmered in water. Traditionally, they are served with browned butter; a salad goes along with them nicely, as does red cabbage, or some other cabbagy vegetable.

Here's the recipe I usually use - the amount of liquid you need may vary depending on your bread:

250 g dry bread, cut into small cubes (c 1 cm side length works very well)
250 ml milk (or half milk, half water)
2 eggs
1 medium onion (ca. 80 g)
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
80-100 g bacon (smoked bacon), diced
3 tablespoons flour (c 45 g)
salt
butter

Pour your liquid over the diced bread and let it stand for a while (at least an hour, so the moisture can spread out through the bread). Dice the onion finely, then sautee it until translucent. Mix onions and bacon with the moistened bread. Beat the eggs, add salt and chopped parsley, and add that mixture to the bread mix as well. Let sit for about 15 minutes.
In a sufficiently large pot, bring water to the boil. Add salt and turn heat down a bit. Form dumplings from the bread mix (I get about 12-14 dumplings from the mix) and gently place into the water; they should now simmer (not boil) for about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, brown some butter in a small pan or pot.

[caption id="attachment_5087" align="alignnone" width="640"] Dumplings!


Serve dumplings with browned butter and salad, or another side. Leftover dumplings are very nice sliced up and fried in butter, or sliced up and eaten cold.

The water used to simmer the dumplings also makes a very nice base for a soup on the next day...