Learning from Grandma Part Two - The Secret Art of Kielke

Melsie writes down the 'secret' recipe

Melsie and i arrived at B-rad's Grandma's house, ready to learn the secret art of making Kielke from the Master. I told Grandma i wanted to write everything down so i could make it, and she said that she actually DID have a recipe... and it's this:

1 egg
1 cup milk
1 1/2 tbsp salt
and about 3 cups of flour

First thing's first, we have to rinse the sausage, cut it and put it in a roaster.

That's some mighty big sausage...

Much of the day was spent with Grandma saying: Add a bit more flour. As the recipe itself is very simple, the key and the secret lies in finding the right consistency of the dough.

"Add a bit more flour"

Spending time with Grandma was very cool. She's a bit hard of hearing, so you have to make sure you don't speak to fast, but she was quite a sense of humour on her.

after mixing the dough, you knead the dough by hand - adding more flour each time

This is definitely not a meal you want to be eating if you are allergic to gluten. This photo was taken by my very talented, very lovely photographer and beautiful six year old niece Madison. My other two gorgeous nieces - Chloe and Mya - are in the photo watching Grandma teach me how to knead dough.

After Grandma is satisfied that your dough is hard enough... it is rolled out as thin as you can and then cut into strips. Those strips are put through the noodle maker on the press setting to flatten and thin the dough. this is done twice, so you are left with long strips of very thin dough. It must be floured on both sides every time you run it through the press so as to not gum up the machine.

Running the dough through the press to make long thin strips

Grandma told us how, before she had a mixer or a noodle cutter, she used to do it ll by hand. Mixing the dough by hand, and rolling out the dough to the required thickness, and then cutting the noodles all by hand with a knife. She told us she was very excited when she got her noodle cutter.

And i can see whyMAKING NOODLES...THE KIELKE IS BORN!

After cutting the noodles, they are spread out on the table so they can dry out a bit before cooking. Melsie and i made a triple batch, so we needed all the counter space we could find.

A few hours of hard work later, we have many many Kielke noodles, and we're ready to cook.

Melsie, Grandma, and I - admiring our handiwork.

Just when you think you're done... you're not done. Now the meal needs to be cooked. With the Sausage roasting in the oven - the smell is intoxicating. We're tired and sore but we must press on!! There's supper to be made. Get busy ladies!

Noodles anyone?

Once the noodles have been sifted to remove the excess flour, they are boiled in a big pot. Because of all the flour, it looks remarkably like glue. But smells like noodles...so it must be noodles.

mmmmgluenoodles

When the noodles are cooked, you cut one in half to make sure the colour is consistent throughout. If it's all the same, then they are ready to be rinsed. Unfortunately for everyone else, i burned a few of the noodles on the bottom. Grandma said it was okay becuase i was just learning. :D Anyway, in the picture above, you can see the pot with the beginnings of the cream gravy.

For those of you who don't know, cream gravy is essentially - the juices from the sausage mixed with Milk or Cream, flour, salt and pepper. It's very delicious.

B-rad says: "Delicious!"

it was a long full day. But in the end, the meal was so very satisfying knowing that we had made the meal from very very scratch. It was nice to spend time with Melsie and her girls, and with Grandma. Next time we're learning how to make Grandma's Dinner buns. mmmmm.