Lentils with spaetzle and string sausages

Ingredients for 5 servings:

• 500 g lentils
• 1 large carrot(s)
• 1 large onion(s)
• 1 tsp soup powder
• 2 slice(s) of bacon or smoked meat
• 5 pairs of sausages (string sausages)
• 2 bay leaves
• 100 ml spirit vinegar
• salt and pepper
• 1 tbsp, heaped tomato paste (with root vegetables if possible)
• 1 tsp, heaped mustard, medium hot
• 1,000 g wheat flour type 405
• 10 eggs
• 2 some water
• 50 ml sunflower oil or butter
• 1 shot of carbonated mineral water

Instructions

Working time approx. 1 hour; Rest time approx. 15 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 20 minutes; Total time approx. 1 hour 35 minutes

simple Swabian home cooking from the pressure cooker

For the spaetzle, put 1000g of flour and 10 eggs in a bowl, add a splash of mineral water, a pinch of pepper, and a little more salt (do this by taste, using a sea salt mill about 10 times). While stirring constantly, add enough water until the dough is nice and smooth and pulls away from the sides of the bowl. If the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl, you’ll get nice, thick spaetzle when pressed. If you prefer thinner spaetzle, thin the dough again with a little water; the thinner the dough, the thinner the spaetzle will be. Let the dough rest for about 15 minutes before further processing. Bring a large pot of water and a pinch of salt to a boil, then add the spaetzle to the boiling water, either using a press, a slicer, or by hand, scraping them off a board. The spaetzle are cooked and ready to serve as soon as they float to the surface of the pot. To make the lentils, lightly fry the bacon in a pressure cooker with a little oil, then add the lentils to the pot. Pour water over the lentils until there is two fingers of water above the lentils. Wash the carrots and onion and add them whole. Wait until the water boils, then add all the remaining ingredients except the sausages, flour, mineral water, and oil. Close the pressure cooker and wait until it reaches the highest steam setting. Once this has happened, the lentils will start cooking for 15 minutes. When the 15 minutes are up, place the pot next to the stovetop and let it cool until it opens automatically. If you release the steam by hand, the lentils will burst and form a mush. Season the lentils with salt, pepper, and vinegar if desired; the vinegar in particular loses its flavor incredibly quickly because it evaporates. If everything went well, the lentils will be a bit watery, but this will pass in the next step. Put 50g of butter or sunflower oil in a small saucepan and heat gently. Now add flour a teaspoon at a time and stir with a whisk until you have a slightly firm paste, without any lumps. Then brown this paste, stirring constantly, until it turns light brown (it smells strongly of popcorn). The temperature of the pan shouldn’t be too high, as the roux burns extremely quickly. Now thicken the lentils with the roux until you reach the desired consistency. Be careful, the lentils will thicken further as they cool slightly. If you want to skip the roux step, you can also use ready-made roux from the supermarket shelf, but I think it’s worth the effort. Put the string sausages in a saucepan with cold water and heat it to around 80°C, let it stand for 10 minutes, and you’re done. If the water boils, the sausages will be on the verge of bursting.