Knodel

 One summer few years ago both Jason & I had family reunions a few weeks apart. At both reunions they had a little genealogy display & we found out both our families had come to America from the Black Forest region of Germany. It was at that time we decided not to delve any farther in fear our family tree might be missing some branches. My mother in law Karen has a few German recipes that she’s passed down & one of our family’s favorites is Knodel (pronounced ka-noodle). It’s a lovely beef dish in a rich wine sauce with giant pillowy potato dumplings. 

You could make homemade dumplings, but I buy mine that are “instant” from Amazon or World Market”. You just follow the directions on the box & boil them for about 10 minutes. The real work is in the wine sauce. I started with cubing some sirloin & slicing an onion & a little red pepper. 

After the beef is brown & the onions & peppers are softened, I add some home canned tomato sauce. You could use crushed tomatoes. These tomatoes had actually been in my freezer from last summer because I was without a kitchen during our remodel. I finally got around to canning them last week. 

Then you start adding wine. This is where the magic happens. I like a strong wine flavor, so I’m pretty generous. Simmer & stir for at least 30 minutes. Longer if you can stand it. The longer it simmers, the better it tastes. I sometimes add cornstarch at the end to thicken, but this time my sauce was thick enough without. 

This is the finished sauce. I forgot to snap a pic with the dumplings. I’ll have to make it again & add to this post!