Prairie Kitchens - Maultaschen

Maultaschen are filled dumplings from the Swabian area of Germany, according to cooking instructor Andrea MacLeod of the "Kochlöffel & Nudelholz" Cooking Club in Saskatoon. (The name means wooden spoon and rolling pin.) I recently joined a class that was making these meat filled maultaschen. You'll find the dough recipe and a spinach filling here.

Meat Filled Maultaschen
100 g bacon, diced
1/2 onion, chopped
1 leek, chopped
2 old buns
Big sprig of parsley
150 g spinach, cooked
1 egg
300 g ground meat (beef, pork or combination)
Salt
Nutmeg

Saute bacon, onion and leek until partially cooked. Dice buns and soak in a bit of water. Put bacon mixture, buns, parsley and spinach through a meat grinder or food processor. Season with salt and nutmeg to taste. Mix with the ground meat and egg. Blend well. Fill dough (recipe), brushing edges of dough with water and pressing to seal. Boil 5-8 min., depending on thickness of dough.

Cooking instructor Andrea MacLeod making dough for maultaschen.

Class participants cutting squares of dough for meat maultaschen.

Dropping maulataschen into boiling water.

After boiling, the maultaschen are fried lightly in butter. A bit of chopped sage in the butter would add a nice flavour.