Swabian Roastbeef Steaks with Gnocchi

We had a lot of visitors recently. Needles to say that we also wanted to present a specialty from our new home town. So we started testing recipes from our Swabian cookery books. The onion roast with „Schupfnudeln“ (Swabian gnocchi) is one of them. The photo is from our first experiments. The onion roast (Zwiebelrostbraten) is a very quick meal, especially when you get the ready made „Schupfnudeln“. But they are not available everywhere, so we made them from scratch with our friend from England. She was amazed how quickly we transformed a  few potatoes into a big bowl of „Schupfnudeln“ (Swabian gnocchi).

For the Swabian gnocchi I cook the potatoes with peel. As with the gnocchi, it is better to cook the potatoes in the morning or the previous day already and let the potatoes cool thoroughly. By cooking them with their peel we  keep the potato starch in the potatoes thus we need less flour to knead a good potato dough. I peel the potatoes and press them through a ricer. We add the eggs, flour, nutmeg, salt and pepper and  knead until we get a workable dough. I roll the dough into long strands and cut them into slices. These potato slices I roll with my hands on the table back and forth until I get about 2.5 cm (1 inch) long pieces, that’s it, done. Of course, you can spend plenty of time to get the “correct” shape of „Schupfnudel“, but it’s not necessary – the „Schupfnudel“ taste so good already Then we fry the „Schupfnudel“ in batches in butter and keep them warm in the oven, until the onion roast is ready. They taste so soft and yummy!
For the steaks, we need to slice the onions into fine half rings. We roast the onions in olive oil and keep them warm in the oven, too. Then we sear the steaks on both sides and deglaze them with a good shot of red wine. I take out the steaks on a plate and place them in the warm oven. Because we still want some sauce for our meal, I pour broth into the pan and reduce these. If needed I thicken the sauce with a little cornflour dissolved in water. Finally we season with salt and freshly ground pepper. We transferred the steaks and onions into the pan and placed it in the oven until we were ready to serve. It looks more eye-catching if you arrange the steaks and Swabian gnocchi onto the plates and drape the onions beautifully on top of the steaks and pour the sauce around the meat. Serve with a green salad. The important thing is: The cooking together was fun and the result is yummy. Enjoy your meal! Afiyet olsun!

Ingredients

For the Swabian gnocchi:
750 g floury potatoes, cook with their peel on the day before
max. 200-250 g flour
2 small eggs
1 pinch of freshly ground nutmeg
salt and freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons butter for frying

For the onion roast:
2 tbsp olive oil
4 onions, thinly sliced ​into half rings
4 slices of roast beef
1 shot of red wine (about 50 ml)
250 ml beef broth or vegetable broth
1/2 tsp cornflour
1 tablespoon water
salt and freshly ground pepper

1. For the Swabian gnocchi: Cook the potatoes at least a few hours before. Then peel the potatoes and press through a ricer into a bowl. Add flour, eggs, nutmeg, salt and pepper and knead well. Flour the work surface. Form finger-thick rolls, slice pieces and roll the slices with your hands on the table back and forth to form gnocchi. You can cook Swabian gnocchi in salted water and then fry in butter. We didn’t boil them, we just roasted them in batches in butter. We kept the fried gnocchi warm in the oven at 100 ºC (fan 80 °C) until we finished the rest.
2. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large pan and fry the onions almost golden. Transfer onions onto a plate and keep warm in the oven.
3. Season the steaks with salt and pepper and cut the fat edge at 3 to 4 points. Then sear the steaks in the same pan 3 minutes on each side. Deglaze the steaks with a good shot of red wine and transfer onto a plate and place the steaks also in the oven at 100 ºC (fan 80 °C) for 10-15 minutes.
4. Pour the broth into the pan and reduce the broth by half on high heat. Dissolve in a bowl 1/2 tsp cornflour in 1 tablespoon water and stir into the sauce. Season the sauce with salt and freshly ground pepper.
5. We transferred the steaks and onions into the pan and put the pan into the oven until serving. But it might look more eye-catching if you arrange the steaks and gnocchi onto the plate, drape the onions on top of the steaks and pour the sauce around it. Enjoy your meal! Afiyet olsun!