[Cz-L] Recipe for Zwetschkenknoedel

Zwetschkenknoedel (plum dumplings):

While generally considered an Austrian dish of Czech origin,
my mother's Czernowitz Knoedel far surpassed those I ate in Prague.

Dough:

1lb. Potatoes
1 large egg
2tbls semolina
1 and 1/3 cup flour
Salt to taste
1 egg white for coating the dough.

Cook potatoes in their skins until soft, peel and carefully
mash them while they are still warm. Add egg and salt, mix well.
Add flour bit by bit, until you have a medium soft dough.
Knead dough until smooth, shape into a ball, then leave
to rest for one hour.

Filling:

1lb or slightly more Italian plums (the dark purple ones
which are free-stone or almost so).

Wash plums and dry on a paper towel.
If you do not dry them, the dumplings are likely to open
in the midst of cooking.
Cut them in half and remove pits.

Breadcrumb coating:

1 cup or more breadcrumbs.
Make your own breadcrumbs by very lightly toasting slices of
French bread and then processing them in a food processor.
In the old days, they were wrapped in a kitchen towel and
beaten into crumbs with a rolling pin.
Do not make the crumbs too small.
1 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar

Melt butter in a skillet, add breadcrumbs and roast them at
medium heat until they are golden brown. Take off heat, add sugar.
Mix well. In Czernowitz we did NOT add cinnamon, what a heresy!

Procedure:

Bring slightly salted water to the boil in a large pot.
Cut ball of dough in half.
On a floured board, roll out each half to a thickness of 1/2 cm.
With a pastry brush, brush one sheet of dough with the egg white.
Place plum halves, cut side down on the dough, spacing them about
7cm. or 2.5" apart. Cover with the other sheet of dough.
Using a glass of the right size, holding it upside down,
cut dumplings from the two sheets of dough, enclosing a half plum
in each dumpling. To prevent the dough from sticking to the glass,
dip the glass rim into a bowl of flour before each cut.
VERY IMPORTANT: With your fingertips press the edges of the dough
together, all around each dumpling.

Drop dumplings into the boiling water and boil for about 8 - 10 min.
Do not crowd dumplings in the pot.
When ready, remove dumplings with a slotted spoon and let drain.
Make breadcrumb coating while dumplings cook.
When the dumplings have drained well, toss in breadcrumb coating.

This recipe will feed 4 - 8 people,
depending on whether they are true Bukowiners.

The same dough used for the dumplings, called "Kartoffel Teig"
Is also used for making "Kartoffel Nockerl" (potato dumplings).
For these, the dough is rolled into a long sausage-like shape
about 2.5 cm or 1" in diameter. It is then cut diagonally into
3 cm long pieces which are boiled in water like the plum dumplings.
Chopped or very finely cut onion is browned in chicken Schmalz,
then a generous sprinkling of black pepper is added and the
dumplings are tossed in this mixture.

Try serving these potato dumplings with roast beef or pot roast,
but they are also great all by themselves.

This recipe from Mimi Reifer Taylor

  
      
 
Received on 2006-09-28 05:39:18