I fight my demons, vol. 4

Knödel or semmel knödel (Germany and Austria), knedlík (Czech Republic) or knedel (Poland). This round, poached potato or bread dumpling (made without yeast) was giving me a right headache for a long time. I love this kind of food, not so keen on making it though. I was afraid something will go wrong, as I only had a general directions from one of my knedel guru I met on internet culinary forum. It probably took me more than two years to prepare mentally before I got round to make my own. Silly me. This wasn't difficult at all. The main thing is not to make the dough too wet, because it will be difficult to form the dumplings and adding more flour will make them too dense and unpleasant. These are even more delicious when reheated next day.

So my next culinary demon is officially defeated now and bread dumplings are going to be on my menu more often.  I am sorry about not posting an exact recipe for the bread knödel, you have to work your own quantities, as they may vary - depending on what bread you use. I only give you general directions for the dumplings but exact recipes for my pork goulash and beets that work so well with knedel. 

So you definitely need some stale bread, preferably rustic baguette or some good quality crusty bread. No cotton wool like sliced supermarket bread - forget about it! I used three ciabatta rolls and one large white homemade bread rolls - all 2-3 days old. Dice the bread and place in a bowl. Fry one diced onion in a little butter until soft. Add to the bread together with approximately one cup of milk mixed with two eggs, add lots of chopped fresh parsley, season with salt and pepper, optionally add some dried marjoram. Mix it with your hands, leave it to soak for about 30 minutes. Next add 2-3 tbsp of all purpose flour and  mix again with your hands. If you found the mixture too loose and too wet to form the dumplings add some breadcrumbs or some more diced bread - never add more flour. I ended up with 16 dumplings of a size roughly about a tennis ball.

Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and using wet hands form dumplings about size of a tennis ball and add to the boiling water. Don't shake the pan, leave it, until they start to flow on the surface. From this moment boil them for about 10-12 minutes, then remove with slotted spoon. The bigger dumplings are the longer you have to cook them.

We had them with simple pork goulash and some beets cooked with orange juice. If you are not afraid of gherkins in salty brine called ogórki kiszone (as some people are, as they think they too sour or even gone off), popular in Central and Eastern Europe give them a go with dumplings and meat - they work perfectly well together. 

Pork shoulder goulash 

Serves 4

3 tbsp sunflower oil

about 800g diced pork shoulder
few tbsp all purpose flour

some salt

some freshly ground black pepper

1 onion, peeled and diced

2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped 

3 tbsp sweet paprika

pinch of chilli powder

about  800ml vegetable or chicken stock, or lager or water

2 anchovies (optionally, I used them, because I had some leftovers)

small handful of dried marjoram

Place flour with some salt and pepper in a bowl. Add the meat and shake so it is covered with flour. Shake the excess of the flour and fry the meat in batches in a pan with sunflower oil. Do not overcrowd the pan, do it in 3-4 batches. Remove the meat from a pan and set aside.

Heat the remaining sunflower oil in a pan and add the onion. Fry for about 5 minutes, then add the garlic and fry for minute or so. Next add the paprika and the chilli and fry for a minute or so before adding the meat and any juices released when it was resting. Stir, add anchovies if used, stock or lager, marjoram, bring to the boil, low the heat to simmer, cover and cook fro about 1 hour.

Beetroots (roasted and finished with orange juice)

Serves 2

4-5 medium beets, washed and unpeeled
1 tbsp sunflower oil
salt
freshly ground black pepper
juice of one fresh orange 
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar 
1 tbsp butter

Heat the oven to 180 C. Place beets onto a baking tray lined with some kitchen foil, drizzle with sunflower oil, sprinkle with salt and roast until soft. Remove from the oven, leave it to cool down slightly, then peel and grate on a coarse grater.

Heat the orange juice in a pan and boil until slightly reduced. Add the grated beets, butter, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper and cook for about 3 minutes.

Serve dumplings with goulash and beets on the side sprinkled with some chopped fresh parsley. To reheat the dumplings next day simply add them to the gravy and simmer for 5 minutes, or slice and fry in a pan with some butter.

Polish dumplings (pierogi) with lamb

I hate to waste any food, especially meat. I have written about it few months ago. It is no good for the environment but also from an economical point of view it is something unforgivable. It is like taking a note out of my wallet and putting into a shredder.

Therefore I try to cook some of our meals using products that are not at their best, but can be used in soup or stews – like wrinkly vegetables, or cheese that seems to be bit dry on the edges. Also I am not panicking about products that have passed the best before date – they are still OK to eat!

When we have a roast lamb, shoulder or leg that weights about 2 kg it is always too much for two of us, and after two days of eating the roast, we always have some leftovers. So I put them in a plastic bags and place in the freezer. This is how I ended up with 500g of meat that I used to make a filling for Polish speciality – pierogi.

It is quite common to stuff them with meat, seasonal fruit or mix of mashed potatoes and curd cheese. This is my recipe and I would not call this filling a traditional Polish stuff, as lamb is not the most popular meat in Poland, although pierogi are typically Polish and were incorporated to Polish cuisine from the Far East through the Kievian Rus. This is something that is very popular in most of the Polish homes and places serving food and there are numbers of different fillings used. In Poland you can get them in most shops, usually frozen.

There are different ways to make the dough. One, very traditional mix flour with egg and some water and the other which I prefer to use mix flour with buttermilk. The dough made from buttermilk is easy to roll, very flexible and pleasant to work with. However I will post both recipes, so you can use whichever you prefer.





Makes about 40 dumplings

For the dough:

300g plain flour (you have to have some more flour handy to work the dough and roll it out as it can be quite sticky)
half tsp salt
1 egg
about 100ml warm water
1 tbsp oil (optional)

Like making pasta dough sieve the flour onto a worktop and make well in the centre. Place the egg, salt and oil in the well and mix all the ingredients. Next add little bit water at a time and mix the dough with your hands until you have got a ball. You can use a planetary mixer instead. The dough should not be too sticky, so when making it you may have to add some extra flour.

Alternatively mix the following:

500g plain flour
about 300ml buttermilk

Again, you have to have some more flour and buttermilk handy, so you can adjust the recipe if needed. Again, the dough should be flexible and not too sticky. I prefer this one, as it is easier to assemble and the dough is very good to work with.

Either way you prepare the dough, divide it into 2-3 pieces and cover with cloth before rolling out.


For the filling:

about 500g roast or boiled meat leftovers (I used parts of lamb leg and shoulder and also small piece of beef boiled to make a broth on previous day)
140g cubed pancetta
large white onion, peeled and diced
3-4 tbsp butter
handful dried porcini mushrooms
2 springs of rosemary
cup of vegetarian or beef stock (optional)
salt
freshly ground black pepper


Soak the mushrooms in a cup of water for 10 minutes, drain and squeeze the excess of water, save the water for later.

In a dry pan fry the pancetta until brown, place in the bowl and set aside.

In the same pan melt the butter and fry the onions and rosemary springs. Remove the rosemary and discard when the onions are soft.

Mince the meat, pancetta, mushrooms and onions using a meat mincer. Add the water from soaking the mushrooms and mix well. The filling should be firm and quite sticky, so add more stock if needed. You should be able to form a firm ball without any problems. Season with salt and pepper.

Start to roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface. If you use first type of dough you can use a pasta maker to roll it out, unfortunately the buttermilk dough is not suitable for rolling out in the machine. Although it is really easy and pleasant to roll out with ordinary rolling pin.

When dough is rolled out, cut disks using a pastry cutter or glass or tea cup. Any scraps of leftover dough put together and knead to form a ball that you will roll out later. If you use the first type of dough it could become too dry to seal the edges, so you will have to brush them lightly with little water.

Place a generous spoon of the filling into a middle of each disk. The edges must stay clean as it will not seal properly with any filling between edges. Fold disk in half and pinch the edges together with you fingers, pressing lightly. Place it on floured surface and repeat with other disks.

At this stage you can freeze uncooked dumplings and boil them from the frozen next time. I prefer to cook them all and reheat next day – either fry in butter or steam them.

In the large pan (I use 5l) boil the water with some salt. Add few dumplings at a time, about 6-8 and bring them to the boil. They should rise to the surface and boil for about 3-4 minutes. Drain one with slotted spoon and check if the dough is cooked. If so, drain all of the dumplings with slotted spoon and serve.

We had it with some onions, which I have fried in butter and then cooked in some homemade beef stock and then sprinkled with fresh chopped parsley. You can also serve it with melted butter only, or fried pancetta cubes, or fried onions.



(source lovefoodhatewaste.com)

Polish steamed buns in two acts

I love the fact that my partner and I come from completely different parts of Poland (I am from Silesia, he comes from Pomerania), which means that we talk different accents and call the same food different names. It makes me laugh quite often.

So, when he point out to me one day that he miss his grandma’s beef goulash served with savoury steamed buns I was bit puzzled, because first of all I do not eat them with meat but with butter, sugar and cinnamon, or seasonal fruit sauce or with fruit yogurt. Secondly because he used completely different name to call those buns that I would have used, this is why we struggled for a bit to understand what actually we want for a dinner.

Eventually, I have made two dinners – one for him with beef and wild mushrooms goulash and one for me with strawberry and vanilla sauce. Both were beautiful, even it was the first time I attended to make my own buns, but I still think mine was better.

Steamed buns

Makes 12

500g plain flour
250ml milk
3 tbsp unsalted butter
2 eggs
7g dried yeast (I used fast action, do not need to be activated)
half tsp of salt
half tsp of sugar

I have placed all of the above in a bread machine and used “dough” programme. You can also make the dough using your hand or planetary mixer and leave it covered to rise in warm place until doubled in size.

Next place the dough onto a floured surface and divide into 12 equal pieces. Form each piece into a ball, place on floured surface and cover with tea towel for about 20 minutes.

Boil the water in a big pan covered with a sieve like cover that prevents the fat splitting from a frying pan. I mean I bought it to cover a frying pan when frying but it is rubbish, although it is perfect for steaming stuff. If you do not have one of them, just cover the pan with clean tea towel and tie it with a string around the pan. This is how my Granny and Mum use to do it before electric steamers era. Or you can use electric steamer if you have one. The important bit is that the buns should not touch boiling water.

Steam buns for 10 minutes covered with another pan placed upside down, 3 at once because they will expand. Serve immediately, or leave it for later – reheat by steaming for 2-3 minutes. These suppose to freeze well, but I never tried to do this.

You can either serve it as a sweet dish, or dessert with:


Strawberry & vanilla sauce

100g of fresh strawberries (of any summer berries, or mix of them)
few drops of real vanilla essence
tsp of caster sugar

Liquidise all of the above, until smooth.


If you prefer savoury dish, serve buns with:

Beef & wild mushroom goulash

2 tbsp sunflower oil
200g stewing beef
2 small onions, diced
2 garlic cloves, chopped
200ml real beef stock
100ml ale or bitter (optional)
handful of dried porcini mushrooms
2 tbsp of sweet powdered paprika
pinch of powdered chilli
bay leaf
2 allspice
salt
freshly ground black pepper

In an oven proof dish fry seasoned beef until browned. Remove with slotted spoon and fry the onions and garlic until soften. Next add the meat, mushrooms, paprika, chilli, beef stock, bay leaf, allspice cover and place in the oven preheated to 175C for about 1.5 hour. You can also leave it on the hob, but I prefer beef stews or goulash cooked in the oven.

Peas & mint gnocchi with parmesan

Serves 3-4

3 large potatoes, unpeeled and cooked (preferably waxy ones)
approx. 250ml frozen garden peas
handful of fresh mint
egg
plain flour
1 tbsp of potato flour (starch)
salt
freshly ground black pepper
parmesan shavings and some melted butter to serve


Peel cooked potatoes while they still warm and mash using a potato ricer until nice and smooth. You can use masher but you have to make sure that potatoes are mashed thoroughly to as smooth texture as possible.

Boil the peas in salted water until tender, drain and place in bowl with freezing cold water – it will stop peas from further cooking and it will keep the nice colour. Drain after few minutes, place in food processor together with the mint and smooth into a paste.

Mix the peas paste with mashed potatoes with your hands in big bowl, and then just push it a little bit until it is in an even layer. Next using your finger draw a cross on potatoes with peas and take one quarter out (put it somewhere on the top of the remaining potatoes). Fill this empty quarter of the bowl with a plain flour. Add the potato starch, egg, salt and pepper and mix thoroughly with your hands. Place on a floured surface.

Form firm potato dough into about 2cm thick roll (looking like big sausage) and cut off piece by piece, about 1.5cm long. Place on the chopping board sprinkled with some flour and boil the water with some salt in a big pan.

When water is bubbling add 10-12 gnocchi, wait until they rise to the surface, cook further for 2-3 minutes and drain with a slotted spoon.

Serve with some melted butter, fresh mint and parmesan shavings.