plum dumplings

 plum dumplings remind me of childhood

of last days of summer break

and of an old lady named draga, that lived next door

..

she was a rather grumpy lady

(and you wouldn't expect that from her name

cause 'draga' is serbian for dear or darling)

always complaining about us kids being too loud

always asking us to go play somewhere else

but

every once in a while

a miracle would happen

she would stop being grumpy for a while

and then gather bunch of kids around the garden table

and serve us plum dumplings and cherry juice

..

in my family

plum dumplings were never made

so, over the years

i forgot about them

..

but this summer that changed

i've stumbled upon a blog post about them

and that post made me remember the childhood

and my neighbor draga (that passed away last winter)

and i knew i had to try making my version

-

for the breadcrumb coating:

60 gr (2 oz) butter

2 tablespoons oil (i used sunflower oil)

200 gr (7 oz)  fine breadcrumbs

1 cup sugar

..

for the potato dough:

700 gr (1,5 pounds) white potatoes (i used kennebec potatoes)

teaspoon salt

2 egg yolks

30 gr (1 oz) butter 

1 and a half cups of flour 

..

20 plums, unstoned

(choose firm small plums

if the plums are too big, you'll end up with gigantic dumplings..)

first make the breadcrumbs coating:

put butter and oil in a frying pan, over a medium heat

when melted, add breadcrumbs and brown them

remove from heat, cool a little bit

then add sugar and mix well

set aside

boil unpeeled potatoes until soft 

remove from the heat

and place under running water until cool enough to handle

peel them and mash them

(using fork or hand potato masher)

add salt, egg yolks and butter, mix, then add flour

and quickly mix ingredients with your hands into a soft dough..

do not overwork the dough and try not adding more flour

that would make the dumplings hard and chewy 

..

work fast, dough is supposed to be sticky

so work on well floured working surface

..

 roll out the dough with rolling pin

into a large rectangle

cut into 20 squares and place a plum into each square

then close the dough around the plum

and form a ball, using your palms

..

heat a big pot of water until water starts simmering

put several dumplings in it, one at a time

(i cook 6 or 7 in one round)

they are going to sink

and after few minutes of cooking, they rise and start floating

simmer dumplings for 5 more minutes after that point

..

remove from the water with slotted spoon

put into breadcrumbs mix and roll until covered completely 

..

they are best eaten the same day they are made

if i have leftovers (and that almost never happens)

i store them at room temperature

cause potato dough hardens when stored in fridge

..

recipe is adopted from this fabulous blog

and i advice you to go there and check out the plum dumplings post

even if it's written in serbian

cause there is bunch of pictures of every single step

..

mokosha