Friday, September 13

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




15 comments:

  1. Thank you for the recipe and for sharing your memories. I´m so bad at cooking but I think I´ll try!

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    Replies
    1. :) you should totally try it, it's pretty easy recipe to make, but can be a bit time consuming

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  2. Ooh, plum dumplings so remind me of childhood, one of my grandmas used to make them! Though I'm not that fond of potato dough, but I've since found an Austrian recipe that uses quark/topfen, so yummy!

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    1. i love potato dough, if it's done correctly.. if it's not, it is hard and chewy and not my favorite thing.. i must try your version of dumplngs, i just know i'll love it

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  3. those sound amazing! i'd love to try this out next time i buy plums!

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  4. Oooh, yum! Thank you, I'm pinning this post for when our late summer and plums come around!

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    Replies
    1. :) try them out, hope you gonna like them as much as i do

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  5. Wow, I didn't realise they were made with potato dough... Sounds interesting! Thank so much for the recipe, they look just delicious :)

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    1. :) yup.. and i'm usually not fan of potato dough, cause it's often overdone and hard, but these are lovely.. and i love them for not being too sweet too

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  6. Aw yeah - Summer is coming up (I am in Australia) and these babies are on the menu! Thank you for sharing :) x

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  7. Woah, these look amazing!! I think I'll need to recipe hack to make them gluten free, but they look so delicious that I think I need to make them!!

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  8. Woah, these look amazing!! I think I'll need to recipe hack to make them gluten free, but they look so delicious that I think I need to make them!!

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  9. Can't wait to try this! Thanks for sharing!

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