Smooth Potato Dumplings--My Potato Crush

Two anecdotes come to my mind when I think about this dish. Not so long ago, at a party, I was having a conversation with a nice lady when the subject drifted toward food. "Oh, I love food" she declared at one moment. Since the conversation took a very interesting turn for me and could lead to an exchange of original recipes, I quickly admitted "I love food too". Then the lady looked at me with amusement "You love food? I love food!!!" she said exposing her curvy silhouette. "I have 20 cookbooks, I cook and I eat" she continued. "Well, I also have 20 cookbooks, I cook, and eat" I said "and I write a food blog". My last argument made her curious and she promised to check out my blog. Recently, again at a party, some hugged me and feeling my body asked "I know that you cook, but do you eat?"

These conversations were rather funny and flattering, since I cook and I really eat what I cook. And these potato dumplings are the best proof. I am probably going to sound totally uncivilized confessing that, but I usually eat about ten of them at once. I love their smoothness and a sort of gummy texture and absolutely cannot resist them, especially if they drip with dark and spicy sauces.

They are called Silesian dumplings and the recipe originally comes from Silesia. And since Silesia has been influenced by Czech, German, and Polish culinary traditions, I guess there must be different variations of them all over Central Europe. Beside their taste I also love how easy they are to make: only two ingredients are required.

Potato dumplings taste best with meat (veal or beef) sauces, and taste particularly well with beef roulades--this recipe will appear in the next post--and accompanied by side dishes made of beets or red cabbage.

Smooth Potato Dumplings
(Serves four)

Ingredients:
2 lbs potatoes,
about a cup of potato starch (corn starch can be a substitute).

Preparation:
1. Cook peeled potatoes with salt, drain them, and cool completely.
2. Smash them into a puree using potato presser.
3. Transfer the puree onto a large cutting board or plate and form a flat disk.
4. Divide the disk into quarters, and remove one of them. Fill up the remaining empty quarter with potato starch--see picture.

5. Put all potatoes in a bowl together with starch and quickly make a dough.
6. Dust your hands with starch and form smalls balls by rolling the dough--about 2 inches in diameter, finishing each one with a small dot inside.

7. Boil water in a large pot with a tbsp of salt. Throw the dumplings in and cook them for about 3 minutes from the time they rise to the top.
8. Drain them on a colander and transfer to a serving platter.

Always serve with meat sauces.

Three Cheese Savory Phyllo Pie--Inspired by Gibanica

I have always been afraid to work with phyllo pastry. All the recipes I read seemed very complicated when it came to proper handling the sheets of phyllo dough, which has the tendency to dry too fast. Also, a lot of butter was used in each recipe, which discouraged me even more.

I am not a big fan of phyllo's crispness and ready-made phyllo dishes, like spanakopitas, look appetizing enough, to avoid the hassle of dealing with phyllo at home. But I still remember a dish that my friend made years ago which I liked very much, based on phyllo pastry and cheese. She served it on a spring day lunch with green salad and chilled white wine. And I still remember how good it was.

Then another friend made a similar savory pie, which again tasted very good. It was another version of the same dish and I learned that the original recipe came from Balkans, and the pie was called Gibanica.

Some time ago, when I found myself with a big container of accidentally bought ricotta cheese, I decided it was time to take up the challenge and finally make something with phyllo pastry. I combined some elements from both recipes I got and made a delicious pie filled with a smooth mixture of three cheeses. And although the original Gibanica is a vegetarian dish made with one type of Balkan cottage cheese, when I made if for the second time I added a couple of slices of smoked ham to the filling. It tasted really good.

Also working with phyllo turned out not difficult at all. After opening an original package I put the whole roll into a large Ziploc bag, which prevented it from drying while I was working with sheets. I used butter generously for greasing the baking form, but I did not put it between the layers of the phyllo dough (the cheese is fat enough already), and just put some butter flakes on top of the pie. The whole crust came out nice and crispy, it was not too dry or too greasy, and therefore the delicate taste of the pastry was very detectable.

Three Cheese Savory Phyllo Pie
(Serves six)

Ingredients:
1 package phyllo pastry dough--you will need between 15-20 sheets,
3 cups ricotta cheese,
1 package--8 oz mascarpone cheese,
half a pound feta cheese, crumbled,
4 eggs, yolks separated from whites,
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg,
1/4 tsp salt,
freshly ground pepper.

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 370F.
2. Using stand or hand mixer with whisk attachments beat three cheeses together, and when they are already well combined add egg yolks one by one whisking continuously.
3. Beat whites until stiff and gently fold into the cheese mixture, season with nutmeg, salt, and pepper.
4. Grease the baking form (springform pan) with butter and spread about 10-15 sheets at the bottom and up the walls of the springform pan, with some overhang over the edges of the pan--see picture.

5. Fill the form with cheese filling and cover it with the remaining 5-10 phyllo sheets, gently wrinkling them and folding the overhang on the top (as if to package the cheese filling in phyllo dough).

6. Bake the pie for 50-60 minutes. When the upper phyllo becomes already dark gold but the pie does net yet rise, cover the top with a piece of aluminium foil.

Serve warm cut into triangles with green lettuce and tomato salad.

Beet Salad Again--And Why Not?

Especially that it is such a winter vegetable. Beets have been very "in" in the culinary world for quite a few years now. But in Polish cuisine they have been in for centuries. So when I see the best chefs in the world proudly throwing them over the green salads, I smile. I smile even more when I look at the price of such dishes on the menu of the most renowned restaurants.

In Poland, beet has always been a vegetable of the poor, a country food. They still are just one of the most basic, cheap, and popular ingredients of our cuisine. And one of the most beloved. No wonder that I can post several recipes featuring beets in a main role to popularize this wonderful and healthy vegetable.

Besides being used for soups (barszcz) and as a warm meat accompaniment, beets are most popular in salads. Although I love Belgian endive with beets, or green salads served with them, I prefer traditional salads that truly capture their taste and the intensive color. They can be eaten on their own or served with cold cuts or grilled meats.

This is a second from probably about ten salads that I have been serving at my house, always with a great success, and not only to my Polish friends. I make it from roasted beets rather than cooked beets. They are more healthy and tasty that way, but cooked or even marinated beets can be used as well, although in the latter case I would cut out lemon and vinegar, which are used in this recipe.

Beet Salad
(Serves 4-6)

Ingredients:
4 medium roasted beets, cut first into slices and then into sticks,
2 tsp lemon juice,
2 tsp white wine vinegar,
1 garlic clove, minced,
2 tsp olive oil,
2 tsp sour cream or yogurt, preferably Greek,
2 tsp mustard,
2 tbsp mayonnaise,
freshly ground pepper,
1 tbsp freshly chopped dill (optional),
1/2 tsp salt.

Preparation:
1. Put the beet sticks in a large bowl and season with salt, lemon juice, vinegar, and sugar. Mix well gently and let them marinate for at least two hours or even overnight.

2. Make the sauce: in a small bowl mix mayonnaise, mustard, olive oil, cream or yogurt, garlic, and pepper.

3. Pour the sauce over the beets and mix gently. Let it stand aside for 30 minutes.
4. Season with dill and serve.