Croatian Plum Dumplings Knedli Od Sljiva Recipe For Chicken

CROATIAN PLUM DUMPLINGS (KNEDLI OD SLJIVA)

Steps:

• Cook potato in skin until soft (like for potato salad). When ready peal the skin and mash potato on flat surface. Be careful it is very hot.
• Add butter (crush it a bit to speed melting), flour, semolina, nutmeg and salt. Make it into a dough, and when cools it a bit add two eggs. You will think now that you make a big mistake because it will turn very wet, but you have to be firm and continue to make dough. It is OK to add more flour.
• The right amount of flour will be clear to you after you make this several times, this is amount I usually put. It also depends on quality of potato; some are softer than others. When the dough is firm, but soft enough, make the dumplings.
• Cut a piece of dough and roll around cleaned and washed plum. The dough shouldn't be more than 1 cm thick. If you make it without plum stone, break the plum into half, remove the stone and put a sugar cube instead. After that, do as previously mention.
• At this point you can freeze the whole amount of dumplings, but do it on flat surface making sure they don't touch. After they freeze, you can put them in a bag.
• If you want to cook them right away, use large pot, fill with water up to 2/3 and add some oil. When water boils, put the dumplings into the water and cook until they start to float on the surface. You may use a toothpick to check if they are soft.
• In the meantime melt butter in a frying pan and fry some breadcrumbs. When removing dumplings from the pot put them into hot butter with breadcrumbs and fry them just a bit to reduce surplus of water.
• You may serve them as a desert, but also as a lunch, of course amount of dumplings will differ in both cases.
• When you open the dumplings, you may put some sugar over it and also some grounded cinnamon. Some people add sour cream over dumplings, but I don't like it that way.

CROATIAN PLUM DUMPLINGS RECIPE (KNEDLE SA ŠLJIVAMA)

Steps:

• Peel and boil the potatoes until tender
• Mash and salt the potatoes, and allow to cool
• Once cool, add oil and whole egg, and the flour and knead
• Roll out to 1 cm thick
• Cut into squares - the size of the cubes will depend on the size of the plums. It needs to be big enough so, that it can wrap the plum
• Using lightly floured hands, take the square of dough and pat it flat in your hand. Place a plum in the center and bring the sides of dough up over plum
• Enclose the plum in the dough
• Moisten edges with water to seal - you now have your dumpling!
• Place the dumplings in boiling water, and cook for 20 minutes
• With a slotted spoon, collect the dumplings, and allow them to drain on kitchen paper
• Brown the bread crumbs in a little sunflower oil (or butter) and sprinkle over the dumplings
• Transfer the dumplings to a serving platter and layer with icing sugar

HUNGARIAN PLUM DUMPLINGS - WITH VEGAN/SUGAR FREE VERSION

Steps:

• Start by boiling the unpeeled potatoes in a pot of water (for small potatoes this will take about 10-15 minutes). After they are boiled remove them from the water and let them cool for a couple of minutes then peel and mash them.
• Put the mashed potatoes in a large bowl and add the beaten eggs (or egg substitutes), oil and flour.
• Mix all ingredients together until you get a sticky and smooth dough.
• Mix the cinnamon, vanilla and rum extracts and the sucanat in a small bowl. Add 1 teaspoon of this mixture into the middle of each plum.
• Heat the oil in a small skillet. Add the bread crumbs and let them fry for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and put them on a large plate.
• Divide the dough in two. Roll the dough and cut it into dumpling-size portions (ones that appear to be big enough to wrap your plum). Take each portion and form a small ball. Flatten the ball and place the plum into the center, then remake the ball with the plum inside.
• Tip: You must have flour on your hands all the time so the dough won't stick to your fingers.
• Boil some water in a large pot. Add a pinch of sea salt.
• When the water has reached boiling point, place some dumplings inside.
• Be careful, if the dumplings stick to the bottom of the pot all you need to do is to shake it a little bit. Let them boil for 5 minutes. When ready they will rise from the bottom of the pot.
• Remove them from the water using a slotted spoon and roll them in the bread crumbs. Serve with honey (or other healthy syrup) on top.