I grew up on the west coast, in the south of Sweden in a town called Göteborg (Gothenburg). It's the second largest city, and the port is one of the main ones. The local cuisine is therefore very fish based, since it's easy to get hold of fresh fish and seafood there. But today I want to talk about potato dumplings. It's funny, both the northern part, and the south-eastern part has their own variety of them. The middle part hasn't. I wonder why? Anyway, the south east call their dumplings "kroppkakor" (translates "body cookies"!!!), and the Swedish MoFo blog Our Life In Sandarna wrote about that last week. My mother comes from those parts of Sweden, but I have never eaten kroppkakor, since she hates them will all her heart.
What I do have, is a boyfriend with northern heritage. Up there, they call their dumplings "palt". I've tried to figure out the difference between kroppkakor and palt, and it's not a very clear line. Both consists of potatoes and flour and are filled with meat. However, palt seems to always be made out of raw potatoes, while kroppkakor is most often done with boiled ones, but sometimes also raw. A bit confusing, I admit.
This autumn, I had the honour of tasting palt for the first time. Martin made it for himself the first time ever, and the result was great. It's firm, dense, and you will leave the table very full. Today, we made it again, and I thought I'd show you how it's done.
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| 1. Peel potatoes. |
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| Shred the potatoes and squeeze some water out of them (not all!) |
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| Knead in some flour (barley is great, but wheat will do) until it's not sticky any more. |
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| Shape the dough into big balls and make a whole in it. Fill it with something tasty, like fried seitan or tofu. |
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| Boil in salted water. Once they float, let them simmer for 20-25 minutes more. |
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| This is what they will look like when they're done, more or less. |
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| Serve them with non-dairy butter, caramelized onions and lingonberry jam. |
This post should have 800 comments. This looks SO delicious! Oh my.
ReplyDeleteGosh, I have relatives in Gothenburg too, but I've never been offered any form of potato dumpling when visiting. These look good.
ReplyDeleteCatofstripes: Nah, it's not usual in that part of Sweden, so that's natural! You should try making your own instead :)
ReplyDeleteI'll have to give these a try! I've never had them before, but they seem simple enough!
ReplyDeleteoh my gosh, what fun! these look really good and very different from anything I've had before. I remember a friend coming home from sweden and saying "they eat their potatoes with jam!!???" Very exciting. I'm bookmarking this one for sure!
ReplyDeleteWhen we did our post we researched a bit about the difference between palt and kroppkakor but we never got the hang of it. At my work one of the guys from the north says it has to be blood in palt, other one from another part of northern Sweden says it has to be raw potatoes. The we found about 5 different recipes for kroppkakor, all that said their way was the only way...
ReplyDeleteWow, these look amazing!
ReplyDeleteActually, even though I live in Sweden I've never tried pitepalt or kroppkakor. Guess I have to do it some day! The thing is I always think of pork when imaging this dish. But I will try it, I promise! And I guess I'll love it too. Thanks for inspiration!
ReplyDeleteveganisera: You should! Most of the time, we make it without any filling at all, and that's great too.
ReplyDeletePalt is one of my favourite food, as are kroppkakor. I've been under the impression that the difference between the two is what kind of flour being used and the ratio between cooked and raw potatoes. Palt is made from barley flour and mainly raw potatoes, while kroppkakor, which have a tender taste, are made from wheat flour and cooked potatoes. There is also the 'Ölandskroppkakor'-variety, which uses an even ratio between cooked and raw potatoes and 'Delikatesskroppkakor', to which eggs are added.
ReplyDeleteWhen we've veganized kroppkakor (that reminds me, I have to blog about that), we use salted chickpeas seasoned with liquid smoke. Delicious!
By the way, what an awesome idea to serve caramelized onions along the palt! I'll have to try that!
ReplyDeleteAdde: Thanks for sorting that out! We didn't use barley flour but did use raw potatoes so I guess it's a mix then. Caramelized onions goes really well along with it.
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