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. |
