potato dumplins, kraut, and dill pickles (add pics)

Kumle, potatbollar, klubb. Potato dumplings. Norwegian traditional food.

With a German father, I grew up with similar German potato dumplings. One of my favourite US restaurants is owned and chef´d by a man from Europe who grew up with the foods of Italy, Austria, Germany...whose recipe for large potato dumplings, was given to me. The recipe is exactly how I cook--by eye, by ingredient, by outcome. I was told the ingredients, and what to do to make it end up the way it ended up--large dense, slightly fluffy, but mostly dense, but not solid like rock. And delicious! I love dumplings, of all types, from the American Southern flat chicken-n-dumpling dumpings, to the fluffy stew ones, to the German to the Norwegian, even to tiny Italian gnocchi (though my gnocchi are made with potatoes and polenta, not just potatoes).

(for my gnocchi, I combine about slightly less than 2:1 of peeled mashed potato with dry polenta, 1-2 whole eggs, flour, seasoning, and something. The something is usually spinach, or herbs, or kale; or whatever looks good that day, and is on hand. Form into the dough, make snakes. Take a fork then prick the edge all the way along the snakes on one side, with the fork tines to make a texture for sauce to soak into once cooked. After pricking along the entire side, then cut with a knife. Then boil in broth, or soup, or creamy sauce. My favourite is either in my version of Mediteranean minestrone, or in a Norwegian cream soup such as cauliflower, green split pea, or the fish chowder recipe in the previous post. Add the gnocchi then before any seafood, which is added last!)



Norwegian serving, typically is one large dumpling, a piece of local sausage, a piece of cooked meat on the bone such as ham hock; maybe a mash of kolarabi, steamed ruutabaga or similar; some type of sauce. And some lingonberries. or Juniper berries, as both grow wild here. A light salad of thin sliced cucumbers, spices & paprika, with sour cream and a splash of vinegar ( a typical Norwegian cucumber salad).

The German way of serving the potato dumpling, which I usually do is: a homemade soft Laugen pretzel with coarse salt, a local piece of Norwegian sausage or reindeer meat, kraut (which is typical here, but I still use a mild German kraut too just as often, made with fennel), a little red cabbage slaw, slightly pickled, mild. Strong yellow mustard. Sour dill pickles which I make, as the pickles you get here are all sweet, very very sweet. The dill pickles I make with typical vinegar salt bath, fresh dill, dried dill, fennel, coriander seeds, black fennel, peppercorns. And garlic. And sometimes a splash of tabasco, or a tiny piece of red chili pepper. And a traditional paprika cream sauce. And a bit of lingonberries on the side.

This is  one version of my version of a potato dumpling.


Tips: Use a mashing potato, which is mealy. Do not use a waxy potato, as it will just not work.

I use, and was told to use, potato flour and barley flour, so that is what I use, for the large potato dumplings. For other dumplings in other recipes, such as either flat noodle or fluffy type dumplings in chicken and dumplings, I use just wheat and white flour. The potato flour and barley flour of this recipe, has a different flavour and texture, for what I want it to end up as: the large, dense, yet still soft, flavourful potato dumpling. The main event, for me, even with all the other items served along side it. I would happily, and often do happily, eat the dumplings by themselves, or in a broth.

1) In a large soup pot, make your broth. Meaty ham hocks (which will also be served with the meal, a bit shredded atop the dumplings, and used to flavour the dumplings when boiling. The water needs to be salty for the dumplings).  Season to taste with salt, pepper, a bay leave or whatever. I also often add bits and pieces of whatever is in the fridge needing cooking, such as a carrot, or celery, parsnips, root veggies.

Start this a few hours before, so it will be finished, the meat will be cooked and ready to eat, and the water is boiling to boil the dumplings when ready to cook.

* For the dumplings themselves:

-1 large or 2 medium cooked mealy mashing potato, PEELED, mashed when still warm. Being warm makes them easier to peel--or they have a nifty peeling tool here which works a treat! (I rarely if ever ever peel potatoes! This and gnocchi are the only two reasons I ever do. Otherwise, I serve them peel on and guests can peel them themselves, which is typical here. Many people will serve the boiled potatoes peeled for guests, as it is extremely unusual here for anyone to eat potatoes with the peel on!)

-6 or 7 medium mealy potatoes, raw, shredded, squeezed of water. (Using a fine cloth, tea towel, squeeze the excess water from the raw shredded potato, as if making hashbrowns).

-seasoning. Salt, pepper, herbs finely chopped, paprika.

-flour. About 1:1:1, barley, plain, potato flours. or about 1:3 plain to barley flour. The smallest portion of flour will be the plain flour.

-Using your hands, blend all of these ingredients together. Use your hands to form the mixture into the dumplings, each about the size of a baseball. These are large dumplings! (The mixed ingredients should be workable still a bit sticky, but if too wet and unmanagable then add a little more flour).

- to boil dumplings, boil the broth then lower the temp to a simmer to cook the dumplings. Use a slotted wood spoon or whatever you have, to carefully lower the dumplings into the simmering liquid. Do not boil, or they could fall apart. Simmer--for about half an hour or til they float to the surface, letting you know they are done.

-Serve immediately with whatever you like. See my above comments.


-Serve with a traditional homemade paprika cream sauce. Sour cream, heavy cream, herb, seasoning, broth, thickened with a bit of of the flour, and cooked with a bit of the deglazed meat stock (from the beginning of the recipe, you can brown the edges of the meat then use this for the sauce).