Recipe for Czech Potato Dumplings/Recept na Bramborove knedliky

I cannot wait to try them. I never made them myself. A good ham and browned onions on top. Yum.

If anybody is in Atlanta and does not know already, Patak makes the best Boston Butt to go with this. Seasoned perfectly, just cook. For some reason, I am hungry now. 🙂

I saw a Czech travel show where the woman boiled these “loaves” in water in a special device that enabled her to lift the cooked dumpling loaf out of the pot, then cut it with wires put into the device for this purpose (kind of like a large egg slicer). I can imagine that using thread would be a simple way to cut the dumplings. The people in the program kept calling it “potato bread”, but I’m sure all the cook used was flour and potatoes, and that she was making Czech dumplings. The program (translated into English) was made by the Japanese, who sometimes get their English a little mixed up. The dumplings (or “bread”) were served with a pork roast and sauerkraut. My own Swedish tradition makes a similar dumpling (round) that has bits of browned onion and salt pork in the middle, seasoned with pepper and allspice. This is, of course, drenched in melted butter!

My Hubby makes these A LOT!! whenever we have “birds” (a tenderized steak, season with garlic salt and mustard with sticks of carrots and celery, bacon and sometimes a slice of pickle – wrap the meat around the veggies and tie them, they brown in butter and make a gravy) Wow, the memories return!! He actually told me my “birds” were better than his mother’s!!! Anyway, he cooks the potatoes, then shreds them and mixes them with flour, salt and cream of wheat. He forms little 1/2 cup balls then drops them in a pan of boiling water, after they return to boiling, set timer for 10 minutes) I guess they used to use thread to cut them (my mother-in-law did so) but we just cut them up on our plates and pour on the gravy from the birds – made from sour cream and half and half and butter (YUM!! – but really fattening)