Tag: dessert

Plum gnocchi (szilvás gombóc)

Plum gnocchi brings back some very sweet childhood memories … delicious plums wrapped in soft, pillowy dough with a hint of bread crumbs spiced with a little sugary cinnamon. In Hungary, it is often served as a second dish after a heavier soup but it t can also be a dessert. Late summer is the time when plums are ready so I’m so excited to have them again.

Plum gnocchi is made in many countries of central Europe: in Italy (Gnocchi de susine), Hungary (szilvás gombóc), Croatia (Knedle sa sljivama), Austria (Zwetschkenknödel), Romania (Galuste cu prune), Slovenia (Slivovi cmoki), etc. Supposedly, it originated in the region of Trieste that has a colorful history being part of different countries. Trieste is in Italy today but was part of the Astro-Hungarian Empire for some time. Oh and all those other countries that Plum gnocchi is made have some affiliation to Hungary …

Gnocchi (pronounced nyow kee) is an Italian word that means knuckle or knots. Gnocchi is a mixture of flour and water. In this recipe potatoes are also added.

So what nationality is Plum gnocchi? Today, people in any of those above mentioned countries would argue that it is theirs but please read on … If you know European history and how countries have changed, this recipe might reflect the ever changing times. Also, remember potatoes came from the new World …

It doesn’t matter who invented it, indeed it is a fabulous dish. The main ingredient is the plum. Plums are slightly cooling with a sweet and sour flavor, so it will need the pungent cinnamon! Try to get the Italian or the Hungarian purple plums but other sweet, great tasting plums will work too. In addition to its vitamin and mineral content, plums are also a great source of fiber. So take a bite of this intriguing history …

RECIPE

Makes about 18 balls plus the little gnocchi pieces

INGREDIENTS

  • about 1 lb russet potatoes (4-5 potatoes
  • 2 cups flour or more depending on the dough
  • 1 Tbsp semolina flour (optional)
  • 1 egg
  • 3 Tbsp sugar
  • 1 tsp apple pie spice or cinnamon
  • 1 Tbsp butter
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 18 sweet plums – depending on the size of your plums

Coating

  • 1 cup bread crumbs
  • 1/2 cup of walnuts (finally chopped)
  • 5 Tbsp butter
  • 1 tsp apple spice (1/2 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/4 tsp clove, 1/8 nutmeg, 1/8 tsp mace)
  • 1 T sugar
  • pinch of salt

DIRECTIONS

Cooking the potatoes. Add cold water to the pot, bring the water to boil. Place the potatoes with the skin on in a large pot. Turn heat down and continue cooking on medium low heat covered for about 45 – 60 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Peel them while they are still hot but you can handle. Mash the potatoes while they are warm. I like to place the potatoes onto a metal steamer with ‘feet’ so the vitamins and minerals don’t leach into the water and so they don’t soak up too much water. If the potatoes are too wet, the dough will need more flour and will be harder. (Please see picture below).

Puree the potatoes. Puree the potatoes while they are still warm, I was able to do it as soon as the peels were taken off. I used a potato ricer. I put the potatoes through the larger holes of the ricer, then the smaller ones. It is worth investing in a potato ricer if you want a nice and soft dough. Potato masher can also work. Let the potatoes cool completely.

Kneed the dough. Mix in the flour, salt, egg, 1 Tbsp of butter, potatoes and start kneading the dough to make a ball. Do not over do it. Make sure your potatoes are at room temperature. If they are warm they will take up too much flour. You can use the fridge for 5 minutes if needed.

Let the dough rest for 1 hour.

Start boiling the water for the plum balls. Fill a 5 qt pot with about 3 qt water. Bring to a boil with a little salt. This will be used for the plum balls.

Meanwhile, prepare the plums. Wash them, cut them in half and take out the pits. Set aside.

Make the bread crumb coating. Melt the butter on low heat and add the crumbs stirring frequently for about 10 minutes or until the crumbs soak up the butter and become golden brown. Use lower heat so the butter doesn’t burn. When heat is turned off, add the cinnamon, sugar and chopped walnuts. Mix. This will be used to coat the balls.

Sugar filling for the inside of the balls. Mix the 3 Tbsp sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon and a pinch of salt for the stuffing.

Preparing the dough. After 1 hour, place the dough on a flat, floured surface and start stretching it to 1 cm thickness until it is a squarish shape. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface with a rolling pin. Cut out 9 squares. Don’t worry about getting the shape perfect because we will use the left overs for the mini gnocchi, Hungarian nudlis.

Assemble the dumplings. Place one of the dough squares into your palm. Put a plum piece along with the cinnamon sugar in the dough. Fold corner by corner gently tucking the stuffing inside and then roll it to make a ball. Do this with each square. Coat them in flour.

Making the nudlis. You can take the left over dough and start rolling long strips with them. Cut short little pieces off, coat in flour. You will cook them with the balls. If you don’t want to make these, use this left over dough to make more plum balls.

Cooking the plum balls. When the water starts boiling, you can drop the dumplings in the water one by one with a slotted spoon. Also, add the little gnocchi strips in this water. Try to gently stir them to prevent them from sticking to the bottom of the pot.

When the dumplings come to the surface, cook them for about another 5 minutes and remove them with a slotted spoon.

Coating the plum balls with bread crumbs. Put the dumplings into the bread crumb coating mixture that you prepared earlier and roll them around until they are well coated.

Serve warm with a little vanilla sugar or honey.

Oh and you might want to double up the recipe or triple …

enjoy! Jó étvágyat!

Photo and text by twincitiesherbs.com.

Rhubarb cobbler

Enjoy this true American deliciousness! The juicy base is both sweet and sour. These flavors nicely complement each other. It is covered with the perfectly crumpling, soft topping … Oh and it is begging for a bit of vanilla ice cream!

Cobbler is an American deep-dish fruit dessert. It became a favorite right after I took my first bite. Cobbler is simple yet it is bursting with rich flavor; there is something about it that surely grabs everyone’s attention.  You can make it with whatever fruit is available in the season. My mother-in-law made it with rhubarb and berries and that is how I keep making it. Foreigners often complain that Americans don’t have a cuisine of their own. Well this one is an American specialty for sure. 

I looked up the history of cobbler so I will try to summarize what I read.  Well, one is certain that it is a North American dessert. It seems like it was invented by the settlers from the Old World when they tried to make one of their amazing pies but they did not have all the tools and ingredients that was available back at home.  As an immigrant, I can relate to this experience.  

The word cobbler might come from the word ‘cobeler’ that meant wooden bowl.  They might have attempted to make a more simple version of a traditional pie recipe in a small wooden bowl by the fire.  Also, another meaning could come from the word cobbler, the person who mends shoes; kind of like how the dough is mended together like a patchwork. However, none of these speculations of the word’s origin is official.  

As I mentioned earlier, I like to make the cobbler with rhubarb, especially in the spring. It is the first fruit, oops I meant to say vegetable here. Yes people often think it is a fruit because of its fruity, sour taste but it is in fact a vegetable. I can’t believe I get excited about rhubarb but it is really the first new plant that shows up at the farmers market in the Midwest … and there is nothing else here for weeks. While it is not a fruit, it can be prepared with sugar to –kind of ‘cheating’- to pretend that it is a fruit.  I also like to add rhubarb because the sour flavor nicely offsets the sweetness of the berries.

Rhubarb is native to Siberia and has been around for thousands of years. It has been grown in Asia for its medicinal properties. With the big migration, it was adopted in Europe as well. The settlers brought it over to the United States in the 1700’s and was known as the pie plant. The whole plant except for the leaves are used. The stalks are used as food. The leaves contain oxalic acid and can be poisonous in larger quantities and are therefore not used.

Besides its fame in the culinary world, rhubarb has favorable health benefits too. It is cooling and detoxifying to the liver which makes it an ideal spring vegetable. Berries are also healthy. Particularly, raspberries and blackberries have a sweet and sour flavor and neutral thermal nature. These qualities make the berries ideal for baking. They nourish the kidneys and the liver and also build and cleanse the blood of toxins.

This is a crowd pleaser! The only complaint I have ever heard was why I didn’t make more! I bring this dessert often to potlucks so I know a lot of people have eaten it. I really think cobbler is as good as pie is or even better. The trick is to get the best rhubarb and the sweetest berries you can find. You can grow them yourself or get them at the farmers’ market. This is really important as the main part of the cobbler is the fruits! Also, make sure you use the exact measurements! Remember, it is still kind of a pie recipe. Can’t just say I take a little bit of this and a little of that …

RECIPE

12 servings

This recipe is straight out of the cookbook Joy of Cooking.

Serving size: 8 people

INGREDIENTS
  • 1 lb rhubarb cut into 1/2 inch pieces (in the store get the thinner stalks)
  • 1 lb berries – I used blackberries and raspberries
  • ½ cup sugar or more only if your fruits are not sweet enough. Only use more if your berries are not sweet. 1/2 cup is plenty otherwise, trust me!
  • salt
  • 2 Tbsp flour or 1 Tbsp of corn starch
  • 1 1/3  cup all purpose white flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 2 Tbsp sugar
  • 5 Tbsp cold unsalted butter
  • 2/3 cup cream or 1/2 cup milk (honestly milk is fine too)
  • 1 lightly beaten egg for the top
  • extra sugar for the top
  • vanilla ice cream for serving

DIRECTIONS
  1. Preheat the oven to 375 F. 
  2. Have all the ingredients at room temperature except for the butter.
  3. Have ready an oven proof baking dish that is about 2 quarts large in volume and 2 inches deep (ex 11 x 4 x 2 inch).  
  4. Take fruits and the rhubarb out of the freezer if they are frozen, let them defrost. Wash rhubarb stalks and cut them into 1/2-1 inch long. If they are wide, you will have to cut them in half as well. Place the rhubarb and the berries in the dish. Add pinch of salt, flour or cornstarch and sugar. Mix. Set aside and wait for at least 15 minutes or at least until rhubarb exudes some juice.
  5. In a large bowl, combine the flour with the baking powder, pinch of salt and sugar. Add the butter with the flour mixture. This is such a satisfying experience for me to do by hand but if you prefer you can use your food processor for this step.  Add the cream or milk stirring with a wooden spoon until the dough comes together. Gently need the dough in the bowl 5-10 times if needed, turning and pressing any loose pieces into the dough.
  6. Now we will make a patchwork. Divide the dough into 8 parts and flatten each piece between your two hands about 1/4 inch thick. Place this piece on top of the fruit mix. Keep doing this until you have used up all the dough and the fruits are completely covered.  The dough should be workable but not sticky. If the dough becomes too sticky and hard to work with, put it into the fridge for about 10 minutes to become the proper consistency. This can happen in the summer when it is warm outside.
  7. Lightly brush the top of the dough with the lightly beaten eggs and sprinkle with a little sugar. 
  8. Put the cobbler in the oven and bake for about 35 – 40 minutes or until the top is golden brown and the berries are bubbling. 
  9. Let stand at room temperature for at least 15 minutes before serving. 
  10. You can serve the cobbler with vanilla ice cream if you wish.

enjoy!

Sources

  1. Irma S. Rombauer: Joy of Cooking
  2. Paul Pitchford: Healing with Whole Foods
  3. http://www.etymonline.com/word/cobbler

Text and photos by Twincitiesherbs.