[Osijek dumplings:] Dumplings with plums
Osijek dumplings, a somewhat neglected and forgotten dessert dating from the 20th century. as early as during the Turkish Empire (which lasted part of the 16th and 17th centuries). On the outside in a crispy wrapper of bread crumbs, with the best ratio of potato dough, stuffed with plums or some other fruit as desired with the inevitable sour cream (preferably homemade) and homemade fruit topping if desired. Sounds really nice, doesn't it? :) In ancient times, more precisely in the summer of 1526, Osijek became part of the great Ottoman Empire in the whirlwind of war. Finally, to the great happiness of the people of Osijek, on Friday, September 29, 1687, at 11 a.m., the last Ottoman soldier left the city, and all the churches rang and thus announced the long-awaited freedom. As the years passed, the churches in Tvrđa, Donji and Gornji grad still rang every Friday at 11 in memory of the great event, but the people of Osijek forgot the real reason ... Finally and practically, the cooks r
Preparation steps
- Cook the potatoes in their skins and in salted water. That way the potatoes will absorb the least water and you won’t get a gooey dough. Cool it well, then strain it and work it well with a hand mixer. Add eggs, a little salt, nutmeg and flour if necessary. If necessary, you will see later whether more flour needs to be added or not. Knead with your hands until the dough becomes homogeneous and soft and until it gets the same consistency as when making all types of pasta. You’ll best see by clicking on the photos below how it should look best.
- Depending on the size of the dumplings you make, you will get the same amount. With your hands, separate each piece provided for the dumplings, add the plums. Flour your hands well and shape into balls.
- Gently dip each dumpling in salted water that flows gently. Since the gnocchi are cooked until they float to the surface, you can leave them in the water for a few more minutes to cook, since the dough is a little thicker and there is more in quantity.
- While the dumplings are cooking, prepare a crispy wrapper. Put oil (or lard) in a deeper bowl. Heat gently and add the bread crumbs. Depending on how much you like those bread crumbs and add more. Personally, I always like more because, as I mentioned, I like them to have a thicker crispy wrapper, and even during serving, I always put bread crumbs on the bottom, and then dumplings on them. Toast them until they get a nice brown color, making sure they don’t burn. If you get burnt, simply remove that part of the bread crumbs, otherwise you will get a bitter taste. Towards the end, I added a little crystal sugar to dissolve and sweeten them further. You can skip that part if you want, but then I don't have to sweeten them with sugar before consumption.
- Remove each dumpling from the water using a French grapple, and add to the toasted bread crumbs.
- For the plum sauce, I put the plums in a deeper bowl and mixed them for quite a long time using a stick mixer until I got a thick mixture. I added a gingerbread mixture to taste, although you can also add cinnamon. I added a little milk because it was too thick for me, and a little sugar because the plums were quite sour. I heated this sauce before serving, and served it with sour cream. And that would be it! Very simple, and so fine and delicious! Along with these, I served homemade cranberry jam, which I had previously heated, and sprinkled with powdered sugar. The photos show fresh plums.
- Dumplings like this can be filled with any other type of fruit, and instead of bread crumbs use poppy seeds, walnuts, etc. In the photos there are plums that were frozen, so you can see the comparison between fresh and frozen. :) You can see the detailed recipe on the link: https://bit.ly/2Zst6xv
Serving
Serve hot or cold, as desired with fruit toppings and sour cream, especially if you are a fan of sweet and sour combinations like me! :) Or if you are full traditional, use only sour cream. Whichever variant you choose, I’m sure you’ll like it.
