40 years ago, a very good friend of mine made dumplings from Öland which is a Swedish island situated on the south-east coast. I just loved it and asked for the recipe. I used the recipe for the first time a few years later when we lived in England, it was a hit and gave me the courage to try it over and over again 😊.
Swedish dumpling is made differently depending on the region. In Norrbotten (north of Sweden) they call it pitepalt, for example. Dumplings from the region of Blekinge are gray, dumplings from Gotland are white. The gray color is due to the fact that these dumplings are made with raw potatoes. Swedish dumplings have many relatives outside Sweden as well. For example the Norwegian raspeballen or kumlen, knödel or klösse from Germany or canederli in Italy, Gombóc from Hungary or Russian Knedli.
Some hints before you get started: It is important that the dumplings are simmering and not boiling. If it starts to boil you will have a soup instead of dumplings!
If you have never made it before you may want to wrap the dumplings into some kind of cheesecloth and tie a string before putting it into the water. The dumplings are to be simmering in a large saucepan with plenty of water, do not put in too many at the same time. If you are making many dumplings you can choose to use a very large saucepan or why not use 2 pans at the same time. Excess dumpling can be frozen or why not fry them for lunch the next day?
Ingredients for 2 servings (give 4 pieces)
100 g salt or smoked bacon or ham
1/4 of a yellow onion
1 teaspoon pounded whole allspice
500 g raw uncooked potatoes
100 g peeled boiled potatoes
0.5 dl of wheat flour
0.5 teaspoon salt
0.5 tbsp of wheat flour for shaping for your countertop when shaping the dough
Method:
- Cut the meat into really small fine dices. Peel and chop the onion finely. Mix pounded allspice with the meat and the chopped onion. Cover and let it all rest in the fridge until the next day.
- Peel and grate the raw potato, squeeze out as much liquid as possible using a cheesecloth or a kitchen towel.
- Grate the boiled potatoes. Mix with the raw potatoes, 0.5 dl wheat flour, and 0.5 teaspoons salt, mix it well until it becomes a dough.
- Form the dough into a roll. Divide the roll into 4 equal parts. Form each piece into a ball. Make a small hole in the middle and fill with about 1 1/2 tablespoon of bacon and onion mixture. Pinch together, pinch it firmly with both hands then roll and shape into a dumpling.
- Bring lightly salted water to a boil in a large pan, lower the heat to simmering mode.
- Put the dumpling in simmering water very carefully and make sure that the dumplings do not stick to the bottom of the pan. Allow simmering for about 45-60 minutes. Then take it up with a skimmer.
Serve with melted butter and lingonberry.
Enjoy!
