Gidget Roots - Journey Through Family Recipes - Episode 12: Great-Grandma KZ's Recipe - Potato Dumplings

 Hey all you Scrappy Gidget fans, I hope you are all enjoying these recipe adventures! Don't forget to follow me on Instagram and my Facebook page to stay up to date with new posts and new adventures!  I hope you are all finding some fun ways to stay entertained, including checking in on my great-aunts and I on our cooking adventures!  

Normally after we complete a cooking adventure and are in the middle of enjoying the fruits of our labor we decide which recipe to schedule our next adventure. Our video dinner date was cut short from an important phone call I had to take, so we did not get a chance to discuss our next adventure. I few days after the Spanish Delight, I received a text asking "Can we cook "Granny M's and Bapka's Sour Soup" next time?"  A stewed on the question a little bit later and finally emailed my aunt and said the following "I saw your message about wanting to cook Granny M's and Bapka's Sour Soup... to be honest this recipe terrifies me because I don't think I have tasted anything like it before and am really nervous about it... I noticed that [the recipe] also said to "serve with potato dumplings" but I have never made these before, either. Should we make those once before making the soup with them?" - That one sentence saved me my encounter with Sour Soup... for now. Which means, let's get into today's adventure - "Great-Grandma KZ's Recipe Potato Dumplings" - for me, this recipe is my 2x great grandma's recipe!



When reading the recipe for the potato dumplings, again, with most recipes, lots of questions ensued. Scaling back - how much, there is only two measurements listed in this entire recipe. First it called for three large potatoes. I am scaling back the recipe because three potatoes seemed as though it would make a substantial amount of dumplings.  I'm only adding one! My aunts ended up using two but agreed that it made a significantly large number of dumplings so they were glad they didn't use three whole potatoes. The second measurement was for 1 tsp of salt - so I ended up using 1/3 tsp of salt (I probably will end up using closer to 1 tsp in the future for the mixture, or at least to taste).  

"Start adding flour until right consistency to cut with a spoon" - I can honestly say this ingredient will most likely vary each time this dish is made, because there are too many factors that will change the amount you need. I can't even tell you how much flour I ended up using except that I believe it was less than a full cup? 

Before we made the dish, I guessed it was going to be close to the texture of play-doh; I find play-doh really fun, so I was looking forward to playing with  my food! 

The recipe said to serve with fried cabbage, but instead my aunt sent me a recipe for Kopytka that fried the dumplings with bacon, onion, and garlic instead. I was planning on also including some Brussels sprouts because it sounded amazing, but they were $8.00 a bag of fresh Brussels at the store - so this time I didn't add them!

It has been a challenging year with Covid-19 and all the personal things but these cooking adventures are a nice outlet. I also was worried about making these; at first I thought they get rolled out like gnocchi. I have a smaller kitchen so that was going to be a little bit of a challenge. The recipe actually reads as though all the mixing happens in the bowl, so I was excited!

Now onto the recipe! I was greeted with big smiles and excitement for the adventure and a little unexpected twist - my aunt actually filmed clips of the cooking process into a short video! I was a little skeptical (believe it or not I'm a little self-conscious in front of a camera) but it turned out great! ( I will see if I can link it somehow).  Now onto the cooking adventure!

First step, peel and grate three large potatoes - okay already discussed only one potato was used in the making of this dish for me. 



We weren't convinced the dumplings would stay together without an egg so we were faced with - an egg or no egg, that is the ultimate question. I made a couple small "testers" to see if it would hold.  We were surprised the excess water and starch from the potatoes actually did bind together the dumplings just fine! 



Once we knew they would hold together, it was time to start forming the rest of the dumplings. 


The next step was to add salt and begin adding flour until the "dough" has the right consistency to cut with a spoon and to put "small spoonfuls" of the dough into the boiling water. 

Apparently they meant a kiddie spoon or sugar spoon because even when I attempted a "small teaspoon" they still seemed to come out super large dumplings. Aunt P. says the dumplings that go into Sour Soup (dang! She didn't forget) are much smaller. 

We cooked each batch of dumplings for about 12 minutes, some still seemed a little doughy in the center but it could be we should have cooked longer since they were larger "chunkers". Be sure to stir occasionally as they could potentially stick. 



Another lesson learned, the dumplings hold together much better if you squeeze them, pack, them, roll them tightly with lots of love - the test batch I simply balled the dough cut with the spoon and when it was time to rinse them, they fell apart! Apparently these "porcupines of the sea" have extremely interesting characteristic, spiny and loose, if you don't pack the dough together. 

Because of the unfortunate casualty we decided not to rinse the dumplings when we pulled them from the boiling water. I ended up putting mine in a collander over a bowl to let the excess water drain off. 

While those were boiling away we chopped up the onion, garlic, and bacon - started cooking those in the skillet. 

Once the onion bacon mushroom mixture was cooked it was time to send in the dumplings. I cleared a "drop zone" area and added a little more butter - because the ancestors said so - which will also help get some color to the dumplings and help crisp them up a little in the pan. 





Once heated through it was time to serve. We fixed our plates and enjoyed delicious dumplings with great excitement. This recipe was definitely a win (but really, how can you go wrong with bacon and garlic!??)

We agreed the dumplings were much larger than they should be, mental note taken for the next time we make them. Humorous musings throughout dinner - we noticed there is a repetitive theme for monochromatic dishes - I think the jalapeno poppers, cabbage rolls, and maybe a small argument for the sandwich spread have actually been the only "colorful" dishes to date!) We finished dinner while discussing current events, books, and music. 

As our adventure drew to a close, I said July is our next adventure and "it will be much too hot for soup" we should postpone Sour Soup once again and instead make a dish that resembled something one would find at a picnic or barbecue - Custard Macaroni anyone!? (Gidget & Auntie M. = 2, Auntie P. and Sour Soup - 0 ) Although, I promise to one day succumb to the Sour Soup siren, I am just not ready for that commitment quite yet!

The following morning... Epilogue:
Epilogue: Even with one potato I ended up with leftover dumplings. Therefore for breakfast the next morning I cut the dumplings into slices like breakfast potatoes and heated them in a skillet, browning both sides, making sort of a dumpling breakfast hash. 



Served with two eggs cooked over medium, I enjoyed this delicious meal a second time!

NEXT EPISODE: CUSTARD MACARONI

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ORIGINAL RECIPE

GREAT-GRANDMA KZ'S RECIPE POTATO DUMPLINGS

You will need: 3 large potatoes

1 tsp salt

Boiling water

Flour

Serve with: Fried Cabbage or Sour Cream ** read recipe below**

Peel and grate three large potatoes. 

Add 1 tsp of salt. Begin adding flour, mixing well after each addition until the dough has the right consistency to cut with a spoon and hold its shape. 

Drop a small spoon full into a pot of boiling water. Keep the water boiling as long as you are adding the dumplings. Lower the heat and cook slowly, 12 to 15 minutes, until the dumplings are done. Stir the dumplings once in a while while they are cooking. Drain and rinse in cold water and drain again. The dumplings are ready to eat. Watch the pot carefully while the dumplings are cooking. They will cook over in a second. 

These potato dumplings are good served with fried cabbage. If you have left over dumplings, they are good fried up like potatoes and served with sour cream.

Polish for cabbage: (Kapusta)

Polish for Noodles: (Kluskie)

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Recipe that includes the onion, bacon, mushroom mixture:https://www.crunchycreamysweet.com/polish-potato-dumplings/

Note - this recipe we only used the bacon part, but made the dumplings from our family recipe.

Gidget Roots - Journey Through Family Recipes - Episode 11.5 - Homemade Sandwich Spread

If you read chapter 11 "Spanish Delight" you know I procrastinated some entries. Similar to Chapter 8 (Jalapeno Business and Not Your King's Pasty) this "Special" entry is a solo mission. Mostly because it was a smaller simpler recipe, but also because it was another non-favorite. But, I promised I would try it!

Homemade sandwich spread. Sounds easy enough, right? This "unique" recipe has so many variations it is easy to customize to your taste - if you choose to try it! I have also been told by my aunt that she thought she despised this dish, but it depends on the protein you use. She recently had traveled to her sister's house where this was prepared with roast beef and she found it to be quite tasty. My great-uncle also shared later via social media that it is much better with roast beef than with ham.


I was intrigued by this recipe because it is almost identical to how I learned to make tuna sandwiches on my mother's side of the family - but tuna wasn't listed as an optional protein in this recipe 😲

The ingredients are simple, mayo, SWEET pickles, leftover meat (listed options were roast beef, roast pork, chicken or turkey, bologna or left over ham). Let's make one thing clear - I DESPISE Sweet pickles! I mean how disappointing is it to grab a pickle from a relish tray thinking you are about to savor the delightful acidic bite of a dill and be surprised by sickly sugary sweet pickle! YUCK!

My husband and I had leftover Easter ham so this was an easy way to use the leftovers. 
I don't have a meat grinder to grind up the meat, so I simply finely chopped up the ham as best I could into a ground meat type texture. The recipe then said to also grind up the pickles with the meat, but I chopped those up finely and mixed together on the cutting board, and chopped up the mixture a little more to try and mimic what flavor transfer would potentially occur by grinding the ingredients together (probably overthinking it)!

After grinding the meat and pickles the directions say to simply "add enough Miracle Whip to form a spread" - essentially I think the measurements for this are as needed, to taste and preference.  I only needed enough of everything to make a sandwich, so I added approximately 1 Tbs of mayo and mixed together until everything was well incorporated. 

Now, the hardest part (just kidding) putting the spread between two pieces of bread to make your sandwich!

I find humor in the fact our recipe ends with the statement "simple but good" because now when I read that, I think "depends on what protein you use and who you ask!" :-) I don't know how many times my aunt asked me if I liked it but she was quite curious to hear the verdict on this simply yet controversial family recipe. This wasn't as bad as I had expected it to be (as I mentioned, I heard stories and the how much this was detested by many) but it definitely seemed to be over salted. I attribute this to be due to the ham, which is inherently naturally more salty than other meats.  I know I will NEVER make this with bologna, if it was this salty with ham, bologna could be the Dead Sea!  I do plan on trying this with roast beef because three of the four great-siblings have said it is much better with roast beef. 

Until then, I will stick with tuna!

NEXT EPISODE: GREAT GRANDMA KZ'S RECIPE - POTATO DUMPLINGS

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ORIGINAL RECIPE

HOMEMADE SANDWICH SPREAD

You can use roast beef, roast pork, chicken or turkey, bologna or leftover ham.

Grind the meat. You can grind sweet pickles or sweet pickle relish in with the meat. (You can also try a dill pickle with the sweet).

After grinding the meat and the pickles you add enough Miracle Whip to form a spread.

Simple, but good. 

Gidget Roots - Journey Through Family Recipes - Episode 11 - Spanish Delight

Can you say procrastination? It is I your resident Scrappy Gidget and I admit I am behind on telling you of our most recent and quite delicious cooking adventure! Although, I am not apologizing for it at all – it has been a crazy month and as things have settled I realize our next cooking adventure is only a few days away, so I best get to telling you about our Spanish Delight!

Many choose to celebrate Cinco de Mayo and for us we thought it would be great fun to pair our Cinco de Mayo with homage to the “Spanish Delight” recipe in our family cookbook. When I read the title I was really excited – thinking of Spanish or Mexican influenced cuisine I think lots of flavor and sometimes even a little kick! Then I read the recipe and was confused (as I am sure you might be as well, once you hear the ingredients!)  Riddle me this – what does ground beef, macaroni, and saltine crackers have to do with “Spanish”? Apparently absolutely nothing. I asked this question to my aunt several times. I don’t think our decision was finalized until we were inspecting our meal (which by the way turned out to be one of the most flavorful and one of our favorites, so far!).  “I suppose it’s called that because of the peppers and onions in the dish, maybe” was the final result of this inquiry.  Regardless the nomenclature confusion, this “Spanish Delight” was truly and honestly quite delightful with layers of flavor (and of course, a couple additional ingredients, courtesy of yours truly).

Now for the adventure. We are still maintaining responsible social distancing and conducting our adventures in the virtual realm of video call.  We also realized that it is a little difficult to capture the essence and energy of these adventures, but still do our best! (Also, my aunt is lucky to have her beautiful chef assistant to help navigate chopping, cooking, timing, and photography! Kudos to her!) There were a lot of moving parts so to speak so this one was a little challenging for me to multi task and still remember to take photographs along the way documenting the process. Through it all, the process is still entertaining and brings me much joy.

Let us do a quick review of the ingredients. If you have been following this blog you will have noticed a theme going on with canned tomato soup and also rice as key repeat offenders in our family recipes. Don’t judge them, sometimes ingredients are just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Like the macaroni in this recipe. Yep, that is right – a “Spanish” delight made with macaroni noodles instead of rice. Of all the times to use rice in our family recipes, I would have thought this would be it! Onions, bell pepper, can or corn are also listed, along with saltine crackers for the topping.  Again, outside of maybe the tomato, onion, and bell pepper is the closet stretch to the “Spanish” influence in this dish. After initial review of the ingredients, we already knew one addition we would be making – garlic!

First, the mis en place – chopping up the onion and  bell pepper (I had some jalapeno on hand, taking creative license with the recipe, added some minced jalapeno to the mix, too!) Once the chopping was completed, it was time to begin the cooking process. We needed two pots, one for the meat mixture, the other to cook the macaroni.  

We began cooking the ground beef and once it started, added onion and our precious golden goodie superhero, garlic.

 Once that became fragrant we added the peppers (both sweet and spicy for me!) We continued to let that cook down, and while that was working away, began our macaroni. 

(This is the easiest part, boil salted water add the macaroni and cook until al dente, about 8-10 minutes depending on your preference and size of pasta. Remember that the macaroni will steam / bake a little bit so you don’t want to overcook to mush).

Once the ground meat mixture is cooked through, we added our frozen corn ( right – we didn’t use canned corn we all prefer the flavor of frozen corn) and the ever so loved tomato soup. Mix it together until all ingredients are mixed together. Now it is time to start the fiesta by adding the macaroni (does anyone else see the humor in this step?!) Mixed carefully until well combined, you don’t want to munch up the pasta so stir together gently.

Fun step – this would be a great step for kids to help too! Saltine Smash! Easiest way to crunch up the saltines is to place some in a plastic zip bag and roll over with a rolling pin, crunching into a crumble. You want some texture so don’t over do it (not making breadcrumbs!). 

If  the pot you were using for the mixture is not oven safe, you will want to transfer the macaroni meat concoction to an oven safe baking dish. I used my Pampered Chef Rockcrock which was perfect because I can transfer straight from stove top to oven. Once in a baking dish, sprinkle and cover the top with the crushed up saltines.  

Time to bake! 

Now it is a waiting game – baking until warmed through and the cracker crumble is golden brown. Remember, all the ingredients are already cooked, we are just warming up and adding a golden tan! Once you have reached the just return from vacation tan on the cracker crust, it is time to pull from the oven and dig in!

I will be the first to admit this is probably not the most beautiful looking dish. However, looks notwithstanding, this dish was ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS!

I’m not sure about “Spanish” but it sure was a delight!  I will be marking this as a favorite as I know my future swookie littles will love this dish too. And now I have my own story to tell about the time I made this with my beautiful aunties during Covid Quarantine of 2020.  As we dug in (I am pretty sure we all had at LEAST second helpings of this delight) we conversed about books, life, the crazy world, and enjoyed much needed laughter and smiles. 

As I am posting this, we have already conducted our next cooking adventure... again procrastination! But consider this a fun TWO FOR ONE READ! I saved you one time from biting at the bit in anticipation for the next adventure, you're welcome! Hope you all are staying safe, sane, and happy during these challenging times. Remember to find your happy place and stay connected, no matter how weird it may be!

NEXT EPISODE: GREAT GRANDMA KZ'S RECIPE - POTATO DUMPLINGS

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ORIGINAL RECIPE

SPANISH DELIGHT

2 pounds of hamburger

1 onion

1 can tomato soup

1 green bell pepper

1 can whole corn - drained

1 cup cooked* macaroni (we were informed this was a typo and it should be "uncooked" at this point)

Brown your hamburger and onion. Add your diced pepper, salt and pepper. Add your can of whole corn. While this is cooking slowly, you cook up your cup of macaroni and drain it. Add this to your hamburger mixture. Mix in 1 can of tomato soup and a little bit of water. Use a rolling pin to roll out some crackers (usually one package). Top the hamburger mixture with the cracker crumbs. Bake in 350 oven until everything is warmed through and the cracker crumbs have turned a golden brown.