Forgive my spelling, when venturing into foriegn languages it is even iffier than usual.
I was shopping today, sort of. Browsing for a new washer as my 15 year old Whirlpool has finally developed a problem expensive enough to fix that I might as well buy a new one.
While we were in Home Depot I heard a man exclaim "I would pay fifty dollars for a gomboc!" I immediately whirled around and walked back down the aisle and said "Done! What kinds and how many?" I mean jeez I am having to shop for a new washer, money is good right now. He looked at me oddly. I cringed and said "Oh dear, didn't you just say you would give fifty dollars for gomboc?", thinking maybe sticker shock was taking it's toll. He said he certainly did say that, but they only come in one kind so I had confused him. I pointed out that I know how to make szilvas gombac, jam gombac, turros gombac, and makos gombac, there are indeed all different kinds. We had to huddle and compare notes. He walked away in a bemused state with some recipes on his palmie, and I walked away in a bemused state with the knowledge that Hungarian mathmeticians made a three dimensional object that has one stable and one unstable point of equalibrium when it is sitting on something. Guy is a math teacher at the college, his wife kept telling him if he wanted something exotic he was going to have to cook it!. So far as the hungarian mathmeticians, apparently they thought it would be cool to name their thingy after dumplings.
Mrs. Lina (don't even ask me to spell her last name, RIP) that used to live up the street taught me how to make these.
Before starting, set a pot of water to boil, deep is good, wide is not so important.
The Dough
take equal quantities flour and cold plain mashed potatos, for every cup of flour use one egg, and a half teaspoon (or thereabouts) of salt.
Cut enough butter into the flour to achieve a meal like texture. Add potatos and salt and mix, add eggs. Work into a dough and fill as directed. If your flour is very dry, you may need more fluid. Seperate an egg, and try one half or the other, adding the rest if needed.
Szlivas Gombac
make dough with 2 cups of flour
Take a dozen plums (you may need more if you use those weeny prune plums, or less if you use monstrous huge ones), wash well, then cut them just enough to get the pit out. Replace the pit with a sugared almond.
Put a plum in the center of each square, moisten the edges, fold over and seal. Take the dumpling between your palms and roll it into a ball.
Turn the water down to a gentle boil, keep it boiling but don't let it get exuberant. Put the dumplings in the water one at a time with a slotted spoon. let cook for about fifteen minutes, they will rise to the top when they are done remove them as they come up. Set aside in a collender to cool.
In a frying pan, melt another couple of tablespoons of butter. Add fine crumbs (a cup or cup and a half thereabouts), and brown. roll the dumplings in the crumbs. serve as is or sprinkled with sugar or cinnamon sugar.
The above may be made with small apricots instead of plums, with sliced fruit if the pits are stubborn, or with pieces of almost any somewhat soft fruit.
With the following fillings be extra careful about sealing the dough, and gentle when rolling into balls. Also gauge your quantity of filling carefully, use too much and it will burst the dumpling and vanish into the boiling pot:
jam gomboc
make as above, but use a small spoon of jam instead of fruit.
turos gombac
use a small spoon of drained cottage cheese as filling. If you want these as a main dish or savory side, skip the sugar. In that case you can add crumbled bacon to the cottage cheese if you like.
makos gombac
grind a cup of poppy seed, mix over gentle heat with a two tablespoons of sugar, two tablespoons of milk, and an egg white, until thickened. (not very long at all) when cool use as dumpling filling.
NightMist mouthy thing aren't I? (G)