Kartoffelkloesse

When I was in Thuringia, Germany this summer I enjoyed some of their local potato dumplings (Kartoffelkloesse) along with their local braised meats, particularly venison. These dumplings are baseball-sized, and VERY gummy - not to everyone's taste.

According to my hosts, the family recipes for Kartoffelkloesse are tightly guarded secrets and when a man marries his wife inherits both his and her family recipes which she then combines and mutates into a best of breed recipe. I tried to pry some recipes from various people, but they all pled ignorance.

Some time later this recipe landed in my in-box from the wife of one of my hosts.


1. Thuringian Potato Dumplings (Thueringer Kartoffelkloesse)

Ingredients:
3 kg Potatoes
2 Rolls
Butter
Salt

Preparation:
a. At the previous day dice 2 rolls or white bread and toast it with butter in a small fry pan. The dice should have a maximum size of 1 cm.
b. Peel the potatoes and cook 1 kg of them - piled with water - until they are mellow. Whisk them to a thick plain porridge. Please be careful, the porridge should not scorch. In the meantime grate the other 2 kg on a very fine grater or use a food processor. To avoid a discolouring add a knife point of „Kloßweiß“ or „Fruchtklar“ (antioxidant).

Give the grated potato mass in a potato sack (or a wipe) and wring it. The dryer the mass, the better the result. Collect the wrung water. It contains the required potato starch on the bottom. Salt the potato starch after your fancy. Use a very big bowl!

Following give the strong cooking and very hot mash about it (brew it in two steps). Mix the dough fast and strong with a big wooden beater until it is completely plain and disengaged from the bowl. Then shape the dumplings in your hands. Dip your hands in cold water, take a portion of the dough needed for one dumpling and give some toasted roll dices into the middle. Shape the dumpling pretty round. Give the dumplings in a big pot filled with hot water you have boiled before. Important: The dumplings must not be boiled in the water. They must only brew for about 10 minutes. Then you can take it out and serve.