Mushroom-sauerkraut dumplings are one of the most iconic Christmas foods in Poland. They are usually eaten during Christmas Eve dinner. Dumplings’ filling is made of some type of boletus mushroom (porcini (Boletus edulis) is the most valued) and sauerkraut. The stock you get as a result of cooking the mushrooms is often used as a base for a Chrismas mushroom soup. We used the mushroom stock for a wild Jerusalem artichoke soup.
Polish boletus christmas dumplings
Servings: 4 people
Equipment
- 2 cooking pots
- 1 Knife
- 1 cutting board
- 1 Drainer
- 1 Blender
- 1 spoon
- 1 Glass
- 1 Rolling Pin
- 1 skimmer
Ingredients
Stock
- 45 grams dried boletus
- 1 red onion
- 0.5 leak
- 1 carrot
- 1 parsley root
Soup
- 500 grams Jerusalem artichokes
- 1 cup cream
- 1 leak
- 2 tbsp oil for frying
- 1 lemon
- salt
- pepper
Dumplings
- 100 grams sauerkraut
- boiled boletus
- 250 grams flour
- 1 cup hot water
- 1.5 tbsp oil
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp oil (added to boiling water)
- additiona flour for dumplings preparation
Instructions
Stock
- Soak the dried boletus overnight in a liter of water.
- Roughly chop the remaining ingredients for the stock and add them to water with the soaked mushrooms.
- Bring the water to a boil and boil on low heat for about an hour until the mushrooms are soft.
- When the cooking is done remove the mushrooms and set aside for the dumplings. Discard the other vegetables.
Dumplings
- Add flour, salt, and oil to a bowl or pot. Boil water.
- Pour a cup of hot water to the bowl and mix with a spoon.
- Once the mixture cool down a little, start working the dough with your hand. Work the dough for about 5 to 10 minutes, add flour so it does not stick to your hands. Form a ball and set aside.
- Add cooked mushrooms and sauerkraut together. Blend them until smooth consistency.
- Dust the cutting board generously with flour.
- Cut a piece of dumpling dough and use a rolling pin to flatten it (around 2 mm).
- Use a glass to cut even circles in the dough.
- Fill each circle with about ½ tsp of mushrooms and sauerkraut mixture.
- Fold the circle in half.
- Glue the circle rim with your fingers.
- Use your thumb to make a flounce. Press a half-circle rim in with your thumb.
- Put the dumpling on the dusted cutting board and repeat the folding steps.
- Bring a big pot of water to a boil. Add 1 tsp of salt and 1 tsp of oil.
- When the water is boiling, put the dumplings in (we recommend 10 dumplings at once). Stir them with a spoon carefully.
- Boil the dumplings until they float to the surface.
- Fish the dumplings out with a skimmer. Put them on a plate so that they do not touch each other. Repeat the cooking steps.
Boletus soup
- Chop the leak and fry it in olive oil.
- Chop Jerusalem artichokes and add to the leak.
- Pure boletus stock and bring to a boil. Boil until the artichokes are soft.
- Blend the soup. Add cream, lemon juice, salt and paper to taste.
Notes
Adding oil when the dumplings are boiling helps to make them less sticky.
Dumplings are traditionally eaten with butter. We prefer to eat them with soya sauce or sambal.
