Hits with the Kids
Plum Dumplings
Potato Pancakes
Cheese Spaetzle
Meat Patties
Yeast Dumplings (Dampfnudeln)
Plum Dumplings
Ingredients:
1/2 lbs. potatoes
4 1/2 oz. flour
1/2 oz. butter
1 egg
8 dawson plums
8 sugar cubes
bread crumbs
caster sugar
salt
The day before you are planning to serve plum dumplings, boil the potatoes in their jacket and leave in the fridge over night.
On day of serving, peel the potatoes, mash them and mix with flour, the egg and butter. Season with salt.
Leave the dough for an hour or two in the fridge.
In the meantime, wash the plums, cut open slightly, enough to take the stone out and replace the stone with one sugar cube for each plum.
Take a little bit of the dough and form a dumpling (appr. 2 inches in diameter) around the plums, so that the plum is firmly in the middle.
While you are doing that, bring plenty of water to a boil in a large saucepan.
When the water is boiling, carefully slide in the dumplings, one at a time.
Let simmer for 10 minutes (don't boil!). When the dumplings are ready they will float on the surface.
While the dumplings are boiling, mix the breadcrumbs with some caster sugar, sauté at low heat in some butter.
Serve the bread crumbs on top of the plum dumplings.
Potato Pancakes
Ingredients:
2 1/2 lbs. potatoes
2 onions
1 egg
1/4 cup flour
vegetable or sunflower oil
salt
pepper
Peel and wash the potatoes .
Grate the peeled raw potatoes with a fine grater. Squeeze dry in a towel.
Peel, wash and finely chop the onions and mix with the potato gratings.
Beat the egg and add to the potato gratings and chopped onions. Add the flour, season with salt and pepper and mix thoroughly.
Heat oil in a frying pan and take a large spoon of your potato dough, place in the hot frying pan and flatten a little. Fry on both sides until golden brown.
Continue in this manner until all the potato dough is used up.
The Kids love these potato pancakes with any kind of stewed fruit, but it is also delicious with sour cream or crème fraiche and red cabbage.
Cheese Spaetzle
Ingredients:
2 cups Spaetzle
3 onions
3 oz cheese (Suisse cheese i.e. Emmentaler)
1 bunch chives (chopped)
butter or margarine
salt
pepper
Prepare Spaetzle as explained in Chapter 2 (Side Dishes), but don't sauté in butter yet.
Peel the onions, slice into rings and sauté in a frying pan with butter or margarine until glassy and slightly brown.
Add spaetzle to the onions and sauté for another 5 minutes or so.
Grate the cheese and add to the spaetzle and onions in the frying pan, season with salt and pepper and stir for one minute.
Now place the mixture into a casserole dish and bake at 300 degrees Fahrenheit in a preheated oven for 20 - 30 minutes.
Sprinkle top with chopped chives before serving.
Serve with a light salad.
Many Kids will like some Ketchup with that, as you can imagine.
Meat Patties
Ingredients:
7 oz. minced beef
7 oz. minced pork
2 bread rolls or 3 oz of white bread
1 onion (finely chopped)
3 oz. lean bacon (diced)
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
1 garlic clove (finely chopped)
2 tablespoons of mustard (medium)
1 bunch parsley (chopped)
vegetable or sunflower oil
salt
pepper
Slice the bread rolls or white bread and place into a mixing bowl.
Bring the milk to a boil and pour piping hot over the bread slices.
Let soak for 15 - 30 minutes.
In a frying pan with vegetable or sunflower oil, sauté the diced bacon, finely chopped onion and garlic and let cool again.
Add the minced meat, the eggs and the sautéed bacon, onion and garlic to the bread slices in the bowl.
Season with chopped parsley, mustard, pepper and salt and mix thoroughly until you have a smooth 'meat dough'.
Now heat vegetable or sunflower oil in a frying pan again.
Wet your hands, take some of your meat dough and form little patties.
Place them in the frying pan, press down a little and fry on both sides until they are golden brown.
Serve with potato salad, roast potatoes and/or vegetables.
Also very popular hot or cold in a bun, to bring with you for a picnic, or as part of a cold buffet at a Kids Party.
Yeast Dumplings (Dampfnudeln)
Ingredients:
1 lbs. flour
1 cup milk
2 eggs
5 oz. butter or margarine
1 1/2 oz. yeast
salt
Heat the milk a bit and then dissolve the yeast in it.
Make a well in the flour, and pour the yeast mixture into it.
Let rest for 30 minutes.
Then, add the remaining milk and the salt, and knead well.
Vigorously beat the dough until it forms bubbles, then cover, and in a warm spot, let rest for 1 hour.
Cut off fist size pieces, and - on a floured pastry board ~ let these pieces rise one more time, for another 15 minutes.
In a wide pot, melt the butter or margarine, and then add warm, salted water to a depth of about 3/4 inch.
Add the dumplings, arranged in one layer, touching each other.
Put a lid on the pot, and additionally seal the edges with damp cloths, where the lid rests on the pot, in order to keep the steam inside.
Bake at low heat.
The dumplings should be done in about 20 minutes and should have the highly desired hard, brown crust on the bottom.
The Kids love these yeast dumplings sweet, with stewed fruit or vanilla sauce, but they are also very tasty with nice juicy sauerkraut.
