Sarah (Left) and Dr. Vann (Right) with the dumplings.
My class wanted to do some Silesian cooking as a project. One idea was to make the Friday, fasting meal that Babcia served Romek in Romek's Note. Unfortunately nobody was able to find buttermilk in Cairo or even knew what it was. In hindsight, we figured that Middle Eastern haleeb would have been a pretty good substitute. The Sunday feast meal described in Chapter 7 (In the section, “How to Do It Right – Norms of Exchange in Silesian Identity”) is pretty complicated, and in Silesia, the duck or rabbit would be placed in a Dutch oven on the stove before the family left for church, so as to be ready at about 1 p.m. on their return. This was obviously impractical in the school kitchen, although duck would have been obtainable in Cairo (though not rabbit). In the end we set about making Silesian dumplings.
Again, potato starch was unobtainable, so we substituted flour with decent results. If you do this, be careful not to stir too much; this will "awaken the gluten" and make the dumplings way too sticky and chewy. Also, we didn't have a ricer so we just mashed the potatoes, although again, not too much because they get gooey, which is not how you want them for dumplings.
When they were done the students found them extremely bland and wanted to roll them in breadcrumbs with lots of spices and fry them, instead of boiling them a second time. Of couse, Egypt has had lots of spices forever, because they grow here and because Egypt was on the Silk Road. Central Europe, in contrast, developed its cuisine largely without spices.
In short, it seemed to me, they wanted to turn them into falafel. This suggested a new fusion cuisine. Since "dumplings" in Polish is "kluski," and the Egyptian Arabic form of falafel is Taameya, I'm calling them "klusmeya" Here is our recipe:
Boil potatoes until they are soft.
Put them through a ricer while they are still hot.
Make a well in the middle of the potatoes and fill it with beaten egg.
Stir the egg into the potatoes.
Add enough potato starch to absorb enough of the liquid that the "dough" can be shaped with the palms of your hands into the shape that both dumplings and falafel have (for the same reason, as both are shaped with the hands).
Dip the shaped klusmeya in beaten egg and then in flour, and then fry them until golden.
Add paprika, cumin, salt, pepper, chopped parsley, and ANY spice that you have.
You now have klusmeya!
It should be noted that we did not actually try this, as we continued with the Silesian dumplings and placed them back in boiling water for 3 - 5 minutes, or until they rose to the water's surface.
Again, potato starch was unobtainable, so we substituted flour with decent results. If you do this, be careful not to stir too much; this will "awaken the gluten" and make the dumplings way too sticky and chewy. Also, we didn't have a ricer so we just mashed the potatoes, although again, not too much because they get gooey, which is not how you want them for dumplings.
When they were done the students found them extremely bland and wanted to roll them in breadcrumbs with lots of spices and fry them, instead of boiling them a second time. Of couse, Egypt has had lots of spices forever, because they grow here and because Egypt was on the Silk Road. Central Europe, in contrast, developed its cuisine largely without spices.
In short, it seemed to me, they wanted to turn them into falafel. This suggested a new fusion cuisine. Since "dumplings" in Polish is "kluski," and the Egyptian Arabic form of falafel is Taameya, I'm calling them "klusmeya" Here is our recipe:
Boil potatoes until they are soft.
Put them through a ricer while they are still hot.
Make a well in the middle of the potatoes and fill it with beaten egg.
Stir the egg into the potatoes.
Add enough potato starch to absorb enough of the liquid that the "dough" can be shaped with the palms of your hands into the shape that both dumplings and falafel have (for the same reason, as both are shaped with the hands).
Dip the shaped klusmeya in beaten egg and then in flour, and then fry them until golden.
Add paprika, cumin, salt, pepper, chopped parsley, and ANY spice that you have.
You now have klusmeya!
It should be noted that we did not actually try this, as we continued with the Silesian dumplings and placed them back in boiling water for 3 - 5 minutes, or until they rose to the water's surface.
