Pork, Sauerkraut, & Dumplings

A favorite meal of mine, passed down from generation to generation, originated with my Czechoslovakian great grandmother, Vlasta.  I would imagine she learned it from her parents as well, but within the more recent generations, it's been known as her recipe.  The hardest part of this meal is making the potato dumplings.  It usually takes a few practices to get a good feel for the right way to make them.  I attempted my first try for last night's dinner.  I didn't do too bad, and they were edible!  However, there was a lot of room for improvement.  So, I'll keep practicing!

My great grandmother Vlasta in 1952 when she was 45.

Preparing food for an Easter celebration in probably the late 1960's.

Here is her Potato Dumplings recipe that she wrote down for my Uncle John.  She also included one for Potato Pancakes.  One ingredient my parents add to the dumplings is parsley.  I'll add that the next time.

We roasted a 2 lb pork tenderloin.

And heated up 2 cans of sauerkraut.  This is my family's favorite brand and style.

First I started out by boiling the potatoes until they could be pierced with a fork.  I used Russet potatoes here, but my mom says she uses Idaho, because they are less watery.

I put a slice around the middle of the potato (before boiling) so it would be easier to remove the skins afterwards.

I used a knife to carefully help peel the skins off.

I then put the potatoes in a ricer and riced them onto a cookie sheet.

This ricer was my grandmother's, so it was fun getting to use the same one she did.  

I riced it out onto a cookie sheet to help the potatoes cool faster, because they need to be cooler before working them into a dough.

I put the cooled potatoes in a bowl with a little salt and pepper, made a hole in the center and added one whole egg plus one egg white.  My mom later told me that she puts in one whole egg plus one egg yolk.

After mixing the eggs and potatoes together, you start adding little bits of flour until you get to a bread dough consistency.  You don't want to put too much flour in, but you want to be able to handle it without it sticking to your hands.

You put the dough out onto a floured board and start to kneed it until it bounces back slightly when you push it down.  Add more flour to the board as needed.

Once you get the dough to where you want it, you roll it out into logs...

...and cut the logs into 3 inches pieces.

I got 14 dumplings out of 4 potatoes.

Bring a pot of water to boil and gently drop the dumplings in one at a time.  They will sink to the bottom.  Keep an eye that they don't stick to the bottom of the pan.

When they have floated to the top, continue to cook them until they look like they have expanded in size.  I ended up overcooking my first batch, because I thought they needed to cook for at least 10-15 minutes.  They ended up really mushy.  So, the next batch, after they had floated to the top (which took only about 3 minutes), I cooked them for about an additional 3 minutes or until they looked like they had expanded, and took them out.  They came out much better!

I made up a packet of pork gravy to add to the top and it was ready to eat!  Now normally I don't like my foods to mix on my plate, but this is one meal where I don't mind.  In fact, I love taking one bite of each and eating them all together.  So yummy!