Bread Dumplings

From the very first day of my stay in Germany, I fell in love with German cuisine. It is similar to Croatian, but still with its specific, traditional dishes.

Bread dumplings are traditional German side dish from Bavaria region. There is no traditional Bavarian restaurant and biergarten without bread dumplings drenched in gravy or any other sauce, red cabbage, beer roasted pork with its gravy…. They are simply pure heaven.

There is very standard recipe for them, easy to make, can be eaten second day as well. Just slice them and fry in a little bit of butter until crispy. Very, very delicious.

My favorite way to eat them is with creamy mushroom sauce. You can use any sort of mushrooms, but at least 2-3 different. My tip to make creamy mushroom sauce fresh and light is to add some lemon juice and zest. And be generous with fresh parsley!Enjoy 😊.

Ingredients:

Ca 300g bread or rolls (at least 1 day old, better longer)

2 eggs

1 small onion, cut in small cubes

Ca 120 ml warm milk

Salt, pepper and nutmeg

Buter for onions

A handful of parsley, finely chopped

Lemon zest (from ½ lemon)

Bread crumbs as needed

How to make them:

Cut the bread/rolls into small cubes. Season with salt, pepper, nutmeg, parsley and lemon zest. Pour warm milk and let it rest 10 minutes. Preheat butter and saute onion until soft (but not brown) and add to the bread cubes with 2 beaten eggs.

Carefully knead the mixture with your hands, but do not squeeze too much. If mixture is too soft, add bread crumbs. Let the mixture rest for about 30 minutes, after that season if needed or add some more bread crumbs if mixture is too soft. Wet your hands with water and form bread dumplings.

Bring a large, wide pot of lightly salted water to boil and remove from the heat. Carefully drop the dumplings in the water and let them stay for 15 to 20 minutes (depends on size) without lid.

Carefully lift them out with a slotted spoon.

I usually eat them with creamy mushroom sauce, but they are great side dish with any other sauce, gulasch, traditional German baked pork (Schweinbraten). If you have more dumplings, save them for the next day, slice them and fry in a pan with some butter until crispy.

Creamy mushroom sauce

Ingredients:

300g of white and brown champignons, cut in 1/3 or 1/4, depend on size

150g oyster mushrooms, divided on 1/3 or 1/4

2-3 shallots, finely chopped

Olive oil and butter to sautѐ

1 cooking cream, 200g (adjust the amount for the sauce to the desired density that depends on how long you cook the sauce, how many mushrooms you use)

1 sour cream, 200g (adjust the amount for the sauce to the desired density that depends on how long you cook the sauce, how many mushrooms you use)

Ca 1 tsp finely chopped parsley

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

Salt, pepper and nutmeg

Zest and juice from ½ lemon

Little bit of cornstarch if needed

Sautѐ schallot and garlic on olive oil and butter. Add mushrooms and sautѐ shortly. Pour cooking cream, season with salt, pepper, nutmeg and cook on medium heat until thickened little bit.  Add sour cream, lemon zest and juice and if needed little bit of cornstarch dissolved in cold water. At the end pour some parsley.

-Croatian version-

Od prvog dana mog boravka u Bavarskoj, zaljubila sam se u njihova jela jer su prilično slična slavonskoj kuhinji, ali opet sa svojim karakterističnim, tradicionalnim okusima i začinima.

Knedle od kruha tradicionalni je prilog jelima bavarske kuhinje. Nema tog bavarskog restorana i biergartena koji ih nema u ponudi. Priliöno su velike i uglavnom servirane s raznim umacima, tradicionalnim svinjskim pečenjem i umakom od piva, dinstanim crvenim kupusom, umakom od gljiva kao vegetarijanska verzija, koja je meni osobno najdraža kombinacija.

Recept je prilično jednostavan, brzo su gotove, bitno je da se ne smiju kuhati već ih ostaviti da stoje u proključaloj vodi bez poklopca određeno vrijeme.

Čak su i idući dan savršene, ali narezane na ploške i prepečene na malo maslaca😊. Raj za nepce!

Ja sam ovaj puta jela moju omiljenu kombinaciju, knedle i umak od gljiva. Obavezno koristite bar 2-3 vrste gljiva, a kako bi umak s vrhnjem bio svježiji i lakši, odat ċu vam malu tajnu – dodajte svakako malo limunovog soka i korice, a ne štedite ni na svježem peršinu!

U slast😊!

Knedle od kruha

Sastojci:

Ca 300g kruha (obavezno barem 1 dan star)

2 jaja

1 manji luk

Ca 120 ml mlakog mlijeka

Sol, papar i muškatni orah

Malo maslaca za dinstanje luka

Šaka sitno rezanog peršina

Malo limunove korice

Po potrebi krušnih mrvica

Postupak:

Kruh, zajedno s korom, narezati na sitnije kocke. Začiniti sa soli, paprom, muškatnim orahom, limunovom koricom i peršinom. Preliti s mlakim mlijekom te ostaviti 10tak minuta da stoji. Luk sitno narezati, prodinstati na maslacu i ostaviti da se malo ohladi, te dodati smjesi zajedno s dva lagano tučena jaja. Sve zajedno pažljivo sjediniti rukama. Ako je smjesa premekana, dodati po potrebi malo krušnih mrvica. Smjesu ostaviti da stoji barem pola sata, potom po potrebi dodatno začiniti ili dodati mrvica. Formirati knedle.

U jednom loncu zakuhati vodu i posoliti. Kada voda prokuha, maknuti sa štednjaka, knedle pažljivo uroniti u vodu i ostaviti 15 do 20 minuta (ovisi o veličini knedli) bez poklopca.

Ja ih najradije jedem uz umak od gljiva, ali izvrsne su uz gulaš, pečenje, razne druge umake s ili bez mesa. Ako imate višak knedli, idući dan narežite ih na ploške i prepecite u tavi.

Umak od gljiva

Sastojci:

300g bijelih i smeđih šampinjona, narezani na 1/3 ili ¼, ovisno o veličini

150g bukovača, na 1/3 ili 1/4 prstima razdvojene

2-3 ljutike, sitno narezane

Maslinovo ulje i maslac za dinstanje

1 vrhnje za kuhanje, 200g (količinu za umak prilagodite željenoj gustoći koja ovisi o tome koliko dugo kuhate umak, koliko gljiva koristite)

1 kiselo vrhnje, 200g (količinu za umak prilagodite željenoj gustoći koja ovisi o tome koliko dugo kuhate umak, koliko gljiva koristite)

Svježi peršin (ca 1 kavena žlica) sitno narezanog

2 češnja češnjaka sitno narezanog

Sol, papar i muškatni orah

Korica ½ limuna i malo limunovog soka

Po potrebi malo škrobnog brašna za zgrušnjavanje

Prodinstati ljutiku i češnjak na maslinovom ulju i maslacu. Dodati gljive i kratko dinstati. Podliti s vrhnjem za kuhanje, začiniti sa soli, paprom, muškatnim orahom i ostaviti na laganoj vatri da se kuha i malo zgusne. Po potrebi dodati kiselo vrhnje, limunov sok i koricu i ako je prerijetko dodati malo škrobnog brašna otopljenog u malo hladne vode. Na kraju ubaciti malo svježeg peršina.