Dumplings with Cheese and Grilled Cherries

 

This delicious Summer treat comes from my grandmother Alzbeta’s Kitchen. I have a vivid memory of it but hardly ever make it, and as my mom reminded me of it just few days ago, also one of my father’s favorites, I decided to remake this childhood treat, though I’m a not a child I’m pretty sure it is okay to revisit those times.

Originally  cherries were cooked in boiling water but I decided to pit them first and  grill them on low heat, for about 20 minutes.

 

 

Dumplings with Cheese and Grilled Cherries

Farmer’s Cheese
I prefer to use farmer’s cheese, but don’t worry  you can get away with ricotta cheese instead.
I make my own Farmer’s cheese but you can also purchase one in specialty stores.
Farme’r cheese is quite easy to make, ever since I learned how to make it home I don’t buy it any more.
It stores well in the fridge, I had it in the airtight container for several days and it was doing just fine, that being said I recommend consuming it within a week.
How to Make Farmer’s Cheese
Can be prepared ahead of time.

Cherries
2cups(270grams) pitted cherries, use more if you’d like, they are great to munch on too.

Place cherries in a shallow container, I used aluminum containers and grill on low heat for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. You can also do this in your oven on 350-400F
Remove from heat, reserving all the juices, let the cherries cool a bit.

Dumplings
Dumplings/Halusky or in Germany it is called Spaetzle, is type of a pasta.

There are variety of recipes you can use, some use milk,some whole wheat flour, if making savory spaetzle, you can add herbs, pepper, paprika etc.
I love these with chicken   paprikash, goulash, with ground poppy seed topping, sauteed cabbage and ham, cheese, variations are really endless. 
Today I’ll share with you a very basic recipe adapted from my mom’s recipe.
I hardly measure when I make these, I just go by the consistency of the batter, it should be quite a bit  thinner than regular pasta dough and slightly thicker than pancake batter.

Few years back I bought a neat kitchen gadget called

Norpro 3129 Stainless Steel Spaetzle Maker and I’ll never go back to old ways. This is a such a great tool, it creates uniformed dumplings and is really easy to use. I recommend washing it right after the use or left over batter will dry and you have to soak it in water to clean it.

Dumplings (about 4-6 servings)

3cups/450grams all purpose flour

4eggs

 1 3/4cups/ 400ml lukewarm water

1tsp salt

Into a medium size mixing bowl add flour, salt, eggs and gradually add water and stir with a wooden spoon in one direction, just until it all comes into one homogeneous mixture.

In a large pot bring water with a 1tps salt to boil. Using a Spaetzle Maker throw dumplings into the boiling water, stir with a wooden spoon, using a small strainer remove dumplings as they emerge and float on the top, it takes only about 30 second or so, as batter is a lot thinner than regular pasta, place cooked dumplings into a  large bowl with a few tsp of oil, stir gently to coat the dumplings with oil to prevent sticking. Continue with remaining dumpling batter until you are done. Stir cooked dumplings occasionally to prevent sticking. These dumplings can be used as a side dish for variety of meals, or they can be eaten alone.

They can be eaten sweet or savory.

Don’t they look yummy?!

 

 

Serve Dumplings topped with sweetened farmer’s cheese and grilled cherries