Dumplings - general principles and methods of preparation
Dumplings are a very popular dish in Ukraine, which are “pillows” made of unleavened dough.
Outwardly, they are very similar to dumplings, but are prepared from a stiffer and denser dough. However, each nation has its own recipes for making dumplings and they all have different names. The only thing that unites the varieties is the presence of eggs, flour, often milk (cream) and butter in their composition. Many people add spices, herbs to the main mass for aroma and specific taste, and some cuisines add chopped vegetables, cottage cheese, meat or sausages. In most cases, dumplings are used as thickeners for soups, but boiled in water or broth, fried with onions and served as a separate dish, they have no less taste. The main secret of their preparation is adding butter and milk. It is these ingredients that soften the dough, making the dish much juicier, more tender and airy. In order to prepare dumplings, you need to make soft dough, cut it into strips, roll out ropes about 1.5 cm wide and use a sharp knife to divide the ropes into equal squares. Although many people prefer to prepare dumplings the old fashioned way, breaking off small pieces of dough from a large layer and rolling them into various shapes. After cooking, the dough “pads” are dipped in salted boiling liquid (or soup) and boiled for about ten minutes until they float to the top.
Traditional dumplings - recipes for every taste
Dumplings are a well-known national Ukrainian dish, a kind of culinary symbol along with borscht and dumplings. This is not surprising, since Ukraine has long been famous for its grain wealth. This is a very easy to prepare, tasty and satisfying dish - real food for large, hardworking families. Dumplings are dough products cooked in milk, broth or water. Traditional dumplings are made from wheat, and, according to some recipes, from buckwheat flour (sometimes from a mixture of both). Sometimes they are also made from semolina or a mixture of flour with potatoes, cottage cheese, onions or even an apple. Dumplings are often not mentioned in cookbooks; most often the recipes for their preparation are purely homemade.
Traditional Ukrainian dumplings recipe (made from wheat flour)
Ingredients: 3 tbsp. flour, a couple of eggs, 2 tbsp. tablespoons butter, 1.5 tbsp. water, 1 tsp. salt.
Preparation: the dough must be kneaded more steeply than for dumplings, then left in a covered pan for about 20 minutes. Next, roll out the dough to a thickness of 1-1.5 cm (this depends on the quality of the flour and its type). All the dough must be divided into strips, no more than 1.5 cm wide, and cut into squares measuring 1x1 cm. Then the finished squares are left to dry on the table for about 40 minutes and boiled in boiling water or broth (or milk). We wait until all the dumplings float on the surface. Then they need to be caught with a slotted spoon and placed in a special sauce boat filled with butter or sour cream. To prevent the dumplings from sticking together, you need to shake them periodically. They should be served immediately, as the dumplings are eaten hot. In some homes, dumplings are added directly to the soup.
Dumplings can also be eaten with cracklings and hot lard. To do this, finely chop the ham and fry these pieces with melted butter in a frying pan for about 5 minutes. Pour the resulting “sauce” over the dumplings.
Dumplings recipe No. 2 (from buckwheat flour)
Ingredients: 2 tbsp. buckwheat flour, 3 small onions, 2 eggs, 90 g lard. Preparation: roll out the dough in the same way as wheat dough, cut dumplings from it. The lard along with the onion should be finely chopped and lightly fried in a frying pan, add salt, water (3 cups) and boil the resulting broth. Throw in the dumplings and cook for about 30 minutes.
Dumplings recipe No. 3 (from potatoes)
Ingredients: take 5 small boiled potatoes, a couple of eggs, 1.5 tbsp. flour, a little vegetable oil, 1.5 tbsp. l. raw potatoes, grated, 1 finely chopped onion, a little red pepper.
Preparation: make a mixture from raw and boiled potatoes and add beaten eggs and everything else. Using a spoon, divide the mixture into individual dumplings and throw them into boiling salted water and cook for 7 minutes.
Dumplings recipe No. 4 (from cottage cheese)
Ingredients: half a glass of flour, 550 g of cottage cheese, 4 egg whites, 30 g of butter, sugar (1.5 spoons).
Preparation: Grind the cottage cheese, add butter, sugar, flour, pour the whipped whites into the mixture. Mix everything together and roll out a rope from the mixture no more than 1.5 cm thick. Cut the rope into dumplings, then boil in water for 15 minutes. They should be served with sour cream. These dumplings are especially good as a hearty breakfast.
For lovers of world cuisine recipes, we present another option - zhizhig-galnyzh (or dumplings in Chechen). Unlike their Ukrainian counterpart, these dumplings are served with meat.
Chechen dumplings - recipe
Ingredients: a piece of meat (traditionally lamb or beef) weighing one to one and a half kg, 160 g of flour, 100 g of water; for seasoning: 25 g broth, 2 g garlic, a little salt and pepper to taste.
Preparation: take the meat in a large piece and boil it in this form. Then cut into cubes of 60-50 g each. Knead unleavened dough from flour and water, roll out and make dumplings. Boil them in broth. Place the finished dumplings on a large dish and place the meat on top. The garlic is ground with salt and pepper and brought to a liquid consistency with broth - this will be a seasoning that is served separately in a gravy boat. The broth itself is served separately as a first course.
It is also worth remembering that dumplings are a very filling and high-calorie dish (especially if eaten with butter sauces or rich sour cream). Therefore, you should not cook them too often and, preferably, in the winter or autumn season.
Dumplings - food preparation
The recipe for making dumplings is extremely simple.
As a rule, those products that are almost always available are used: flour with a high gluten content (finely ground), chicken eggs, milk and butter (instead, you can use delicate creamy margarine, for example, “Generous Summer”). Some recipes call for a much wider list of ingredients, so study the recipe carefully. So, are all the products included? So we let them rest, cool down in the refrigerator to room temperature and get to work preparing the dough - the basis for the dumplings.
Dumplings - the best recipes
Recipe 1: Cheese dumplings
Original cheese dumplings are made from hard Gouda and feta cheese, but if you can’t find the first type, you can replace it with any other Dutch cheese.
For a piquant taste, add a little ground nutmeg to the dough - literally on the tip of a knife. These dumplings can be served as a separate dish or added to various soups. Ingredients
:
- 100 gr. Gouda cheese - 100 gr. cheese - one egg - flour - one table. spoon of semolina - to taste salt - nutmeg - two melted spoons of butter
Cooking method
:
Finely grate both types of cheese. Mix. Add egg, salt, nuts, semolina, pour in melted butter. Knead the stiff dough, roll it into a “bun” and put it in the refrigerator, covered with cling film, for thirty minutes. Roll the chilled dough into sausages with a diameter of about 2 cm and cut them into even squares. The basis for a tasty and satisfying soup is ready. Cheese dumplings can also be boiled in water (broth) and eaten separately with fresh sour cream.
Galushki
For those who want to deliciously feed a large family with minimal time and food costs, Ukrainian dumplings are a great find! This original flour delicacy can be consumed as an independent dish or as a side dish for meat.
Main ingredients:
- Wheat flour – 500 grams.
- Medium fat sour cream – 150 grams.
- Chicken egg – 3 pieces.
- Butter – 100 grams.
The instructions for preparing Ukrainian dumplings are simple and accessible. Every housewife can master the art of creating them. Sift the flour into a metal container and make a small funnel-shaped hole in the center. Pour in 100 grams of water, beat in 2 eggs, add butter (melt in a steam bath) and salt. Knead until you obtain an elastic, viscous dough.
Roll out the dough to a thickness of 0.5 centimeters and cut into small squares. Put the water on high heat, when the first signs of boiling appear, add salt, lower the dumplings, and cook for 5-7 minutes over low heat. Place the pieces of dough that float to the surface in a colander and allow the remaining liquid to drain.
Heat vegetable oil in a frying pan with a thick bottom. Fry the lumps on it (each for 3-4 minutes), stirring constantly. Dumplings with lard have a special taste. Instead of oil, place finely chopped pieces of fresh or salted brisket in a frying pan and fry along with the boiled dough.
Recipe 2: Apple dumplings
These flour “balls” go well with vegetable soups.
They can also be used separately. As a sauce, you can serve sour cream whipped in a blender with sweet fruits. By the way, if you add cottage cheese to the dough instead of grated apples, you will get no less tasty cottage cheese dumplings. Ingredients
:
- 100 gr. apples (without seeds) - 100 gr. wheat flour - four eggs - 40 gr. milk - 30 gr. sugar - a pinch of salt
Cooking method
:
We peel fresh apples, remove seeds, and grate the pulp. Mix the resulting slurry with heated milk. Separately, beat the whites until foamy and carefully mix them with the yolks, sugar (preferably fine) and salt. Combine apples and egg mixture, add flour and knead soft dough. We form dumplings in the manner described above and boil until ready or add to vegetable soup (10 minutes before it is ready).
Soup with dumplings
Ingredients for soup, for a two-liter saucepan: chicken legs - two, potatoes - five pieces, onions - one, butter - 30 grams, bay leaf - four pieces, black pepper - eight peas, salt. For dumplings: eggs - two, milk - three tablespoons and flour. First, cook the broth from the chicken legs. Chop the potatoes, throw them in and cook until almost done. In a frying pan, saute the diced onions in butter and throw them into the pan five minutes before they are ready. Now about how to prepare dumplings for soup.
View gallery
Mix the dough from the above ingredients. It should be soft, not hard. We pinch off small pieces of arbitrary shape from it and send it to the broth. We do this after frying. We wait for the dumplings to float up, and this is where the preparation of the soup ends. Of course, don’t forget to pepper it at the right time, add salt and throw in a bay leaf.
Recipe 3: Stuffed dumplings “Poltava style”
We will stuff flour products with minced meat.
It's best to take pork. The dish is served only separately with gravy. Stuffed dumplings are boiled by traditional cooking in a pan or steaming. Ingredients
:
— 600 gr. flour - one or two eggs - 350 ml kefir - on the tip of a knife soda - to taste salt - for greasing products - butter - 500 g. pork meat or minced meat - two onions
Cooking method
:
Add kefir, egg, soda and salt to the sifted flour. Knead the dough until elastic. Let him “rest” for about an hour. Fry two onions, finely chopped, in a frying pan. After it is fried, add minced meat (you can make it yourself or buy it ready-made in the store), fry until the meat is half cooked, add meat seasonings, pepper, and add a little salt. Remove the minced meat from the stove and cool.
Melt the butter (for greasing the finished products). Next, we form small cakes from the dough, in the center of which we put a little minced meat. Pinch the “bag” well. We do this with all products. Boil the formed dumplings in salted water or steam. A hearty, delicious lunch is ready. Bon appetit everyone!
Borsch with dumplings
To prepare it you need: chicken or goose - half a carcass, one carrot, onion and beet each, three potatoes, canned tomatoes - one can, cabbage - a third of a head of cabbage, ground pepper, herbs, salt, vegetable oil. For dumplings: kefir or yogurt - 300 ml, flour, soda and salt. And let's start preparing Ukrainian borscht with dumplings. The step-by-step recipe is attached:
- Boil broth from meat. At the same time, cut the peeled vegetables: beets and cabbage into strips, onions and potatoes into cubes, carrots into graters.
- Simmer beets, onions and carrots in a frying pan heated with oil, pour in tomato puree and simmer some more.
View gallery - Place the potato cubes into the broth and cook until almost done, then add the dressing and cabbage.
- Salt and cook until the cabbage is ready. Add the herbs, cover with a lid and remove from the stove.
- Now about how to cook dumplings. While the water is boiling, pour kefir into a bowl, pour flour, soda, salt on top, knead the dough, not very stiff, tear off pieces from it, roll into balls and drop a few pieces into salted boiling water.
- Stir, boil, remove from boiling water and grease with butter. Pour borscht into plates, add sour cream and serve. Dumplings - in a separate dish.
Recipe 4: Ukrainian dumplings (from wheat bread)
Only fresh and soft bread is suitable for dumplings.
The crust is not placed in the dish, so we cut it off from the pulp. Ingredients
:
- bread pulp 200 gr. - two eggs - 40 gr. fine sugar - 50 gr. butter - 150 gr. milk - to taste salt - flour
Cooking method
:
Knead the bread crumb with your hands with eggs, milk, sugar, salt and melted butter. Knead until smooth. Place in a warm place for 30-50 minutes. Then we form dumplings from the base, roll them generously in flour and boil them in salted water (broth). These dumplings are very tasty to eat with Ukrainian borscht.
