Day 28: Kroppkakor (Swedish potato dumplings)
I was trying to think of a new dish to make out of what we had at home. Bacon, onion and potato – made a childhood favourite spring to mind: Kroppkakor (translation: body-cakes); no idea where the name comes from. As a kid we ate them with butter but I read that another tradition is to serve with Bechamel sauce so I made some of that too.
This was an unmitigated disaster. I think I’m officially giving up on potato-flour based dishes unless someone can tell me where I am going wrong. Please any answers in the blog to help me find the answer next time.
After having reviewed a series of recipes I settled on this one as it matched the amounts of ingredients we had:
- 6 potatoes
- one egg
- 300 ml flour
- one tea spoon salt
- 200 g bacon or salted pork
- 1 onion
- one teaspoon salt and some pepper
- 1 tsp grated nutmeg
Peel and boil the potatoes ready for mash. Leave to cool.
Whilst the spuds are boiling, fry up the onion and bacon in butter.
When the mash has cooled down, mix with the egg and flour. Make into a log and slice into even pieces. Press your thumb in the middle of each one to make a pocket. Fill it with some of the bacon mixture and cover by re-shaping into tennis ball sized shapes.
Boil up some more water and put them in and wait until they float the surface. One recipe called for a further 5 minutes of boiling at that point. Another said to serve and eat straight away. I tried both and both sucked.
To make the Bechamel sauce:
- 2 cups milk
- 40g corn flour
- 40g butter
- 1 egg
- A pinch salt and nutmeg
It was gorgeous but I’d try to use more milk next time, it got very thick. That or use plain flour.
Har du frågat mamma om hennes recept? Kommer du ihåg att du och jag lagade detta när ni bodde i England? Då åt vi båda tills vi mådde illa för att det var så gott. Det var mammas recept då.
Men du kanske inte skulle gilla det ändå. Jag har inte testat på över tio år.
Ska göra det 🙂
I just use a pot of boiled potatoes (boiled the day before) and add flour until it forms good balls, eggs and salt. I always use smoked ham and also make sure its cold before rolling them into the balls. I eat it with lingon berry and melted butter. Mmmmmm…
Yeah I don’t know where I went wrong. Perhaps not enough flour or being cold enough.