Bryndzové halušky

Ingredients

• Potatoes — raw, finely grated1 kg
• Flour250 g
• Sheep's brynza400 g
• Smoked bacon — diced200 g
• Egg1
• Saltto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Grate the potatoes finely and squeeze them lightly; only a little water should go, as a dry mass will not bind.

   15 min

2. 2

   Mix in the flour, egg and salt. The mass should slide off a spoon slowly rather than pour.

   5 min

3. 3

   Fry the bacon in a dry pan until crisp and lift it out, keeping the fat.

   10 min

4. 4

   Push the dough into boiling salted water through a colander with large holes. The dumplings are done when they float, after about three minutes.

   10 min

5. 5

   Drain the dumplings, return them to the warm pan and stir in the brynza with a spoon of the cooking water. Keep the heat off.

   4 min

6. 6

   Serve into bowls, spoon over the hot fat and scatter the crackling on top.

   3 min

About the dish

The dough is not kneaded but pushed: raw grated potato is mixed with flour into a thick mass and forced into boiling water through a perforated board.

The brynza is stirred into the hot dumplings off the heat. Over a flame it splits into grain and whey, and what is wanted is a creamy coating.

Crackling with its rendered fat goes on top, without exception. Without it the dish stays sour and flat: the salt and the fat come from the pork rather than the salt cellar.

Worth knowing

• — Grate the potato immediately before cooking. Left standing it darkens and the dumplings come out grey.
• — Brynza varies in saltiness. Taste it before salting the dough, or the dish oversalts easily.
• — Real Slovak brynza is best approximated by feta and soured cream in equal parts — not the same, but closer than curd cheese.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

640 kcal

Protein

24 g

Fat

34 g

Carbs

58 g

More from Slovakia

• Kapustnica — A soup of sauerkraut with smoked meat, sausage and dried mushrooms. The Slovak Christmas table.