Wednesday, May 16, 2012

How it all began / Ako to celé začalo

Potato Gnocchi with Walnuts / Zemiakové Šúľnace s Orechami




My Grandma (90 next year), a honorary member of The Apron Society, who wears an apron 365 days a year, cooked, baked, pickled ... food her whole life. Her mother and her grandma, too. So is my mother and I'm just following the footsteps. That makes me the fifth known, and still remembered, generation of home cooks. Nothing extraordinary in Slovakia.

Here is my Grandma Paulína rolling potato gnocchi.
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Moja babička (90 budúci rok), čestná členka Zásterovej spoločnosti, ktorá má zásteru na sebe 365 dní v roku, varila, piekla, nakladala .... jedlo celý svoj život. Takisto jej mama a jej babička. To isté moja mama a ja iba nasledujem v šľapajách. To zo mňa robí piatu poznanú a pamätanú generáciu domácej kuchárky. Nič zvláštne na Slovensku. 


Tu je moja babička Paulína, šúľa zemiakové šúľance. 




















In those photos above, Paulína is making two types of gnocchi. Rolled, elongated and pointy gnocchi and the other are cut out and filled with plum jam dumplings. If saving time is in question, I recommend to go with my suggestions written below. 
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Na týchto fotografiach hore, Paulína pripravuje dva typy šúľancov. Šúľané podlhovasté šúľance a vykrajované a plnené knedle so slivkovým lekvárom. Ak šetrenie časom je v hre, navrhujem zohľadniť odporúčania v recepte. 













Potato Gnocchi with Walnuts


1/2kg potatoes, boiled and pealed
water to boil the potatoes
salt for boiling plus some more for the dough
120gr all purpose flour

20gr butter, melted
60gr granulated brown sugar
45 gr walnuts, finely grounded


Boil the potatoes with skin on until soft. Drain, let them cool and peel the skin off. If you do this a day ahead, you'll reduce the process time by about a third.

In a large pot boil water with a little bit of salt.
Using potato press or grater press or grate the potatoes into a large bowl. Add salt and flour. Work it until you get a smooth dough. From this point you should work relatively quickly, as this potato dough becomes thiner with the time and it will be hard to work with it.

Divide the dough into a few parts and roll each part into cca 3cm thick strings. Cut the strings into small pieces about 3cm long. This is an easy way of making gnocchi, as a classical shape is elongated and pointy, which you'd have to roll. Those here are more pillow like in shape, which you only cut.

Drop the gnocchi into the boiling water, stir with a wooden spoon and cook until they float atop. After a little bit, taste one if they are thorougly cooked. Take them out with a strainer or strainer spoon.

Put the gnocchi into a bowl. Pour the melted butter on top and stir. Sprinkle with sugar and walnuts and stir shortly again.

Variations: At our home, we used to make three streusel variations - with walnuts, poppy seeds and breadcrumbs. Walnut and poppy seed streusel is made the same way, poppy seeds should be grounded. A breadcrumb streusel is made in a bit different way. Breadcrumbs and sugar are lightly browned in a melted butter until goldfish in color. This combination of butter and caramel from melted sugar gives gnocchi a special dimension. This streusel is so rare, that it reminds me of home the most.

Serves 2 - 4

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Zemiakové Šúľnace s Orechami

1/2kg zemiakov
100gr polohrubej, alebo hladkej múky
voda
soľ na uvarenie zemiakov, plus ďalšia štípka do cesta

45gr mletých orechov
60gr hnedého kryštalového cukru
20gr roztopeného masla


V troške vody uvarte zemiaky do mäkka. Zlejte vodu, nechajte vychaldanúť a ošupte. Ak to spravíte deň vopred skrátite celý proces na tretinu.

Do veľkého hrnca dajte variť väčšie množstvo vody s troškou soli.
Použite lis na zemiaky, alebo jemné strúhadlo na nastrúhanie zemiakov.
Jemne osoľte a pridajte múku. Spracujte na jemné cesto. Od tejto chvíle musíte pracovať relatívne rýchlo, lebo cesto časom redne a ťažko sa s ním pracuje.


Rozdeľte cesto na niekoľko častí a šúľajte cca 3cm hrubé šúľky. 


Nakrájajte ich na cca 3cm široké kúsky, ktoré budú pripomínať skôr vankúšiky, než šúľky. Klasický tvar šúľancov je predĺžený so špicatými koncami. Tieto "šúľance" sa iba krájajú, čím si opäť skracujete čas prípravy.

Vhoďte šúľance do vriacej vody, premiešajte drevenou varechou a počkajte kým nevyplávajú na povrch. Po chvíli ochutnajte, či sú uvarené. Vylovte ich do misy s pomocou cedníka, alebo lyžice.

Prelejte roztopeným maslom a posypte cukrom a orechami. Ešte raz krátko premiešajte.



Variácie: U nás doma sa robievali tri variácie na posýpku - orechová, maková a so strúhankou. Orechová a maková posýpka sa robia rovnako, mak je mletý. Strúhanková posýpka je robená troška ináč, strúhanka a cukor sa opčú na masle dozlatista. Kombinácia masla a karamelu z roztopeného cukru dodáva šúľancom další rozmer. Táto posýpka je tak málo videná, že mi hádam najviac pripomína domov.


2 - 4 porcie

7 comments:

Adriana said...

som rada za tento blog plny jedal z mojho detstva... sulance mam velmi rada a nasa nagymama nam robievala vacsinou s makom a struhankou...krasne spracovany post...urcite tu nie som poslednykrat...

bake your slovak roots said...

Ďakujeme!

Anonymous said...

U nas sa sulance robili so struhankou alebo makom a mali trosku iny tvar. Som velmi rada, ze som nasla tvoj blog, velmi ma potsilo, ze sa konecne aj slovenske recepty dockali takehoto krasneho spracovania. Tiez je skvele, ze su aj v anglictine, mozem ich poslat mojej svokre, ta sa bude tesit, pretoze jej pirohy aj bublanina velmi chutili, ked bola na Slovensku. Tesim sa na dalsie prispevky, je to tak pohladenie na dusi, ked chyba domov...

bake your slovak roots said...

Ďakujeme!
.... a dobrú chuť a samozrejme na zdravie!

Unknown said...

I have looked at different gnocci recepies and have tried this one, but my gnocci fell apart. next time I have put an egg in as well and added extra flour. They came out very well. I am german and I have only recently discovered Slovak cooking. I love it. I love the simplicity of the ingreadients, no fancy things to buy. Just make wonderful things from simple foods. Also I am fascinated by the way Slovak cooks move their hands when making buchty, pirohy etc. They do it in a beautiful way, almost like a dance. Thanks very much for posting all these recipes.

bake your slovak roots said...

Thanks, Akuster7!
You can always test the batter/dough first by boiling just a few pieces and adjusting it as it goes ...
Keep me posted :)

Barbora said...

ďakujem veľmi pekne za recept. boli skvelé :)