The ultimate recipe for fruit dumplings from Café Savoy
Café Savoy
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The recipe for this phenomenon of Czech cuisine is said to have been first written down in the 17th century. What is the one from Café Savoy? Prepare some curd cheese, semolina and eggs, and fresh herbs. Here we go!
1. Dough for fruit curd dumplings is kneaded with high quality high-fat curd cheese. This ensures a full flavour and, above all, the right consistency - after incorporating fine baby semolina, whole eggs and a pinch of salt, the a wet, sticky and at the same time easily mouldable mass. Pastry chefs recommend having extra semolina on hand and using it to firm up the dough if the curd is thinner.
2. Semolina has another practical role - it absorbs water from the dough. If the dumplings are prepared in advance and do not go straight into the pot, place the filled balls in a container with a centimetre layer of semolina, wrap them gently and put them in the fridge, where they will keep for up to 24 hours. This ensures that the dough does not thin or dry out.
3. The recipe ideally includes seasonal fresh fruit - whole or cut into pieces, but above all of the same size, so that all the dumplings are cooked in the same amount of time and some don't arrive raw and others overcooked. Aesthetics also play a role - we eat with our eyes too! The fruit should be hidden in a dough only about half a centimetre thick to bring out the flavour of the filling.
4. Place a large pot on the stove! The dumplings will come into it all at once and often straight from the fridge, so the hot water cools quickly. And you want the dumplings to cook all the way through, not get soggy in the hot water.
5. The dumplings are thrown in into slightly salted simmering water. This is because when the dumplings are cooked on a boil, they roll around in the bottom of the pot and the steam escapes from the strawberries, separating the fruit from the dough. The dumplings then tear and leak easily.
6. Set a minute timer! And don't wait for the dumplings to float to the surface. Once you've submerged them and gently rubbed them so they don't stick to the bottom, you have a few minutes to prepare the plates. Depending on the size and type of fruit - strawberry dumplings usually need 7 minutes, plum dumplings need 10 to 12 minutes.
7. Avoid the pasta scoop when scooping out the dumplings! The water in the pot tends to be cloudy and a sharp tool will tear the delicate dough. It is best to scoop out the cooked dumplings using a perforated ladle or a large spoon full of water, which you then use to slide the water back into the pot.
8. The last and crucial step is serving. At Café Savoy, they place the dumplings on grated curd cheese, mixed with vanilla sugar which they make from leftover vanilla pods. The crystals sweeten the whole dish and add a crunchy texture to the soft curd. Finally, the dumplings are garnished with fresh fruit and brought to perfection with a few spoonfuls of melted butter.
Curd cheese from Krasolesí
Krasolesí started making pressed curd cheese exclusively for Café Savoy. It is made using the acid curdling method - fresh milk is gently pasteurised and then allowed to curdle using a minimal amount of rennet. The process takes place for 18 hours without air and at a temperature of around 18 to 22 °C.
In the case of traditional soft curd, the curd is transferred to a sheet and left to defrost, but in the case of pressed curd it is heated to between 70 and 80 °C before being placed in the sheet, weighted and pressed until the next day. Thanks to the heating the curd releases even more whey to give it the desired firm consistency.
The taste, aroma and acidity of the curd is influenced by the quality of the milk, i.e. the quality of the animal's life and diet, but also by compliance with the production temperature and the appropriate choice of the dairy starter culture which is added to the pasteurised milk. Different cultures will acidify the curd more or less, so each dairy farmer is looking for the ideal proportions and his original recipe.
Recipe from Café Savoy
For 10 large dumplings you need:
- 160 g of fine baby semolina (for example, Anička from Předměřice)
- 5 g salt
- 500 g soft, fat curd
- 2 eggs
- 10 strawberries
To each plate add:
- 100 g grated pressed curd cheese
- vanilla sugar to taste
- 2 or 3 fresh strawberries
- butter
Dumpling inspiration
For the strawberry dumplings and the finished dish, you can add chopped herbs such as mint, basil, tarragon or lemon balm. The flavour and aroma of strawberries also resonates with coriander, rosemary or even marigold, which (when in flower) resembles cinnamon, tonka bean and vanilla. The freshness of the dumplings is added by the triple-leaved aloysia with its intense lemon scent or the chervil with its hints of anise and liquorice.
When serving, warm up various flavoured butters. The fruit dumplings can be topped with, for example, lemon-mint, vanilla, saffron or tarragon butter, which may or may not be sweetened with a little honey. They are also deliciously flavoured with cold-pressed poppy seed oil or oil in which orange peel has been macerated with grains of vanilla pod.
For the preparation of elderflower butter, use 250 g softened butter, 2 sprigs of mint, a tablespoon of elderflower syrup, a pinch of salt and freshly ground white pepper. Another recipe suggests melting three tablespoons of sugar and adding 150 g of fresh elderberries. The fruit is boiled for a few minutes, then strained and finally mixed with 250 g of melted butter, which is transferred to a container and solidified in the fridge.
Tradition in the Czech Republic
The word 'knedlik' comes from the German 'Knödel', which in turn comes from the medieval 'knode' (knot), but for a long time knedliks were also called 'šišky'. In the distant past, this was the name given to balls of dough that were fried and baked. Flour was not added to recipes until the 17th century, until then it was considered a luxury ingredient in white pastries.
The tradition of fruit dumplings permeates the Austro-Hungarian cuisine, but in the Czech cuisine it has particularly strong roots, whether it is curd cheese, yeasted, steamed or potato dough. In the past, they were cooked without filling and served with fruit sauce, but later they were filled with fruit (mostly plums) and eaten with curd cheese and poppy seeds, butter or cream. One of France's greatest gourmets, Edouard de Pomiane, declared plum dumplings to be one of the ten best dishes in the world.
Sweet dumplings can mimic the season perfectly! In June, feel free to fill them with rhubarb, while in summer, try adding blueberries, blackberries and blackcurrants, apricots or cherries to the dough. The important thing is balance the sweetness and acidity of the fruit in the filling and mix it with a little sugar or lemon juice to taste.
Blueberry dumplings can be spiced up with mint, and for apricots drizzle with melted butter and a little nutmeg.
Curd cheese (or yeast or potato) dumplings can be coated in sweet breadcrumbs: 80 g butter, 10 g icing sugar, 100 g brioche, a teaspoon of cinnamon and a pinch of cardamom. Grind the aged brioche finely in a food processor, fry until golden brown in the butter and stir in the sugar and spices. Transfer the breadcrumbs to a bowl or deep plate and lightly roll the dumplings in them while they are still warm.
Source: Ambiente chefs, Krasolesí, Czech Radio, The Flavor Bible, Great British Chefs
