The WUR community is home to all the flavours of the world. Natalia Grabarczyk (23), a Master’s student of Biotechnology and a member of the Vegan Student Association, shares a typical Polish summer dish.
‘When the strawberry season starts, summer has come. My grandmother would always buy lots of strawberries and together we would make ‘knedle’ for the whole family. I come from Łódź province in central Poland, where they serve these dumplings with young cabbage in a roux, seasoned with dill. Everywhere else they are eaten with cream and sugar.’
Ingredients for 2 portions
- half a cabbage (preferably a young, green one)
- 3 soupspoons of butter or margarine
- 6 soupspoons of flour
- fresh dill
- 1 bay leaf
- 3 corns of allspice
- salt & pepper
- ¼ cup potato starch
- 0.5 kg peeled potatoes
- 300 g strawberries
Preparation
The cabbage:
- Remove the stalk and chop the cabbage finely. Put it in a large pot.
- Add 0.5 litre of water, a teaspoon of salt, some pepper, one bay leaf and the allspice. Simmer for 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, heat 3 spoons of butter with 3 spoons of flour in a pan for 3 minutes;
- Add this roux to the cabbage, mix it to thicken and then add the fresh dill.
The dumplings:
- Boil the potatoes until they are done. Strain and mash them.
- Add a ½ cup of flour and a ¼ cup of potato starch, and mix well. Knead until you have a pliable, non-sticky dough.
- Form flat cakes out of pieces of dough. Put the strawberry on the dough and sprinkle with sugar. Fold the dough over the strawberry.
- Put the dumplings in boiling water for five minutes until they float to the surface.
- Serve with the cabbage.