Central Europe · Volume 20, Lard, Bryndza and a Court Cuisine That Passed Overhead
Bramborový knedlík
Bohemia and Moravia
Illustration
- Time
- 25 minutes
- Researched
- 27 sources cited
Bohemia and Moravia. Two structurally different techniques sharing one name and one job: standing in for rice or noodles at almost every main course on the Czech side.
As tradition built it
About 55 minutes; 20 to 25 minutes in the water.
Ingredients
- as needed well-salted water, for cooking
- 1000 g floury potatoes (type C)
- 30 g potato starch
- 250 g coarse flour (hrubá mouka)
- 2 eggs
- 1 g salt
- 30 ml pork lard
- as needed flour, for the board
Method
- Put a large pot of well-salted water on to boil first.
- Boil the potatoes in their skins until half soft. Let them cool, then peel and grate them finely.
- Add the starch, flour, eggs and salt and mix quickly with a spoon or by hand into a soft but firm dough.
- On a floured board, shape it into logs about 5cm across, long enough to fit the pot.
- Put them at once into the boiling water. After a short while check that they float, and free them from the bottom if they do not.
- Cook 20 to 25 minutes over a lower heat.
- Slice them at once, ideally with thread, so they do not stick together, and serve hot.
Notes
The recipe is chef Roman Vaněk's, of the Pražský kulinářský institut, on Rohlík; he lists the lard but no step uses it, and his page gives the salt as both 1 g and a teaspoon. Recepty.cz chills the cooked potatoes completely, ideally overnight, binds with plain flour and coarse semolina, and slicing at once with thread is theirs.
What a modern chef changes
The gluten discipline stated as a rule, not a feel, and a UK-adapted flour blend
Rung 1
Method
- For the potato dumpling, dry the riced potato briefly in a low oven before mixing, driving off excess moisture so less flour is needed to bind it, keeping the finished texture lighter than a version made from wetter, unadjusted mash.