Fried Kopytka

• My Mama often made kopytka potato dumplings but I do not remember them ever being fried afterwords.
• I had this dish of rabbit in a garlicky cream sauce with fried kopytka in a restaurant in Wrocław.
• They were super!

• I decided to have a go at these myself.
• Now you can cheat if you have a Polish shop near you that sells ready made kopytka that you can boil first.
• I decided to make these from scratch, which does involve a few steps & time.
• *
• THE STEPS
• *
• Boil starchy potatoes
• Leave to go cold
• *
• Make kopytka
• Boil the kopytka
• Leave to go cold
• *
• Fry the kopytka

Ingredients

• Starchy potatoes – boiled and left to go cold – around 500 – 600g
• 1 egg & 1 egg yolk
• Plain flour – around 200g
• ½ teaspoon salt
• Sunflower oil for frying

Method

• Peel the potatoes cut them up into pieces and boil them in salted water.
• Drain the potatoes
• Mash them so that there are no lumps.
• I have a ricer which is very good for this.
• Leave the potatoes to cool.
• Use a large bowl and put the cold potatoes into the bowl.
• Lightly beat the egg and the yolk together and add this to the potatoes.
• Add a little salt.
• Weigh out the flour to give an idea of how much is needed,
• This will depend on the type of potato and the size of the eggs.
• Add the flour and mix first with a wooden spoon and then by hand, you might not need all the flour or you may need more.
• Mix until you have a soft dough.
• *
• Divide the dough into quarters and using a floured board shape the dough and roll it with you hands until you have a long sausage about 3cm in diameter.
• If the dough sticks to the board then you need to add more flour.
• Use a sharp knife to cut the dough into pieces, make the first cut at a diagonal and make the thickness about 1 to 1.5cm.
• You will get a sort of oval shape.
• Repeat this with the rest of the dough.
• *
• Fill a large pan with water, add some salt and bring this to the boil.
• When the water is boiling, add the dumplings one by one, do not over fill the pan or they will stick together.
• I tend to do this in 4 batches.
• As they cook they will float to the surface, give them about another minute and then remove them with a slotted  or a perforated spoon and put them in a colander.
• I have a colander sitting in an empty pan by the side of the large pan in which I am boiling the dumplings.
• I find that the maximum from putting  them into the water to taking them out will be 3 minutes, if you cook these too long they will start to fall apart.
• *
• You need to let the kopytka dry off and go cold.
• NOTE – kitchen roll tends to stick – baking paper is better.

• Gently shallow fry the kopytka in sunflower oil.
• Take care not to burn them.
• Served here on a vintage pyrex plate.
• Good with other fried foods or served with a sauce.

VERDICT

Everyone thought them delicious and want them to be made often!

Dividing the timing of boiling potatoes, making and boiling kopytka and then frying them to serve with a meal needs to be spaced out to make life easier!