Kopytka – Journey From A Polish Kitchen

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!

Knedle – Polish Potato Dumplings

The word knedle comes from a German word knödel which means dumpling.

Knedle are similar to kopytka, both can be called potato dumplings. They are different in shape but both are made with boiled potatoes, which have been left to go cold.

I often boil potatoes the day before – the exact amounts are not critical but you must use starchy potatoes. When you have made these once you will have a good idea of the amounts involved.

Traditionally they are served with either melted butter or skwarki (crisp, fried, small squares of bacon) or charred fried onions.

Ingredients

650 -750g boiled starchy potatoes – such as King Edward or Maris Piper
1 egg & 1 yolk
200g potato flour or plain flour or a mixture of the two.(I prefer a mixture or just plain flour)
salt

Method

Peel the potatoes, cut them up into pieces and boil them in salted water.
Drain the potatoes.
Leave the potatoes to cool.
Mash them so that there are no lumps – I have a ricer which is very good for this.

Use a large bowl and put the mashed 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.
Have ready a large floured board to put the knedle on.
With your hands take small amount of the dough and roll into walnut sized balls.
On the board flatten the ball to a thick disc.
Made a thumb print in the centre of the disc (this allows them to hold more sauce when served).
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, around 5 at a time.
As they cook they will float to the surface then let them cook for another 2 minutes.
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 knedle.

Served here with melted butter, charred fried onions and mushroom sauce.

Served in soup dishes by Royal Doulton – Tapestry – 1966 -1988.

Dumplings … just one word!

In Polish cookery there are many items, made with flour or potatoes, which when you look up English words to describe them, you find just one word … dumplings!

Some are similar – some quite different – some I have already written about – some I will be doing in the future.

Below is a list – with links to those already written about.