Here is a highlight of every culture: FOOD! The first time my sister was in Austria, she came home with pictures of these AMAAAZING looking dumpling-esq morsels, and I was like,
“OH MY WORD!”
And then when *I* went to Austria, I got to learn how to make those amazing, actually-named-something-dumpling-esq morsels, and I was like,
“OH MY WORD!”
And then I got to eat them, and I was like…
“Oh– My– Wooooord.” ^_^
So yeah, I had to write about them. They’re called “Kärnten Noodle,” and they are delicious. I can’t share the recipe, since I don’t have it. Yet. 😀 But they’re just so pretty and appealing, and such a highlight of… my life, that I had to post something about them.
We got to watch the pros, my new brother-in-law’s mother and grandmother, show us how it’s done.
First, they made the filling. Among the ingredients are cooked, pressed potatoes, dry curd cottage cheese, onions, salt and pepper, and blue mint.
They made the dough in the food processor. Of course. Genius.
This picture cracks me up… Nice and blurry. 😀 Haha.
Kärnten Noodle are really similar to something that my family has made as long as I can remember called “Wareneki,” a Russian Mennonite dish. When we make wareneki, we usually roll out a large section of the noodle dough and then cut it into squares. These were a little more time consuming because you roll out each noodle separately… Which I thought was interesting. Thankfully they are also a little nicer to work with since the filling is so thick.
Take a look:
(You can tell which hands are mine because of the nail polish. Whoops.)
I was so fascinated by the edge on these beauties – Care to learn how it’s done?
It’s really hard to explain how to do this… A video would be a much more efficient way to explain, and really, explaining how to make the edge on something that I’m not even posting a recipe for seems a little pointless.
HOWEVER.
If you are like me, you’ll be *really* curious, so I’ll do my best anyway.
After a scoop of filling is placed in the middle of the circle of dough, you pinch the edges closed all around it to enclose it nice and tightly. Then, working from the edge of the seam, you tuck part of the flap over to make a little fold, squeezing up the dough between your fingers as you fasten it in place. Then, you take that bit of dough you just squeezed up and press that over to make another fold, etc, etc. By the end of it, you should have this lovely rope seal.
I say “Should” because practice definitely makes perfect with these… We made a lot of sub-par ones, let me tell you. 😀
We made about 4 different kinds – One with the cottage cheese, one that was mainly potato filled, another that had an apple filling, and another that was filled with dried pear and some raisins or something… It was different. But good. 🙂
When all the filling was used up, the extra pieces of dough were filled with meat.
The Kärnten Noodle are cooked in boiling water and served with melted butter.
…I’m a big fan. And I will definitely be needing the recipe.
Back soon!
–Naomi
P.S. Since I’m running behind on most everything this week, these pictures (and the ones from my last Austria post, for that matter) don’t have my watermark. Please don’t steal them. Please, please. Thanks! 😀
