Slovak potato dumplings

Polish: ziemniak
Nahuatl: tlālcamohtli
Aymara: ch'uqi
Quechua: papa
Maasai: ilpiasi
Occitan: trufa
Sudovian: bulvē
Kashubian: bùlwa / tufla
Georgian: კარტოფილი
Vietnamese: khoai tây
Plattdeutsch: Kantüffel

Earth bean? Earth pear? Ground fruit? Ground apple? Type of sweet potato, truffle or yam? That is how potato is called worldwide :)
In Poland people were always, always eating groats (especially cooked buckwheat, millet, barley and wheat). That was Polish staple food, most beloved in the court and in the village, so when the noble friends of the king Jan III Sobiecki tried potatoes for the first time (it was XVII century), they didn't like its taste. Portatoes suddenly became very popular and got acclimatized to Polish fecund soil quite fast. Now potatoes are consumed on many ways, as fritters, pancakes, many sorts of dumplings, baked, stiffed, in salads and so on. Potatoes are widely consumed in Central Europe, but we do remember that originally they come from the Andes. In Pozna (Posen), a city in western Poland, people call them pyry, which word derivates from Peru, potato homeland :)
Today's potato dish is a national dish in Slovakia, but also eaten in Poland. Slovaks call them bryndzové halušky and in Poland we call them przecieraki (literally: the strained ones). These small cooked potato dumplings are somehow similar to German Spätzle - cause prepared same way (through a special noodle strainer), but of differrent ingredients. A very important ingredient would be Karpatian salty sheep spreadable cheese, bryndza, but you can use any soft spreadable sheep or goat cheese, or even salted curd.

see also: Slovak potato pancakes
see also: Lithuanian potato fritters

500 gr uncooked, peeled potatoes
300 gr flour
salt, pepper, oil
1 pack (about 200 gr) bryndza cheese (or any salted curd - see explanation above)
+ (optionally) fried salo (pork underskin fat, Central-European delicacy which some Central Europeans really dislike :P) tiny squares [I know, I know, the original recipe really requires slanina (salo in Slovakian), but without it the dish is lighter in digestion and also for vegetarians), chopped chive and dill, fried chopped onion

1. Grate raw potatoes, combine with flour and salt (about 1/2 tablespoon). Now you need a noodle strainer (see photo instructions how to use it --> put a piece of dough on the strainer and push with your hand so that the tiny pieces jump into boiling water), if you don't have it, cut the dough into thin slices or nibble tiny irregular pieces of dough and pour them into boiling, salted water with a tablespoon of oil







2. Prepare the cheese: rub it (you can add a spon of sour cream) and combine with cooked, drained halušky. You can sprinkle with fried salo, onions, chives and / or dill

The final picture was of bad quality, you could see only a white stain... that is why I will not post it...

I add this entry to celebrate World's Potato Year and I wanted to join Ode to Potato event hosted by Sia from Monsoon Spice . I know a plenty of potato recipes but no time to post all of them so I just encourage all potato lovers to visit my blog again and browse well :) and you will find more Central-European (Polish, Belarussian, Lithuanian) delicious potato dishes to try :)