Family food

For today’s five minute family history, write (or type) one “must have” traditional family dish.   If it came down within the family write what you know about its origins or who was most particular about it, or most famous for preparing it.

One of the family dishes that we loved to eat was "Potet Klub" or potato dumplings.   My father's family had them regularly and he always liked them -- even helped to make them.  My mother made them every once in a while and she maintained this wasn't something her family ate when she was young.   Bu tI bet they ate something similar.  Because, you see, that "delicacy" that we stand in line at the restaurants for today was really a type of peasant food - something that filled you up so you could go out and work in the woods or in the barn without having hunger pangs in an hour or two.

Potato dumplings are heavy, starchy, rather unattractive and delicious.  They are made by grinding or shredding raw potatoes and adding enough flour to the potatoes to make a semi-solid handfuls of dough.  A small piece of ham or (preferably) salt pork was set on the middle of the dough and then another scoop of dough was put on top.  The whole dumpling was shaped like a good sized potato and then dropped gently into salted water to cook for 20-30 minutes.
The dumplings would be scooped out, drained, and served in a big bowl.  They needed to be solid -- but not too solid!  They should stay together in a firm mass when they cooked.  When you placed one on your plate and cut it up, you would slather it with real butter and each bite would just slide down your throat.  Today, there are some folks who pour dark syrup on the dumplings and eat it that way.

The best way to eat them, however, is to slice up the cold dumplings the next day.  Then fry those pieces in butter, adding a little cream to make a gravy.  The crisp fried potatoes in the creamy gravy is very, very good.

My mother made delicious dumplings.  My aunts -- Alma, Gunda and Othelia -- made them as well and we were often invited to their homes when the dumplings were being cooked.  My mother would often grind the raw potatoes in a metal food grinder that she clamped to the counter, often placing a bowl on the floor because the potatoes had a lot of water in them which dripped down the metal parts of the grinder.  My aunt Othelia would shred the potatoes and she would use different cuts of pork inside. 

Today, we travel to different restaurants to try out the potato dumplings.  Nelson's Café in Roseau makes very good ones.  They always have a big crowd on dumpling days and often sell out so there are no fried ones the next day.  The gals at The Guest House make them as do the cooks at Café 89 in Wannaska, the Twins Café in Badger, the Twins Café in Greenbush. Even Fran's Café in Mesa, Arizona, serves potato dumplings once a week, during the winter months, at least!  Most of the restaurants do serve ham or bacon or sausage along with the dumplings.

 Fundraisers at various churches have potato dumplings on the menu and they are generally very successful.

I understand that some people make potato dumplings out of frozen hash brown potatoes (like the ladies at Badger Creek Church and whose dumplings are very tasty).  You can even buy packages of frozen dumplings in the freezer section of the supermarket and/or "potato dumpling mix" which comes in a brown paper sack. 

My grandparents would chuckle to think of their lowly "potet klub" being served commercially in so many places.  But  I bet they would gladly sit right up and enjoy a ;plate to "stick-to-your-ribs" dumplings!