Potato Dumplings with Meat

For this dish, you will need one kilogram of potatoes, which yields fifteen large dumplings. It's a good portion size for three or four servings as a main course or a side dish. All the ingredients used are simple, but it may take some time, as with most inexpensive traditional dishes. I think it will be much easier the second time around. Wash and peel all the potatoes, then cut half of them, or half a kilogram, into pieces and boil until tender, just like you would for mashed potatoes. Drain the boiled potatoes into a larger pot (we will need it later) and mash them with two tablespoons of vegetable oil.

Grate the remaining half of the raw peeled potatoes using a fine grater. Squeeze juice from the grated potatoes.

Now let's prepare our potato dough for dumplings. Mix both types of potatoes, boiled mashed and grated raw, two eggs, flour, salt, and pepper. Mix the mass thoroughly. The dough is ready!

Now let's prepare the filling and at the same time fry it. Cut the smoked bacon into small cubes or strips and place it on a cold frying pan. Put the pan on medium heat and fry the bacon pieces until they are actively browned and crispy. Remove the fried bacon from the pan, leaving the fat.

If there is not much fat left, add a tablespoon of vegetable oil to the pan. Peel and finely chop the onion. Put the chopped onion into the pan with the fat left from the bacon and fry it over medium heat, sprinkling it with a pinch of sugar. The onion should become golden-brown and soft.

Now let's prepare the filling for the dumplings. Mix minced meat (ideally a mixture of beef and pork or just pork), one egg, one-third of the fried onion, salt, and pepper in a bowl. Mix the filling well.

Now we will mold the dumplings, it's very simple. Take a tablespoon of potato dough with moistened hands and make a round thin pancake. Place a teaspoon of meat filling on it and tightly pinch the edges together.

Now we form a small ball-shape dough. Great, the dumpling is ready. In a large and wide pot, where we poured the water from the potatoes, we add a couple more liters of boiling water, salt it, and bring it to a boil. We reduce the heat to low, so that the water doesn't boil and bubble, and carefully drop our dumplings one by one. Let them cook for 30 minutes. We take out the cooked dumplings with a skimmer and serve them with fried bacon, onions, and parsley.