Uszka (Polish Christmas Dumplings)

Ingredients:

For the Wild Mushroom Filling
30g dried porcinis or bay bolete mushrooms (Polish ‘borowik’ and ‘podgrzybek’ respectively)
250ml water
175g onion
230–250g) fresh chestnut mushrooms
1 tbsp neutral oil, e.g. rapeseed
1 garlic clove
1 tsp dried thyme
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
3-4 tbsp dry white wine
1 tbsp parsley, finely chopped

For 'Uszka' Dough:
300g plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp olive or rapeseed oil
200ml hot water

Method:

Begin by preparing the filling: Pour 200ml of water over the dried porcinis and cook over a low heat for 30 minutes. (This can be done in advance e.g, a day before.).

Once that’s done, drain the mushrooms (but it’s worth reserving the remaining ‘mushroom water’; it’s useful in flavouring other dishes such as stews and soups. Keep it refrigerated or freeze it).

Peel the onion, then slice it finely. Do the same with chestnut mushrooms and cooked porcinis.

Heat a tablespoon of oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Use to fry the finely-chopped onion for a few minutes over medium heat, until it turns translucent.

Add the minced garlic clove and continue frying for another 30 seconds, stirring occasionally. Add all the chopped mushrooms along with a teaspoon of dried thyme and a pinch of nutmeg. Season to taste with salt and freshly-ground black pepper.

Reduce the heat to low and cook the mushrooms gently, stirring occasionally. Mushrooms will release their juices first, which will evaporate away.

As the pan becomes dry, add in 3 to 4 tablespoons of white wine, increase the heat to medium-high and continue cooking until the wine evaporates completely. Make sure to stir from time to time, so that nothing sticks too badly to the pan.

Adjust the seasoning to taste then stir in the chopped parsley leaves.

To make assembling the Uszka a little easier, it’s worth grinding down the filling even more. You can use an immersion (stick) blender, or just chop everything again with a knife.

Store the mushroom filling in your refrigerator, until you’re ready to assemble the dumplings.

For the dough: Sift together the flour and salt into a large bowl. Pour in a tablespoon of oil.

Gradually pour hot water into the flour, mixing with a spoon as you go.

Dust your work surface with flour. Set the dough ball onto it. Then knead the dough until soft and smooth.

Form a ball, cover it with a kitchen cloth and set aside to rest for about 30 minutes.

To assemble the dumplings: Sprinkle your worktop with flour. Divide the dough into four parts. Roll each part (keeping the rest covered) into a thin layer of dough — 1-2mm would be ideal.

Using the rim of a small glass (or a round biscuit cutter), cut out circles from the dough.

In the centre of the cut circle, put about half a teaspoon of the mushroom filling and glue the edges together, forming a crescent (just like for pierogi).

Now connect both ends to form a ring — it's best to wrap the dumpling around your little finger and stick the ends together. If it’s not sticking, wet the ends with just a little bit of water.

Arrange the ready-made ‘Uszka’ on a pastry board or your work surface, sprinkled with flour. Cover them with a cloth until you’re ready to cook them all.

To cook the dumplings: Bring a pan of water to a boil and salt it generously. Throw in a few Uszka dumplings at a time, but not too many 7#x2014; so that they don't lower the water temperature too much.

After adding them to the water, stir the dumplings very gently. We don’t want them to stick to the bottom.

Once the dumplings start to float, continue cooking for another minute.

Using a slotted spoon, fish out the cooked Uszka and transfer them to a plate — but make sure they don’t touch each other as they tend to stick.

Once they cool ever-so-slightly, serve them in your borscht. Otherwise, wait for them to cool completely and move into a container with a lid, then refrigerate.