Minced meat dumplings – inspired by grandma

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 500 g minced meat, mixed
• 50 g bacon
• 1 m.-sized onion(s)
• 1 bunch of parsley
• 1 stale roll
• salt and pepper
• Paprika powder
• 250 g flour
• 125 g quark
• 25 g butter
• 1 egg(s)
• Salt
• 1 pinch(s) of baking powder
• 1 bunch of soup vegetables (alternatively carrots, celery, leeks, parsley)
• 1 m.-sized onion(s)
• some thyme
• some allspice
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tbsp clarified butter
• 1 shot of white wine
• 2 liters of water
• 1 tbsp vegetable stock powder

Instructions

Working time approx. 1 hour; Cooking/baking time approx. 45 minutes; Total time approx. 1 hour 45 minutes

For the filling, soak the roll in water, then squeeze out any excess water and finely chop the parsley (reserve a little for garnishing at the end). Finely dice the onion and bacon and fry until translucent. Season everything with a good pinch of salt, pepper, and paprika, and knead it together with the mince until smooth. Then form it into small balls, about the size of a plum. For the dough, mix the softened to melted butter (warm it a little if necessary), the quark, the egg, and a good pinch of salt. Add the flour and baking powder and mix with the dough hook (it will then become crumbly). Then tip the dough out onto a clean work surface and continue kneading by hand until all the flour is absorbed and the dough is nice and smooth. Roll out with a rolling pin to a thickness of a few millimeters. Don’t use any flour, this will make it easier to close the dough later. Now, with a knife, cut out approximately 5 x 5 cm squares and wrap a meatball in each of these dough pieces. Press the edges together and roll out with your hands to form a dumpling that is as smooth as possible and has no holes. Ideally, there should be enough dough for all the meatballs; otherwise, vary the dough thickness slightly, roll out the leftovers again and use them as well. Roughly dice the soup vegetables evenly, slice the onion into half rings, and sauté everything in a little clarified butter until it takes on a nice brown color. Deglaze with a little white wine, reduce the heat, and let it brown again. In the meantime, bring the vegetable stock from the water and powder to a boil (alternatively, “real” vegetable stock will work, of course—we just need more liquid here so the dumplings have room to cook). Deglaze the vegetables with the stock, add the spices and herbs, season well, and bring everything to a boil. Then carefully add the prepared dumplings with a slotted spoon and cook for about 10 minutes, until they begin to float to the top. Stir gently with the slotted spoon occasionally to prevent the dumplings from sticking to the bottom. Let stand for another 5 minutes, remove the thyme sprigs, bay leaf, and allspice from the broth (or use a spice net), and serve the dumplings with some broth and vegetables, along with the parsley for garnish. This should yield about 25-30 dumplings.