"I want to Siberia" is a small but cool bar on Vosstaniya Street in St. Petersburg. It was one of the first to start making tinctures using the sous vide method, and it was almost the only place in the area where you could eat dumplings at 4 o'clock in the morning. The bar closes permanently on Sunday. In honor of this sad event, we are sharing a recipe for excellent dumplings.
How did the idea come about
Dumplings with gorgonzola came almost by accident. Chef Aleksey Ermakov put us in the kitchen, and announced 4 types of dumplings on the menu - with meat, with salmon, with cheese and dumplings with potatoes. Dumplings with cheese did not hook us, and we decided not to make them. Later I decided that I could try to work them out after all.
Initially, the recipe included dorblu and Russian cheese - the most common. One of my friends suggested replacing Dorblu with gorgonzola, that changed everything. The taste immediately became different, interesting, the dish acquired Italian notes. It became clear to us that cheese plays a huge role. But it's hard to find good cheese in St. Petersburg. Most often it is found in the Torzhkovsky market - sellers say that they bring it from Argentina, which I strongly doubt.
How to find the right cheese
It is difficult to distinguish the right gorgonzola from the unsuitable one before the purchase, but you can try. Pay attention to the color of the mold: it should be blue with a transition to green, maybe even turquoise. And its density: the injection points are always visible on the cheese, the space between them should be almost completely filled with mold. There should be a lot of mold.
Why is not only gorgonzola in the filling
If you make the filling entirely from gorgonzola, the dumplings will be difficult to eat, so you need to dilute it with another cheese. Semi-hard Russian cheese works well for this. We made the filling with 70% gorgonzola in the composition.
How to understand that you did everything right
The resulting gorgonzola dumplings have the following effect: while eating them you will want to wash them down - most likely with wine. If you have experienced this, it means that the gorgonzola was chosen well, and the dumplings came out right.
Ingredients for 2 kg of dumplings:
For the test
- Flour - 800 g
- Eggs - 2 pcs.
- Salt - 3 g
- Water - 250 ml
For filling
- Gorgonzola picante - 550 g
- Russian cheese - 550 g
For filing
- Butter
- Walnut crumbs
- Chopped sorrel
How to cook
Combine all dough ingredients and knead. It should be cool.
Mix the two types of cheese well for the filling. It is worth testing on a small amount of the product and boiling a test portion of dumplings. If you want something spicy, add more gorgonzola, if softer, add more Russian cheese.
Make dumplings. For one dumpling - 10 grams of dough and 10 grams of filling. We made the dumplings in a square shape, but round they will be just as delicious.
Boil and lightly salt in water. Add the dumplings and stir lightly to keep them from sticking together - but not too hard to open them. It is very important not to overcook: the filling is generally ready, you just need to let the cheese melt. The degree of doneness is determined by the dough: it should not be too soft, but also not soggy. As soon as the dumplings are thawed (that is, float up), cook them for 4–4.5 minutes.
Do not let the dumplings sit in water for a long time. Catch them, place them on a plate, and roll the butter over them well so that the dough is no longer sticky. Sprinkle with walnuts and sorrel on top.
The rest of the dumplings can be frozen and eaten later.