Better in Hungarian

I made Turosgomboc yesterday. I had some homemade ricotta cheese that needed to get used before it went  bad and pot of just-boiling water on the stove and so I thought- I will make turosgomboc, even though I have never made them before.
Turosgomoc (pronounced turosh gumbo) are sweet Hungarian cheese dumplings. I got the recipe from my grandmother this past April. I don't know how we got on the subject of Hungarian cheese dumplings, but once it was broached my grandmother was determined to find her recipe for Turosgomboc. She sifted through her file box filled to the brim with yellowing newspaper clippings and little slips of paper decorated in her neat, shorthand cursive. She found her recipe for cocos and nokelach (spaetzle), but not for turosgomboc. So she gave it to me from memory.
It is for this reason that faced with a indeterminate amount of cheese (a  half a pound? a third of a pound? I don't know), I didn't feel so bad winging the recipe. I just sort guesstimated and hoped for the best. And indeed the best won out. Plop went the white batter off the spoon and into the water, sinking down only to rise lazily and swell into a pillowy ball. Once drained, they deflated a bit, becoming not dense, but smooth and creamy. My grandmother said that she used to reheat the dumplings by giving them a toss in a frying pan with some buttered breadcrumbs. Tommy, my friend from Hungary, said that in Hungary they eat them with jam. (Having tasted him mother's apricot jam, I am of the opinion that everything in Hungary should be eaten with jam.) I ate them unadorned. With cherries and olive oil gelato. And they were wonderful and slightly sweet and smooth and cool- everything you might want in a cheese dumpling

I am giving you two recipes for turosgomboc. Neither are precise. The first, which is the version I got from my grandmother, calls for a pound of farmer's cheese. I had fresh ricotta, not farmer's cheese, and I definitely didn't have a pound of it, so I just tried to adjust and tweak the recipe accordingly. It worked just fine.

My grandmother's Turosgomboc
1 pound farmer's cheese
2-3 eggs
Sugar (to taste)
1 scant cup of flour (or enough to hold the dough together)
Breadcrumbs
Butter


1. Put a pot of water up to boil.  Mix together the ingredients until the dough just holds together. Form into walnut-sized balls.

2. Drop the batter into the boiling water, taking care not to crowd them (you may need to cook the dumplings in batches)  The balls will sink to the bottom of the pot and then swell and rise to the top. Cook 3-5 minutes until the dumplings have set. 

3. Remove with a slotted spoon and let drain on a paper towel-lined plate.

4. Melt some butter in a wide skillet. Add the breadcrumbs. They will turn a beautiful, dark brown and smell delicious. Toss the dumplings into the pan and move them around until they are coated in breadcrumbs and warmed through. Serve with or without jam.


My Turosgomboc

1/2-1/3 pound fresh ricotta, strained
1 egg
Sugar (to taste)
4-5 tablespoons flour
a drop of almond extract.

1. Put a pot of water up to boil. Mix together ingredients until the batter just holds together. It will be sticky. If it is too sticky to work with, let it firm up in the refrigerator for a half an hour or so.

2. Using a spoon drop walnut sized amounts of batter into the pot of boiling water. The uneven blobs will sink to the bottom of the pot and then swell and rise to the top. Cook 3-5 minutes until the dumplings have set.

3. Remove with a slotted spoon and let drain on a paper towel-lined plate.

4. Eat with or without jam, with cherries and olive oil gelato.