Olga's Recipe for making Norwegian Potato Dumplings - the Etnedal branch referred to them as crube, however I can't find that name on the net and dad's family from the west coast called them ball.
In Lithuania we enjoyed a potato dumpling called cepelinai. One particular type was called a Zeppelin for its shape. It was similar but not the same. Lithuanians are very fond of potatoes also.
Whatever did Norwegians do before potatoes? This is not Viking food, in fact Norwegians did not start growing potatoes until around 1750.
They got creative and thus we have lefse and potato dumplings. (we do call it crube, and never call it potato dumplings, but I'm walking a thin wire here to balance out the klubb, crube and Ball people).
Olga's Recipe
Ingredients: raw potatoes, flour, old fashioned dry oatmeal (not instant!!), salt, a kind of dry type of sausage like mennonite sausage from Coaldale Alberta, (we cook it first), water - (if you happen to have some on hand, but we never did, fresh blood could be substituted for the water). Then instead of being a lightish grey colour the crub will be a murky brown.
Warning - this dish is not appealing to the eye. But it sticks to the ribs, is filling, and to the initiated really good!! Plus economical.
Wash and peel potatoes. Hand grate.
Or you can grind them in a food processor.
In the meantime have a couple of pots of water on the stove - it needs to be boiling once you get the mixture made.
Add equal amounts of flour (mixed with maybe a teaspoon of salt) and oatmeal a cup at a time to the grated potatoes.
Add about a cup of water - this depends on how many spuds you used and the phase of the moon.
Rough guide: for every two cups of dry ingredients add a bit less than 1/3 c water. Approximately.
Ok you want the dough to stick together and form a ball without being too stiff. Practise.
In the olden days she used salt pork in the centre but later switched to a dry version of sausage cut in say one inch chunks - maybe a bit bigger. Rinse hands in Cold Water. Pick up a handful of dough in left hand and in right hand have a piece of sausage. Stick the sausage in the centre flip the dough around to cover the sausage and form a ball, smaller than a softball, bigger than a tennis ball, maybe the size of a hard ball. Make as round as possible. It isn't that critical but you neither want them too big or too small.
Drop in the boiling water (be careful) and quickly get on with making more, dropping each into the boiling water as you progress through the dough. You do not want the crub to burn so watch closely and turn heat down from high once water returns to the boil.
Every once in awhile rinse hands in cold water to ease the ball making procedure.
When water comes back to the boil turn the heat down but ensure the water remains boiling and leave to cook for 1 hour and fifteen, maybe an hour and a half.
Remove from water when done. Serve as is, with butter or slice up and fry and serve with butter.
Mom always made a big batch and the first meal was the boiled crube with butter.
Then the second meal was crube sliced up, maybe 1/2 inch thick, a bit less, fried served with butter.
I don't like to eat anything else with it - the potatoes are your veg, the flour is your carb, the sausage your protein and the butter is the dairy. A meal in itself. And oatmeal is good for you.
Deelishus.
Notes
I have cooked crub in a big pot with one of those strainer things that fits inside. Makes lifting them out at the end easier, kind of contains the mess and also prevents them from burning as they aren't touching the bottom of the pan. I have also suspended cheese cloth like a hammock in a pot and cooked them that way. Same reason, but secure the cheesecloth well and don't let it touch the burner.
I am fond of salt so I also put a bit of salt in the water.
People have been known to boil up a ham bone and then cook crube in that water, maybe with a hunk of ham in the middle. I'll post that recipe later. Rhea knew somebody who made her crube like tubes so they were efficient to slice up and fry.
We have frozen the cooked balls and they were ok to eat when sliced and fried up.
Jeff's version
Grate potatoes by hand, add equal parts of flour and oatmeal, cooked sausage in centre, boil. He adds no salt and no water. The crube tastes good. Always serves it fried with salt and butter on the table.
YumYum.
More recipes:
Some very good recipes are posted online of course and here are two links, shared with me by a friend in Norway:
'From where I come from the Faarikaal (Fårikål) or Lamb Casserole is quite popular in the autumn around october. It´s rather simple to make and even better the next day. http://www.norway-hei.com (my comment - And even better this is a crock pot dish!)! http://www.norway-hei.com/lamb-casserole.html be careful not to eat the pepper. It´s only used to give some extra taste during the cooking."
Aunt Lilly who grew up in Norway - near Aalesund, spoke to me of a similar dish with lamb - one of her favourites from back home. I never got the recipe from her though, thirty years ago we didn't eat much lamb (none) in my tribe. We have become more adventurous since then!!
http://www.bestnorwegian.com/norwegian_svele.html
Here is a funny thing - a contact in Norway - who I have never met - sent me the above information - I say "friend" as what else do you call a nice person you communicate with regarding your ancestry? Cousin? The cousins who have responded to my request for a family recipe have all come from families where they never "cooked Norwegian" or if they mentioned what they still made did not share the recipe. I only have 70 cousins and I haven't contacted many, but the initial response has been discouraging.
Perhaps they think these recipes are readily available on line - they are, but they are not our brand which I was shooting for - mainly I am doing this for selfish reasons as I wanted to have a recipe section in our family history book so my kids could follow along. And of course I would share this around with interested relatives - patience is a virtue so maybe they will still be forthcoming. On my pilgrimage to my "old country," Saskatchewan, I will ask again.
My brother made his own lutefisk - where did he get the lye? His wife makes the best lefse and I have these recipes yet to post.
If you are my cousin, please send me a Norwegian vintage recipe you use or at least has been used in the family. Thank you. This is all about nostalgia.
Recipe
5 pounds of potatoes
3 Tablespoons salt
4 cups flour
4 cups oatmeal
1/2 cup water
grate peeled potatoes.
Mix with other ingredients - form into balls with sausage in centre
Drop carefully into generously salted boiling water. Cook.
Why so many different names?
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