German Dumplings with Mushrooms in a Red Wine Sauce

Best enjoyed with Roodeberg Classic Red Blend

Serves 4

Ingredients
Potato dumplings (makes 14 dumplings)
600g peeled potatoes
1 egg
1 teaspoon of salt
100g corn starch
a pinch of ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons of butter for frying
100g pecorino, grated

Mushrooms
1 tablespoon of olive oil
700g mixed mushrooms
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
½ cup of Roodeberg Classic Red Blend
2 tablespoons of salted butter
2 tablespoons of chopped fresh parsley (or your favourite herb). Use 1 tablespoon only if using dried herbs
salt and pepper to taste

Method
Heat olive oil in a pan on medium high heat. Add mushrooms and garlic and cook for about 5 minutes or until the mushrooms start to brown. Add a splash of wine to deglaze the pan. Reduce heat to low and simmer for about 5 to 6 minutes or until the mushrooms are tender and the liquid is reduced. Add butter and cook until melted and the sauce thickens slightly. Season to taste and set aside while you make the dumplings.

Boil the potatoes in salted water. When the potatoes are cooked all the way through, immediately remove the water, then put the pot back onto the hot stove for a moment to allow the rest of the water to evaporate. You want your potatoes to be as dry as possible.

Mash the potatoes until they are very fine. Set aside and let it cool until just warm.

Add the egg, salt and nutmeg to the warm potatoes and mix it in.

Now gradually add the corn flour and mix until the potato has the right consistency.

You might need a lot less or maybe more than the recipe suggests since it depends very much on your potatoes. When you can shape a sphere from the potatoes and it keeps its shape, then you have the right consistency. Shape into a nice round dumpling (golf ball size) and set aside until all the dumplings are shaped.

In a large pot, bring salted water to a boil. Then reduce the heat so it stops boiling but is still at a high simmer. Add the dumplings to the salted water and close the lid. Let the dumplings float in the hot water for about 20 minutes.

Remove the dumplings from the pot and serve with grated pecorino on top of the red wine mushrooms.