Swedish Palt (Pitepalt) - A Recipe of Sorts...

My whole family is Scandinavian. Really. My dad's parents: one is Swedish, the other Norwegian. And on my mom's side: my grandpa is Finnish. 

I know Finland isn't "technically" a part of Scandinavia... But, they're not Russian either. And if I were them, I would rather be Scandinavian, if I could choose. lol. 

So anyway, Palt. I tell the people who have no idea what it is, that it is like... A potato dumpling, with BACON in the center. And that it is DELICIOUS. Haha. Not everyone thinks this dish is delicious, my mom dislikes it a lot. I think you have to grow into it or something. Or... maybe have it forced down your throat? I dunno, it's honestly not that bad.

Palt, I wanted to make it. My family back home would always make it for special occasions and large family gatherings. So, it's something I look back on fondly.

I called the grandparents to get some recipe and/or hints and tips, and they really didn't give me much... lol. "Don't squeeze out too much juice." ... Was about the most helpful tip they gave me. lol! I had no idea how long to cook this for, or anything. A lot of this is done by... feeling, sight, and touch. A lot of guess work here.

OH, Tangent... I forgot to tell you guys that my baby finally arrived. 

That's right, bitches! I can be Suzy homemaker now! Watch yo backs! 

Anyway, we bought this, specifically for the grinder attachment.... Yeah, and all the other perks! Luckily my mom bought me the grinder/slicer attachment for it too! Just so I could make Palt! I am over the moon. :)

Okay, so that was necessary for the story! Just saying!

This recipe only needs four ingredients. FOUR.

POTATOES.

You'll need to slice these potatoes skinny enough to fit down your little grinder. We used a lot... Enough to almost fill up the bowl of the Kitchenaid mixer bowl thing.

I'm gonna let you in on a Super secret... We didn't measure anything. Like I said this was all done by "eh, that looks good". So, hopefully you're good at that kind of thing?? If not, give it a go anyway! :) 
Flour 

Some to mix in to make a "potato dough" and some to roll "potato balls" in. 

Salt

For "dough". 

BACON. For... Amazingness.
The bacon needs to be in little slices. Not the long ways, but the short ways. So they're like one inch by a half inch in measurements. Not that it REALLY matters how long they are. This is just how we've always done it.


So first task is to slice up the potatoes if you haven't already. This doesn't need to be precise, but it needs to fit down the grinder. We kind of sliced potatoes, and ground them all at the same time to see how much potato goo was made. And eye balled it from there. 

Grinding the potatoes into a bowl lined with a cheese cloth.

So we just ground enough potatoes to almost fill the bowl of my kitchenaid. I think my bowl is a 4.5 quart bowl. I thought that would give us enough to eat for dinner, and then some left overs.

Next step is to SQUEEZE out the spare potato juices! 

It's nice to have a man or husband around for this part. 

The most important thing about this step is not to squeeze out TOO much. ... Not that I could tell you what TOO much was. Like I said, it's a 'feeling' thing. At some point I asked husband to open it up and show it to me. I felt like this was a good point to stop. lol.

NEXT. Which I forgot to take photos of, because my hands were filled with potato goo! Because what you're going to do is put your less juicy potato gunk and put it into a big bowl. Then, you're going to add flour little by little (my grandparents said to sift it... and I totally bought a sifter today, and forgot to use it) until the dough can "stick together" and form a ball. At this point it's good to stop adding flower. This is when I decided it was time to wash my hands again. lol. They were so heavy from potato gunk. lol!

Have a smallish bowl with some flower in it, just in case you need some more to form balls, and to put a bit on your hands to minimize the stickiness. (Now is a good time to take out one or two large pots and fill them about half way with water, and put it on the oven, to get it to a boil).

Form a half ball (half of a tennis ball sized ball) with your potato dough, and put a dent in the center of it, put some maybe a tablespoon or so, of your sliced up raw bacon in there. Then, form the other half squeezing it together, to make sure it sticks.

Put it in the bowl with the flour and roll it around a bit to make sure it gets all over the ball. Then squeeze the ball a bit more to make sure it's really together. Your first ball is DONE! You can really make these any size you desire, but I think a tennis ball sized Palt is a good size.

Repeat that process until all your potato dough is used up!

Next you're going to throw them all into your now boiling pots of water! Maybe add some salt to the water, if you like.

Boiling, boiling, boiling.
We had to use two pots for our Palts, we made 12 from how much dough we had.

My grandparents didn't really give me good direction in how long to cook these for... So we kind of guessed. ;) haha. We decided to let them boil for about 20 minutes and check on them. I remembered growing up that my grandparents would let them boil for much longer than that! However, their Palt were much larger in size!

20 minutes passed and we noticed that all the balls were floating! This could be a good indicator, but just in case, we used a thermometer to check the temperature in the middle of the balls where the bacon was. (We have a thermometer with the names of meats on them to indicate the correct temperature, I cannot for the life of me remember WHAT temp. is correct for pork... so, you can look that up if you need.)

The temperature indicated that they were done so we pulled them out of the pot and put them in a serving dish!

Finished product! Palt!! 

I was so proud of myself at this point! I couldn't wait to sit down to eat this dish! It's a family tradition of mine to have on Christmas Eve and other occasions, I have been missing out on it since 2010!

What Palt looks like when cut open!

So, what I do to my Palt is slather it in butter, and top it with a good sprinkling of sugar. It sounds disgusting, but it really isn't. Then, a little salt and pepper. It was delicious! I looked up some recipes online and it said that it was traditionally served with lingonberry jam, whatever that is... (gonna have to find some and try it though!!) Husband just slathered it in butter and then added some salt and pepper.

My family usually serves Palt with a pot roast. And maybe some other veggies. Husband and I just had Palt (3 each!! *eyes wide* ooooopsies!) and an oil and vinegar salad. And were completely stuffed to the brim!

Stay tuned, in my next post, I am going to tell you

THE BEST PART OF PALT!