Kroppkaka - piatto tipico svedese

On Sunday for the first time (in 10 years that I have been living in Sweden) I tried this traditional Swedish dish... kroppkaka (plural "kroppkakor"). Kroppkakor are delicious and they remind me a lot of "gnocchi", they are potato dumplings filled with onions and pork or bacon. Kroppkakor are from the Southern Swedish regions Öland, Småland, Gotland and Blekinge).

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Kroppkakor are serverd with melted butter or cream and lingonberry jam. There are regional variations to the recipe, specially when it comes to proportions of pre-boiled and raw potatoes to use and spices. For example the "Ölanska" kroppkakor do not boil all the potatoes, half is boiled and half is raw grated potatoes.

In March there is the vary famous kroppkakor dinner in Uppsala (just North of Stockholm) to honor this dish, this is arranged by the student organization Karmar Nation, named after the city Kalmar in Småland.

The recipe I have tried here is for kroppkakor from Småland...

KROPPKAKOR
(8 pieces)

Ingredients: 500 g potatoes, 2.5 dl flour, 1 egg, 100 g pork, 1 yellow onion, 1 Tbsp allspice powder (Jamaican pepper, "pimenta" in Italian, "kryddpeppar" in Swedish), salt and pepper.

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- Cook the potatoes in salted water. Take the skin off and press them.

- Blend the potatoes mash with flour, egg and allspice.

- Chop the onion and the cut pork in small pieces. Cook them together in a pan with some oil.

- Take some potatoes mash and form a thick disk, put some onion-pork in the middle and form a ball as big as your hand. Form all your kroppkakor.

- Cook them in salted boiling water until they come to the surface.

- Serve with lingonberry jam and melted butter.