Bryndzové Halušky

Slovakia's national dish, small potato dumplings folded through tangy sheep's cheese while hot and finished with crisp bacon and its fat

Origin: The Tatras and central Slovakia

From the journey of Potato.

Bryndzové halušky is potato dumplings with sheep's cheese, and it is Slovakia's national dish without much argument. Raw grated potato is worked with flour and egg into a soft batter, pushed through a perforated board or colander into boiling water where it sets into small irregular dumplings, drained, and folded immediately through bryndza while everything is still hot enough for the cheese to melt into a sauce. Crisp bacon and its rendered fat go over the top. Bryndza is the point of the dish. It is a soft, spreadable, distinctly tangy cheese made from the milk of Wallachian sheep pastured in the Tatras, and it carries a protected designation. The pastoral tradition it comes from arrived with Vlach shepherds moving along the Carpathian arc between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries, and it is what most clearly separates Slovak food from Czech or Hungarian. The dumplings are irregular by design. A halušky board has holes of a particular size and the batter is scraped across it so the pieces fall into the water in uneven lengths, which is why they catch the sauce as they do. Smooth, uniform dumplings are a sign someone used a gadget.

Ingredients

Dumplings

1 kg floury potatoes, peeled
250 g plain flour
1 egg
1.5 tsp salt

Sauce

350 g bryndza, or soft sheep's cheese such as young feta mashed with a little sour cream
100 ml milk or sour cream, to loosen

To finish

200 g streaky bacon, diced
3 tbsp chives, chopped

Method

Grate the potatoes finely into a bowl. Do not drain or squeeze them.
Mix in the flour, egg, and salt to a thick, sticky batter that drops heavily from a spoon.
Bring a large pan of well-salted water to a rolling boil.
Push the batter through a halušky board, a coarse colander, or a slotted spoon straight into the boiling water, working in two or three batches.
Cook for two to three minutes after they float to the surface, then lift out with a slotted spoon and drain briefly.
Fry the diced bacon in a dry pan until crisp and its fat has rendered.
Put the hot drained dumplings in a warm bowl, add the bryndza and a splash of milk or sour cream, and fold together quickly until the cheese melts into a sauce coating everything.
Serve immediately with the crisp bacon and its hot fat poured over, and chives scattered on top.

Notes

Bryndza is sold by Central European delicatessens and online. A young, soft, salty sheep's cheese mashed with sour cream is the closest approximation; a hard aged feta is not. A halušky board is cheap and makes the job trivial. A colander with large holes and a spatula does the same work. Strapačky, the same dumplings with sauerkraut instead of bryndza, is the other classic Slovak treatment.

The Gastrographer

Name: Bryndzové Halušky
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: The Tatras and central Slovakia
Ingredients: 1 kg floury potatoes, peeled; 250 g plain flour; 1 egg; 1.5 tsp salt; 350 g bryndza, or soft sheep's cheese such as young feta mashed with a little sour cream; 100 ml milk or sour cream, to loosen; 200 g streaky bacon, diced; 3 tbsp chives, chopped

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control