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My uncle Pete is Hungarian and quite a cook. As such, we have adopted some of his recipes into our family; we always eat Szekely Goulash on New Years Day (sort of a combo of our PA Dutch traditions* & his Hungarian roots) and serve “hunky” rice as a side dish. Pete’s grandmother used to make plum dumplings for him that he was wild about, but unfortunately the recipe was not passed along & wasn’t recorded. He has been pining for these treats, but couldn’t find the recipe and wasn’t even sure what they were called. Well, Pete, I have answers!!

Dig, it — Szilvas Gomboc (Hungarian Plum Dumplings)
I found this recipe on the interweb, thanks to June Meyer. And although they don’t sound like something I would ever want to eat, I’m assured they are quite tasty. Here’s June’s recipe:

• 2 1/2 dz. Free Stone Italian plums, washed, split, pit removed
•   4 or 5 medium sized Potatoes
•   1 egg beaten
•   4 cups of flour (unsifted)
•   1 tsp. salt
•   Buttered bread crumbs
•   Sugar
•   Cinnamon

Peel potatoes and cook in salted water till soft.
Drain and peel.
Mash potatoes and add warm to sifted flour and salt on a kneading surface.
Make a well and add egg and knead gently till all is blended.
On a clean floured surface, roll dough out to 1/2 inch thick.
Cut dough into 4 inch squares and put a plum into center of each square.
Place 1/2 tsp. sugar and a sprinkle of cinnamon in the hole of the plum.
Fold corners to the middle and roll the dumpling in your hands till round.
Cook a few dumplings at a time in salted water for about 10 minutes.
Remove with a slotted spoon.
Place in a pan in which bread crumbs have been toasted in butter (one cup crumbs to 1/4 cup butter) and mixed with 1/2 cup of sugar and 2 tsp. cinnamon.
Keep warm.
When all the dumplings have been cooked and are in the pan, gently spoon the bread crumbs, butter, sugar and cinnamon mix over all.
Serve warm with bread crumb topping and a dollop of Sour Cream if desired.

Sounds like a hot mess to me, but I’m going to try it out. Could be a disaster.

*For those of you non-Dutchies, we eat pork and sauerkraut every New Year’s Day for good luck. Szekely Goulash has both key ingredients as well as sausage, green pepper, caraway seeds, onions and paprika. I think this year I ate a hotdog with sauerkraut, that counts, right?