CLEAR DUMPLINGS RECIPES

Steps:

• For the soup: Peel and thinly slice carrot. Rinse leek and slice white and light green sections. Simmer carrots and leeks in broth for about 6 minutes. Season soup with salt and pepper.
• For the dumplings: Beat butter until fluffy. Separate eggs. Mix sour cream with egg yolks and stir gradually into butter. Add parsley and season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
• Beat egg whites until stiff and fold into flour with egg yolk mixture. Cover and chill for 15 minutes. 
• Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Use a tablespoon to form dumplings and cook in boiling water. Remove from heat and let sit for 10 minutes.
• Ladle soup into bowls and serve with some vegetables and dumplings. Garnish with remaining parsley. 

Steps:

• Pour a glass of water over the dried porcinis and cook over a low heat for 30 minutes. (This can be done in advance e.g, a day before.). 
• Once that’s done, it’s worth keeping the remaining ‘mushroom water’; it’s useful in flavouring other dishes such as stews and soups. Keep it refrigerated or freeze it.
• Peel the onion, slice it finely. Do the same with chestnut mushrooms and cooked porcinis.
• Heat up a tablespoon of oil in a frying pan. Sauté finely chopped onion for a few minutes over a medium heat, until it turns translucent.
• Add minced garlic clove and continue frying for another 30 seconds, stirring along the way. Add all the mushrooms we chopped, together with a teaspoon of dried thyme and a pinch of nutmeg. Season with salt and pepper.
• Reduce the heat to ‘low’ and cook the mushrooms gently, stirring occasionally. Mushrooms will release their juices first, and then they’ll evaporate.
• As the pan gets dry, add in 3 to 4 tablespoons of white wine, increase the heat to ‘medium-high’ and continue cooking until the wine evaporates completely. Make sure to stir from time to time, so that nothing sticks too badly to the pan.
• Have a taste - does it need more seasoning? If so, add a bit more salt and pepper. Add finely chopped parsley leaves.
• To make ‘Uszka’ assembly a bit easier, it’s worth grinding down the filling even more. You can use an immersion (hand-held) blender, or just chop everything again with a knife. 
• I enjoy a little bit of texture in the filling, so I divide the mass into two. I leave one part as-is (straight off the pan) and grind the other part with a blender into a smooth paste. Then I combine the two.
• Store the mushroom filling in the fridge, until you’re ready to assemble the dumplings. 
• Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl. Pour in a tablespoon of oil.
• Gradually pour hot water into the flour, mixing with a spoon as you go. 
• Dust your work surface with flour. Move the dough ball onto it. 
• Knead the dough until soft and smooth.
• Form a ball, cover it with a kitchen cloth and set aside to rest.
• Sprinkle the worktop with flour. Divide the dough into four parts. Roll each part (keeping the rest covered) into a thin layer of dough - like super-thin! 0.04-0.08 in (1-2 mm).
• Using a rim of a small glass (or a round cookie cutter), cut out circles from the dough.
• In the center of the cut circle, put about half a teaspoon of the filling and glue it together, forming a crescent (just like for pierogi). 
• Then connect both ends to form a ring - it's best to wrap the dumpling around your little finger and stick the ends together. If it’s not sticking, wet the ends with a tiny bit of water.
• Place the ready-made ‘Uszka’ on a pastry board or your work surface, sprinkled with flour. Cover them with a cloth until you’re ready to cook them all.
• Prepare a pot of boiling water and salt it generously. Throw in a few 'Uszka' dumplings at a time, but not too many - so that they don't lower the water temperature significantly.
• After throwing them into the water, stir the dumplings very gently. We don’t want them to stick to the bottom. 
• Once the dumplings start to float, continue cooking for another minute.
• Using a slotted spoon, retrieve cooked ‘Uszka’ and place them on a plate - but make sure they don’t touch each other (they tend to stick).
• Once they cool ever-so-slightly, serve them in your borscht. Otherwise, wait for them to cool completely and move into a container with a lid, then refrigerate.