When I was in Latvia, I as very impressed by the quality of the food. Everything I tried was freshly prepared and made with care, even in cheapo railway station canteens. Veggie food was fairly easy to find and several restaurants we visited had special veggie dishes marked on the menu.
This dish wasn't specially marked, which leads me to think it might be a fairly traditional Latvian recipe, or at least a variation on one. We ordered it for a starter but it was so filling it could have been a meal in itself. Like all recipes involving dough and stuffing things, this isn't the simplest or fastest recipe, but neither is it particularly difficult or time consuming. I did it in about half an hour from start to finish and I would say it was definitely worth the effort.
You can use whatever mushrooms are available, but for dishes like this where flavour is more important than texture, I always opt for porccini mushrooms, or ceps as they are sometimes called. They have perhaps the strongest, most 'mushroomy' flavour of all edible fungi (except maybe truffles, but I don't usually have them lying around). I use dried porccinis and the liquid left over from soaking them before use makes a wonderful addition to the soup stock.
The quantities here will make 12 dumplings and enough soup for three people.
For the dough:
1 cup of plain flour
A half cup of water
A pinch of salt
For the filling:
1 and a half cups of finely chopped mushrooms
1 small clove of garlic
Olive oil for frying
1 tablespoon of grated parmesan cheese
A pinch of black pepper
A pinch of dried thyme
Salt
For the soup:
1 carrot
1 sweet pepper (red or green)
1 small onion
1 veggie stock cube
A little olive oil for frying
1.5 -2 litres (about 3 pints) of water
Begin by making a dough for the dumplings. Mix the flour, salt and ater together and knead the dough for a couple of minutes. Leave it aside until required.
Fry the mushrooms in a very ittle olive oil for about 3 minutes then transfer to a small bowl and add the salt, thyme and black pepper. Leave the mixture to cool.
Peel the carrot and onion and slice them and the sweet pepper (keep the onions separate). Set a pan of water to boil and while it's heating, you can start preparing the dumplings.
Roll the dough into a long snake-shape about 3 cm (1 inch) thick then cut it into twelve equal pieces. Roll out each piece into into a thin flat disc on a floured surface. Leave the discs for a moment while you attend to the soup again.
Fry the onions for a few minutes before adding the carrot and pepper pieces and fry for another minute or so. Add the vegetables to the boiling water along with the stock cube and reduce to a simmer. Now, you can return to your dumplings. Stir the grated cheese into the seasoned mushroom mixture, then take a teaspoon of mixture and put it in the centre of one of your dough discs. Wet the edges, fold the dough over and press the edges together to make a half-moon-shaped dumpling. Repeat the process with all the other pieces of dough and by the time you finish it will be time to add the dumplings to the soup.
Lower the dumplings gently into the soup one-by-one, bring to the boil then reduce to a gentle simmer. Partially cover the pan and simmer for ten minutes, occasionally stirring very gently. Check the seasoning before the end of cooking time and salt to taste.