cook.

Knettir

Name: Knettir
Total time: 70 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Faroese
Ingredients: 700 g cod or haddock fillet, skinned and boned; 150 g beef or lamb suet, finely chopped; 1 onion, finely diced; 80 g plain flour; 2 tsp salt; 1 tsp black pepper; 0.5 tsp ground allspice; 1.5 l water; 1 tbsp salt, for the poaching water; 800 g potatoes, peeled; 50 g butter; 20 g fresh chives, chopped

Faroese fish dumplings bound with suet, poached gently and served with potatoes and their broth...

Ingredients

700 g cod or haddock fillet, skinned and boned

150 g beef or lamb suet, finely chopped

1 onion, finely diced

80 g plain flour

2 tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

0.5 tsp ground allspice

1.5 l water

1 tbsp salt, for the poaching water

800 g potatoes, peeled

50 g butter

20 g fresh chives, chopped

Method

Mince the fish coarsely, by hand with a knife or in short pulses in a processor. Blitzed smooth it turns pasty and the dumplings go dense.

Chop the suet as finely as you can and work it into the fish with the onion, flour, salt, pepper and allspice until the mixture holds together when you squeeze it.

Chill it for 20 minutes. Cold suet stays in small pieces; warm suet smears through the mixture and the dumplings turn greasy.

Shape them with wet hands into balls a little smaller than a tennis ball, pressing firmly so there are no cracks.

Bring the salted water to the boil, then drop it back so the surface barely moves before the dumplings go in. This is the difference between knettir and fish soup.

Poach them, uncovered, for 25-30 minutes. They sink, then rise as they cook. Never let the water boil hard at any point.

Boil the potatoes separately in salted water.

Lift the dumplings out with a slotted spoon and serve them with the potatoes, a knob of butter melting over each, and a ladle of the poaching broth in the bowl.

Scatter the chives over and serve hot.