Prune Dumplings

I have often lamented our deficit of cultural traditions growing up in Australia. We get a lot of things really good - we get sunny beaches, blue skies, warm weather almost all the time but when you're known as a country for your snags on a bbq, you're not exactly winning in any gastronomy circles. I read an article by Rob Bell in my early twenties which spoke of the melody the Christian calendar introduces into our lives - the crescendos and rests that we experience in Christmas, Easter, Passover, Lent, Sundays, without which can leave our lives sounding more like the monotonous drone of a refrigerator. I made a conscious decision to mark Easter that year and I created my first thing of real beauty - a table centrepiece of frosted branches hung with painted Easter eggs to herald in Easter. We had Easter egg hunts, homemade hot cross buns and the air felt festive and notably different to all the other days. In the years that followed, I researched Passover and Lent and all these other traditions I had never observed or participated in. When I met my husband, I was welcomed into the world of Catholicism where liturgy and symbolism are abundant, particularly at Easter time. On the eve of Good Friday, we headed as a family to the Catholic church where we followed the stations of the cross and on Good Friday, we enjoyed a feast featuring fish followed by Hungarian prune dumplings, a tradition spanning back generations.

The picture below is very special to me as it was taken at my family dinner table the night my mother passed away. As a family we sat around the table knowing this might be the last time we would share a meal like this and while we were all so focused on Mum and tears were abundant and we were exhausted, my husband made us the most hearty, beautiful meal finished by his family's favourite recipe, prune dumplings. I still tear up thinking about how special he made that moment for our family. How without him, we probably would have floated in and out of the lounge room like ships in the night mindlessly eating takeaway pizza in our sheer exhaustion; and how because of him and those prune dumplings it remains one of the most special family memories I have.

Ingredients:
4 potatoes, peeled, boiled and mashed
1 egg, lightly beaten
Plain flour
Prunes
Breadcrumbs
Sugar

Method:
Cook the potatoes and mash.
When cooled, add egg and flour (as little as flour as needed) to make a dough. 
Pull a piece of dough off and flatten in your hands to make a circle. Place a prune in the centre of the circle and cover over and roll to make each dumpling. Place on a flat surface as otherwise they will stick to each other. Set aside.
In a large frypan, brown breadcrumbs in a little oil. Add sugar and stir until very brown. Set aside in bowl.
Place the dumplings into boiling water and when they come to the surface they are ready (exactly like cooking gnocchi). 
Pull out each dumpling once cooked with a hand sieve and drop into breadcrumb mixture while hot. Coat dumplings with breadcrumbs and put into serving dish. (They are ok sitting on top of eachother now that they are cooked and have a breadcrumb coating).
Serve hot.

Note:
The quality of these seriously diminish once refrigerated so they are best eaten freshly cooked.