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There are days when you rediscover things that have been hidden away long ago... This was my case when I got my hands on an old "Hive Dumplings Machine" :-) – a hexagon-shaped form for making dumplings more quickly. I inherited it from my grandma, who bought it in the late 80s/early 90s from USSR traders who were visiting Poland en masse back then to earn more valuable currency than the Russian ruble...

As I was staying in an old mountain cottage:

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completely covered in snow, I didn't have much to fill them with – just... potatoes and onion. So everything matched the USSR-made tool perfectly: Russian dumplings (I've always thought the name pierogi ruskie – Russian dumplings – is well-deserved because, in my opinion, it suggests "cheated" or poor filling in the form of whatever's available).

This doesn't mean, however, that they will taste bad...

Most of the day I spent walking through the mountains:

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to finally return home at sunset:

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and start thinking about something to eat...

As I mentioned, the two main ingredients were quite basic, and preparing them was straightforward...

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Once done, they were mixed and mashed together to create a filling for the dumplings:

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So far, so good, but then came the real challenge: making the dumpling dough... So I got a little oil, some warm water, and flour, and started to knead the dough.
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Now it was time to roll out the dough and form two fairly thin sheets.

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Now our hero comes into play: the Hive Dumplings Machine (what anticipation: Hive had already been foreseen 35 years earlier)...

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Next, we need to place one of the sheets on it, put the filling into the dumpling holes, and then cover it with the second sheet of dough.

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Then, using a rolling pin, we need to firmly roll over these two layers of dough to cut out the dumplings from the form:

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Next, flip it over to push the dumplings out of the holes:

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In the meantime, it's worth starting to boil a pot of salted water to cook the dumplings in:

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At the end, if you want, you can fry some bacon or onion and then just... eat!

Enjoy your meal!

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From the leftover dough, you can make this:

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