Ingredients:
- 1/2 kg potatoes
- 1-2 oranges
- a cup of preserved sour cherries
- about 15-20 g flour depending on the type of the potatoes
- 100 g coconut flakes
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1 handful of cloves
- 1 persimmon
- dried herb sprigs for the brooms
- wooden skewers
Preparation method:
- Cook the potatoes with their skins on until cooked and soft.
- Skin the potatoes and mash them using either a press, a masher or other device to your liking.
- In a large bowl add the mashed potatoes, the egg, the flour and salt.
- Mix together thoroughly until there are no more lumps and forms a dough.
- Clean the oranges of their rind and cut the slices in two.
- Remove the preserved sour cherries from the jar to drain their excess liquid.
- With floury hands take a piece of the potato dough and form a round shape. For the orange slices, these rounds will be a bit larger than for the cherries.
- Place one fruit piece in the centre of these rounds and carefully shape a ball of dough around the orange/sour cherry middle, covering them completely.
- Bring salty water to boil and carefully place the dumplings in this pot.
- Cook over medium heat for about 3-5 minutes until the dumplings are cooked and are floating on the surface. Turn off the heat and cover them with coconut:
- Lay the coconut flakes in a larger saucer. A few dumplings at a time place them in this coconut flakes saucer and shaking gently try to move the balls around the plate to be covered completely by coconut.
- Let them cool down for an hour or so.
- When cooled assemble the snowmen: place two bigger balls with oranges for the bottom ones and a smaller – sour cherry one for the top.
- Ornate with cloves for the eyes and buttons.
- Cut some small pieces of the persimmon for the noses and attach them using toothpicks.
- Add the herb sprigs as their brooms.
- For their hats, I used some red caps of small rum essence bottles.
- Make sure you stick the end of the skewers into something that can hold the snowmen in balance / upwards. I used a cardboard box.