Belly warmer for cold weather

Have you ever heard of Haluski? It's a Slovak dish made with potatoes, flour, cheese and salt pork. In the old country the cheese is smoked goat cheese but I use mozzarella. A haluska is a very small potato dumpling made over boiling water. Lots of them together is haluski. It is not a pretty food to eat and one either likes or dislikes it upon first bite. I like it. The closest thing to it is spatzle.

I buy a block of salt pork whenever I see it in the market and keep it frozen until I get hungry for haluski. This is a dish made with two sets of hands once the batter drips over the boiling water. Ten minutes later, most of the flour added to make the batter seeps into the water leaving a mountain of grey haluski. Draining and hot water rinsing is next then adding shredded cheese until it melts. The salt pork is cubed and rendered in a separate pan. It, along with some optional

cubed boiled potatoes is served on the side or added after the cheese.

Only wine or buttermilk accompanies this belly filler. No vegetables or dessert. You are blessed if you have the pots and the range washed from potato starch. Haluski was in one of my earlier cookbooks. You can find the recipe for haluski online. I learned to make it from a Slovak in pre-internet times.