Old World Recipe Like My Great Grandma use to Make
It’s called Strugla in my family, but you might know it as Strudla.
Fancy plates are nice but optional. People keep breaking mine so I gave up and went to paper. Yes, even Corelle wear that are not suppose to break got broke.
My great grandma made this stuff on special occasions. She brought it to the USA with her after the war. She was originally from Germany and fled to Russia for protection, why I don’t know. No one will tell me the reason. So I am not sure if she learned it in Germany or in Russia. Anyways, this stuff is so good you would stuff yourself until you got sick! I have been craving it, and wanted to share this with my kids as family history. Problem was trying to find the recipe. She only taught my mom how to make it. I watched but was never taught. Well I was talking with my MIL and she found it, well as close to it as I can get. I am for ever great full too, because I can now pass this on to my kids.
I cooked this in a electric pressure cooker. Grandma used a HUGE pot, she had nine kids after all.
So here are the ingredients for the sturdla:
3 cups flour(regular flour not self rising, makes it way to salty)
1 egg
½ tsp baking powder
Salt, less than a tsp
Yep that’s it.
So how do we make this, well make sure you have some time to kill. It takes awhile to make.
• Mix together with enough water to make dough, mix with hands and add water till it’s a dough. Hands only!
• Cover and let stand for 1 hour
While that is standing we are going to make this a hearty meal.
We are going to need:
Country style ribs
A package of beef stew mix for slow cookers
About two cups of flour
Red potatoes
Water(just about to the top of the potatoes in the pot)
First, you need to cut up some potatoes, how many? About 3 lbs, or how ever many you want really. But you need some to cover the bottom of the pot. They can be thick or thin, how ever you like them in a stew.
Second, you are going to mix your stew seasoning with the flour in a zip lock baggie.
Then you are going to take your country style ribs and place them one at a time in the baggie and cover the whole rib.
Third, you then take your country style ribs out and lay them on top of the potatoes, then add the steamer basket on top.
Now back to the strudla.
Melt 3 tbsp shortening/lard/bacon grease
Flour your work top.
Divide dough into 4 sections, roll dough into thin sheets, spread dough with hot shortening/lard/bacon grease and stretch out paper thin.
Man my grandma could stretch it thin, I just rip it 😔 She could cover a whole table with one stretched piece of dough, it was so thin you could see the wood grain on the table though it!
Roll up, like a cinnamon roll, and cut unit 2 to 3 inch pieces.
Place on top of the steamer basket.
Cover and cook on high pressure for one hour.
Once the timer goes off and you release the pressure, it’s time to eat!
Left to right: Strudla, ribs, and potatoes
Top the strudla with dark Karo corn syrup, the light don’t taste like I remember. But it’s an option.
Here is how you cook it on the stove top:
Cover and simmer 1 hour. Don’t Peek! You loose all your steam.