This idea came as a result of my love for farmer’s cheese which is the closest dairy product to the very popular Hungarian “tehenturo”. We, Hungarians love our “tehenturo” which, if I really want to try to describe, I would say it is more like a curdled soft cheese. We consume a huge amount in both savory and sweet dishes. One of its most popular use is to make it into a dumpling using wheat farina. It is almost like a gnudi which is ricotta, flour and egg but instead of the flour we use the creamy wheat farina. After cooking it in water it is usually drenged in toasted breadcrumb. Instead of the breadcrumb I used ground pistachio but you can also make it with toasted ground almond or a mixture of ground almond and breadcrumb.

To make it a fresh and summer-y dessert I served it with a thick strawberry sauce and summer fruit salad. You will have a well-balanced, light dessert with the sweet sauce, lemony cheese dumpling and a sweet-tart, bright fruit salad.

When you make the dumpling there is one important thing. You have to mix the ingredients well in advance and let it rest 3-4 hours in the fridge to make sure the wheat farina, which is coarse, will have time to soak the egg and farmer’s cheese mix so the dumpling will not fall into parts when cooking.

FIRST.    Start making the strawberry coulis. Chop 1 pound of strawberries and cook it on low heat with about 1/2 cup of white cane sugar, juice of 1/2 lemon,  1 T very good quality, thick balsamic vinegar and approx. 1/3 cup of water.  Feel free to adjust, you have to end up with a sweet, thick sauce. Cook it until you achieve a tick consistency, the strawberries are falling apart but you still have some big pieces.

While the coulis is cooking prepare the fruit salad. Chop strawberries and white nectarines into similar size. (I chopped them small, bigger one is good, but not too big) Mix it with chopped lemon verbena and anise hyssop. In case you don’t have access to these herbs you can use mint and lemon zest.

I also added finger lime. Inside the shell there are tiny lime caviar drops. Nature practiced molecular gastronomy, in particular spherification :). The reason I like using this because it will not make your whole salad taste lime but you will have the sweetness of strawberries and nectarine and you get the pops of tartness and fragrance from the finger lime when you bite on those caviars.

Ingredients for the cheese dumpling:

• 8 oz farmer’s cheese (1 box of Bellwether Farms farmer’s cheese)
• 2 eggs
• 6 T creamy wheat farina ( I buy Bob’s Red Mill, available at Wholefoods at cereal section)
• pinch of salt
• 1 T white fine cane sugar or caster sugar
• zest of 1 lemon

Instruction and plating

1. Mix egg yolk, lemon zest, sugar, salt and farmer’s cheese.
2. Add creamy wheat farina
3. Whip egg whites into hard peaks.
4. Carefully mix egg whites into the cheese mixture.
5. Cover and let it rest in the fridge for at least 3 hours so that the wheat farina can soak the moisture.
6. Boil water with 1t salt.
7. Wet your hands, form balls (not bigger than a golf ball) and cook them in the boiling water. They will need at least 5 minutes, do not take them out when they come to surface. Try one to make sure.
8. Have your toasted breadcrumb/nuts ready, warm and while the dumplings still warm dredge them in it.
9. Plate them on top of strawberry coulis with some fruit salad and some edible flowers and leaves of mint/anise  hyssop if you have these.