It looks like my Monster Squares were not scary enough for you, Beautiful People. Let me introduce you to some truly terrible real monsters who have become legendary.
Count Dracula really existed. He was born in Transylvania in fifteenth century and ruled the province called Wallachia. His name was Vlad III, and his last name was Dracul, which means Dragon in Romanian. He came by this name honestly, inheriting it from his father, Vlad II, who had joined a secret Order of the Dragon and assumed the name. In modern Romanian, dracul also means devil, and this translation went a long way towards inspiring many vampire legends. Wait, but the Bram Stoker’s blood drinker is Count Dracula, whereas our man is Prince Dracul. Granted, he also wasn’t a very savory character, dispatching his enemies with extreme cruelty. His favorite execution method was impaling, for which he earned a nickname Tepes – the Impaler. Not a nice guy by any stretch of imagination, but a blood drinker? No. Anyway, what about the missing letter A?
We find the letter, together with the answer, when we look at this beautiful young lady, Elizabeth Bathory, a serial killer who was called The Blood Countess, or Countess Dracula. It’s very simple: in Romanian, dracul is a male devil, and dracula is female. Since Elizabeth Arden and Estee Lauder had not started their businesses yet, Countess Elizabeth devised an innovative method to preserve her youth and beauty; she bathed in the blood of virgins (or so the stories claim). Perhaps she did, or maybe she didn’t, but the fact is that she was brought to trial and convicted of causing more than 600 deaths of young women, presumably virgins. The various atrocities she committed were indisputably proven by physical evidence. She lived more than a century after Vlad the Impaler’s death, but in the same region of Europe, so apparently the two monsters merged into one legend.
What do these bloody old legends have to do with a delicious soup? The Countess Dracula’s father, King Stefan Bathory, ruled, among many large and small provinces, a feudal stronghold called Klecia, today a city of Klyotzk (Klezk) in Belorus. Even though similar easy, cheap, and filling dumplings exist in practically all cuisines throughout the world, Belorussians proudly claim the Klyotzkian origins of their version.
All you need is flour and water, and maybe a bit of oil, to soften the dough. However, all cookbooks recommend using milk instead of water, and some suggest including eggs as well. I am making a traditional peasant recipe, without eggs, and instead of dairy milk, I use soy milk. It does make a difference, so that even with whole wheat flour, my Klyotzki come out light and fluffy. If you prefer not to use soy, any milk substitute of your choice will do. Baking powder and a pinch of salt also help.
Mix all this together, add a little water if the dough is too thick, and refrigerate it for about ten minutes. Meanwhile, heat up your soup. Which soup? Whatever you have. Klyotzki will be a welcome addition to any soup, as long as it is hot. I usually drop them either into my Everything Soup (for recipe, click here) or my Summer Cabbage Soup (for recipe, click here), but trust me, any soup will only benefit from these tasty morsels! Bring it to boil and drop little pieces of dough into your boiling soup. You can use a teaspoon or just pinch little bits off. Simmer for about five minutes, and it’s ready – forget about all the legendary monsters and go get a spoon!
INGREDIENTS
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons soy milk, or any non-dairy milk of your choice
- A pinch of salt
- 1 tablespoon water, if needed
PROCEDURE
- Mix all ingredients until well blended for soft dough.
- Refrigerate for 10 minutes.
- Drop small portions into boiling soup, cook on medium for 5 minutes.
- Alternatively, cook in boiling water and serve with any sauce as side dish.
Enjoy!
The legends are scary no matter where they come from, and the horrible things people do to others makes me sad and infuriated.
Someday I will have time to try to make your dumplings, my Sweetie loves chicken with dumplings and I’ve never perfected a dumpling which was to his taste.
I am praying for the peace of Jerusalem.
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Thank you so much for a lovely comment and for your support, dear Mimi.
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Easier than Count Chocula cereal—healthier, too! 😀
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Healthier for sure!
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All that sugar in the cereal!!!!!!!
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Yep
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Both of them are indeed scary characters. When my oldest son went to high school we went on a trip to Transylvania with his Waterpolo team. It was his coach who organized and led the trip. He is from Transylvania. We visited a lot of places Dracula/Vlad Tepes, his birthplace in Sighisoara (Transylvania) his grave outside of Bucharest/Walachia and some of his castles. The Bran castle is the most famous one but he was likely never there. The Poienari castle, on the other hand, he acquired and renovated.
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This sounds like a very exciting tour, especially for teenagers. Thank you so much for stopping by and commenting, dear Thomas.
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Best food blog ever
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(blushing all over the Internet) Thank you so much, David!
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Well worth reiterating – reminding me that Bram Stoker got the sex wrong
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I don’t know whether he got the sex wrong, but he was certainly confused about the gender. LOL
Thank you so much, Derrick.
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Or just chose to change it
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He did not change it; the legend had changed it before he did. The two actual monsters morphed into the one myth.
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Thanks, Dolly
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My pleasure, Derrick.
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Lulu: “They may not have been actual vampires but they sound like people who were best avoided!”
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We agree, Lulu girl!
Meows and Purrs from The Cat Gang.
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A far better alternative than blood although, I must confess, as children we did eat zunge blutwurst (a blood sausage w/ tongue). Thanks for the history lesson and the recipe, Dolly! ❤
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I know what blutwurst is, even though have never tasted it, of course. LOL
I thank YOU for your kind comment, dear Anna.
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The soup spunds delicious. I remembered reading Dracula during my school days and that night happened to be a full moon one. Moonlight was streaming i to the room and I woke up screaming because I had read Dracula comes in on moon beams 😀
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That’s a true schoolgirl story, dear Lakshmi.
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