Mama's Cookbook: D is for dumplings

Encouraged by Sunni, I thought I'd share some good memories and recipes for dumplings. Not many people make them anymore, that I've noticed anyway. They are definitely NOT diet food, but they can make a wonderful and nutrient filled meal for hungry children, hunters or anyone else who will likely work off the calories. And besides, they are just plain good.

Here is some history - and another page with a little more detail - on dumplings. I was astonished to see so many different things mentioned here that I would never have classified as a "dumpling" of any kind.

There were only two kinds in my childhood, one with chicken and one with pork roast and sauerkraut. There are, of course, almost endless possibilities just using the classic chicken and dumplings template, but I'll stick to the two I grew up with and have most often cooked myself.

Chicken or pork roast and dumplings were a fairly standard company type meal because they could be "stretched" so nicely.

Chicken and dumplings - serves 6 to 8 people

5 - 6 pound roasting or stewing chicken. Clean and remove excess fat. Rub inside and out with salt and a little black pepper, rubbed sage and onion powder.

Roast in open pan (on a rack) at 350 degrees until skin is brown and crisp. Move to platter and remove bone and other inedible portions. Chop coarsely.

Spoon off excess fat from drippings and remove roasting rack. Remaining drippings may be poured into a deeper soup type pot if wanted. Pot needs snug lid. I use a stainless steel roasting pan that happens to have a tight lid. More room to make LOTS of dumplings!

Add 2 - 4 cups boiling water to the drippings in the roasting pan if a different pot will be used. Get all the good stuff into the pot. :) Then add another 4 cups water. (Need 6 - 8 cups water in all)

Add:
4 stalks celery, chopped
1 med. onion, diced
4 Tbsp. chopped parsley
4 med. carrots, diced
2 cups fresh peas (if you don't have fresh, I'd skip it.) Or you can add a pound of frozen mixed vegetables if you like, in place of the peas and carrots.

Return the chopped meat to the pot.

Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer until the vegetables are JUST tender. Stew should be fairly thick, rather than watery.

In the meantime, prepare a batch of ordinary drop type baking powder biscuits - made with milk. When stew is hot and bubbling, drop biscuit dough in by spoonfuls. Don't crowd them. Cook uncovered for about 10 minutes, then cover tightly for 10 minutes more.

Remove dumplings promptly with slotted spoon to a covered dish. Serve in deep bowls with the stew ladled over them. Simply to die for!

Pork roast and dumplings.

I was never quite as fond of this, so didn't make it a lot, but my German first husband adored it. The recipe (such as it is) came from my older half sister who had married a man half Polish and half German. She learned it from his family in Wisconsin - where my mother's family came from.

An inexpensive pork roast (2 - 3 pounds) is the nicest, but you can get the same meal from 4 - 5 pounds of country style pork ribs. Rub with salt, black pepper and rubbed sage. This can also be prepared using a big kielbasa sausage, but I don't much care for it that way.

The directions for cooking the meat are pretty much the same as for the chicken. Roast at about 350 until nice and brown with crusty drippings. Remove excess fat from drippings and meat, and chop the boned meat into stew size pieces.

Add 6 - 8 cups water to drippings and meat, then a med diced onion, 4 stalks of chopped celery, and simmer until the onion is clear.

Then add a large can of sauerkraut and heat to bubbling. My mother used the kind with the caraway seeds, but that spoiled it for me. I would use the plain sauerkraut myself. You could use some ground caraway in a sample. Then you could determine if you'd want that in the whole dish.

While it is heating, mix the baking powder biscuit dough. Cooking directions for the dumplings are the same as for the chicken.

The stew will freeze well if leftover, but the dumplings will not, so don't make more than you think you will eat. I seldom ever had ANY leftovers when my sons were home, but that's another story. :)