Dumplings
Haven't posted much recently, but we had a barrage of visitors and then I was sick. Just a cold, but it was the cold from hell (TM). Still is, in fact. It's been a week and I don't feel 100% well yet, but I can't justify staying at home, you know? I did take two days off from work last Wednesday and Thursday, for the first time ever. I've actually never had a job before with paid sick days, and I thought I'd use them for their intended purpose. It was kinda nice, I think I enjoy not working because I am basically very very lazy at heart, though I'd also prefer not feeling like death. I got a link somewhere to a forum thread about the moon landings with some nutcase who didn't even have the most basic grasp of astronomy or physics or even reading a graph trying to claim they never happened. Hours of entertainment there, trust me. After reading that thread, I feel confident that I can answer any question sceptics might have, because I'm pretty sure they were all covered.
My mom flew in on Wednesday for the summer, she's staying with my Grandma in Graz, which is a pretty good arrangement. We visited last weekend, and they'll be visiting us this coming weekend.
Let me tell you about dumplings. They are an Austrian staple and they come in an infinite number of varieties. The basic savory ones are bread dumplings. What you want to start off with are dry white bread cubes, kinda like croutons or stuffing, but without any flavor. Can you get plain stuffing? I honestly don't know remember, but it's just stale white bread cut into cubes and left to dry. You can use fresh bread ones too.
You need:
bread cubes
1 onion
1 cup milk
nutmeg
salt
parsley
1-2 eggs
1-2 T flour
pressure cooker / steamer
I never measure these ingredients, but it's a very flexible recipe, it really doesn't have to be exact. It's really hard to get so wrong you can't eat the result.
Take a salad bowl (volume of around 3-4 cereal bowls) and fill it about 2/3 with these bread cubes. Chop one onion and sautee in oil until translucent and starting to brown, i.e. not very long. Add onion and any remaining oil to the bread cubes. Whisk one or two eggs (depending on how big the bowl is, just guess, it'll be fine I promise) with the milk. Pour over the bread / onions. Season the mixture with plenty of salt, a pinch of nutmeg and plenty of parsley. Mix well. There should be enough liquid to get all the bread mostly soft, but not soggy. It's ok if the bread is still crunchy in the middle. You don't want it to completely fall apart though. If it's not looking moist enough, add a splash of milk or water. Let it sit for 5 minutes or so to soak up the liquid. In the meantime, get out the pressure cooker and get it ready with water and the little platform thingy for food (what do you call those things).
When the mixture is moist but not soggy (bread should still be in nice pieces, shouldn't disintegrate), scatter 1 or 2 tablespoons of flour (depending on how soft your mixture is) over the mixture to bind the remaining liquid. Mix in well. Now take handfuls of the mixture and form dumplings a little smaller than baseballs. They should be soft enough to stick together well, if not, add a little more liquid. Make sure the outside is pretty smooth. Put dumplings in the pressure cooker, lock down the lid, turn the stove on high. When the cooker has reached full steam, let it go for around 5 minutes and then turn off the stove, leaving the cooker to cool down naturally. When it's back to normal pressure, open it up and hopefully find a lot of nice, steamy dumplings looking up at you.
I think you could do this in a steamer too, but it would take longer. Maybe 15-20 minutes of steam. You are supposed to be able to cook them in hot but not quite boiling water too, but my attempts at this have all ended in waterlogged, disintegrating disasters. I don't recommend it.
The dumplings can be served as the starchy side dish of practically any meat that has a little sauce or gravy to it. Great with goulash, for example, or pork roast, or turkey. They are also good cut into slices and fried with scrambled eggs in a pan. I always make a whole bunch and freeze them (they freeze really well). Just wrap them individually in foil and freeze. Reheat by chucking the whole thing, foil and all into simmering water or by microwaving (without foil, obviously).
My mom flew in on Wednesday for the summer, she's staying with my Grandma in Graz, which is a pretty good arrangement. We visited last weekend, and they'll be visiting us this coming weekend.
Let me tell you about dumplings. They are an Austrian staple and they come in an infinite number of varieties. The basic savory ones are bread dumplings. What you want to start off with are dry white bread cubes, kinda like croutons or stuffing, but without any flavor. Can you get plain stuffing? I honestly don't know remember, but it's just stale white bread cut into cubes and left to dry. You can use fresh bread ones too.
You need:
bread cubes
1 onion
1 cup milk
nutmeg
salt
parsley
1-2 eggs
1-2 T flour
pressure cooker / steamer
I never measure these ingredients, but it's a very flexible recipe, it really doesn't have to be exact. It's really hard to get so wrong you can't eat the result.
Take a salad bowl (volume of around 3-4 cereal bowls) and fill it about 2/3 with these bread cubes. Chop one onion and sautee in oil until translucent and starting to brown, i.e. not very long. Add onion and any remaining oil to the bread cubes. Whisk one or two eggs (depending on how big the bowl is, just guess, it'll be fine I promise) with the milk. Pour over the bread / onions. Season the mixture with plenty of salt, a pinch of nutmeg and plenty of parsley. Mix well. There should be enough liquid to get all the bread mostly soft, but not soggy. It's ok if the bread is still crunchy in the middle. You don't want it to completely fall apart though. If it's not looking moist enough, add a splash of milk or water. Let it sit for 5 minutes or so to soak up the liquid. In the meantime, get out the pressure cooker and get it ready with water and the little platform thingy for food (what do you call those things).
When the mixture is moist but not soggy (bread should still be in nice pieces, shouldn't disintegrate), scatter 1 or 2 tablespoons of flour (depending on how soft your mixture is) over the mixture to bind the remaining liquid. Mix in well. Now take handfuls of the mixture and form dumplings a little smaller than baseballs. They should be soft enough to stick together well, if not, add a little more liquid. Make sure the outside is pretty smooth. Put dumplings in the pressure cooker, lock down the lid, turn the stove on high. When the cooker has reached full steam, let it go for around 5 minutes and then turn off the stove, leaving the cooker to cool down naturally. When it's back to normal pressure, open it up and hopefully find a lot of nice, steamy dumplings looking up at you.
I think you could do this in a steamer too, but it would take longer. Maybe 15-20 minutes of steam. You are supposed to be able to cook them in hot but not quite boiling water too, but my attempts at this have all ended in waterlogged, disintegrating disasters. I don't recommend it.
The dumplings can be served as the starchy side dish of practically any meat that has a little sauce or gravy to it. Great with goulash, for example, or pork roast, or turkey. They are also good cut into slices and fried with scrambled eggs in a pan. I always make a whole bunch and freeze them (they freeze really well). Just wrap them individually in foil and freeze. Reheat by chucking the whole thing, foil and all into simmering water or by microwaving (without foil, obviously).