(made this for halloween, but great anytime in winter, so am reposting here, and deleting on my Norwegian blog)
-Southern Chicken & Dumplings made with Noodle Dumplings and roast chicken
- Southern Chantilly cake. You can´t google this,) It´s not any of what images or recipes I saw, as I was going to be lazy and just give ya´ll a link! I´m shocked none a ya´ll know a proper Chantilly cake,) chuckle,)
Recipes below:)
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Dinner, as I´m Southern, means lunch. And lunch is gonna be a bit later than usual, more around 3pm.
I´m fixing SOUTHERN NOODLE DUMPLINGS for Chicken and Dumplings. Noodle dumplings are a bit like making a pie crust, the criss cross cherry pie kind, as you make a dough, roll it out, then cut. No need to be fancy or perfect, just cut them out into strips best and easiest you can, then cut them to lengths, again don´t have to be even or perfect, then boil in the finished stew liquid. I make a large recipe, as we like lots of noodle dumplins in our chicken and dumplins!:)
Ya´ll know by now I don´t always use recipes, but make my recipe by sight as I´ve made it for so long. For this post, I measured what I used, and this is what I used.
The main idea of the flat wide thick eggy NOODLE DUMPLINGS is:
1) Make the dough
4 3/4 of flour, about 2 tsp salt, tsp baking soda, tsp baking powder, 6 TBS butter (not margarine butter), 2 cups buttermilk and 1 whole egg. (This recipe is excellent too if you substitute some corn meal or dry polenta for some of the flour. That´s Southern cornmeal dumplins. For this recipe, I substituted about a half cup of dry polenta, and about a fourth cup each of rye and whole wheat flour. Use what you have.).
Mix the dry, crumbling in the butter by hand, then mix in milk and egg til a dough forms. Add a bit more flour if necessary. Roll out, sprinkling with flour lightly, then cut into wide strips lengthwise. Cut these into smaller lengths to the size you like. I like wide noodles about 3-5 inches, but narrow ones work fine also. OR smaller ones. Just try to make all of them about the same size, so they will cook evenly. SPRINKLE lightly with FLOUR before removing them and putting them into the boiling stew! This keeps them from sticking together.
If you want you can sprinkle them lightly with seasoning, or add seasoning into the flour, which is what I do.
Boil in boiling stew liquid (don´t put them in til the liquid is boiling). They´re even better the next or next day:)
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STEW Method:
1) Quick with leftover roast chicken, is what I´m doing today. Or raw chicken pieces bone in--
Into a stew pot, add chopped celery and leaves, fresh herbs (I used chervil, oregano, thyme, cilantro), minced onion, fingerlings carrots cut into discs, a dash tabasco or 2. You use what you have, this is what I had today. But add onion, carrot, celery seasoning at the least. And I will NOT be throwing this out, this is what will be in the stew. I do not strain this out, as many do. I like the veggies in it, and so do the kids! And well imho it´s wasting good food. Sprinkle these veggies with flour or corn flour to help thicken the stew. Mix it all together. Add the remainder of the roasted chicken and all the bits and pieces remaining in the roasting pan; OR pieces of raw chicken cut up bone in. Add seasoning, salt and pepper.
I used leftovers from a chicken I roasted the other day. I still put them in same time, as I like the cooked chicken to get a bit more shredded. The raw chicken needs to be cooked for a while, so it gets shredded texture, as that is how we like it. Cook how you like it.
When veggies cooked down, add the noodle dumplings (or whatever ones you like, cornmeal dumplings are also really good, or any round type too), boil til cooked through. Season the liquid again, if necessary.
Serve hot. I make extra noodle dumplings as we also like the noodle dumplings extra servings,). Last night we had just the stew over cous cous, and the kids ate it up and asked for seconds!:) And that´s definitely a good thing, especially when young kids (our youngest are 2. 5 and 6) seem to decide every other day they don´t like what they loved two weeks ago!
I also make Southern Mac&Cheese; green beans; iced tea; usually a pie. Today am making something halloweeny, but rushed for time. I think I will make a chantilly cake. (well, actually no, we ended up eating M&Ms for a treat instead, as when killing time for Otello doors to open last night, I found they started selling M&Ms here now. Usually everything I give the kids is homemade, so it was a nice treat for them, about 6-10 each, so not many,)).
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EDIT
Will still post Chantilly cake recipe, but last minute as I was heating up the oven, decided I wanted pie. A wintery CRANBERRY Meringue PIE:
Also, because I realized I´ve a bag of whole cranberries I need to cook, and I didn´t want to make cranberry sauce, as it doesn´t really go with Chicken and Dumplings, does it? For those of you who like tarts, here´s a blog with recipe for fresh cranberry tart, from just picked cranberries. (Monday night, ended up making the cranberry pie).
My Wintery Cranberry Meringue Pie:
1)Make a graham cracker crumb crust, with crushed digestives, melted butter and some fine Tate& Lye sugar. Mix well, press into glass pyrex dish, set in fridge to chill. This is a quick crust, and I had half a pack of digestives left over from the crust I quickly also made for the Lem-Mer Pie (Lemon Meringue Pie).
2) slowly cook the cranberries down with a splash of water, and lots of sugar, as you would do with summer berries for making a pie. Add spices as you like. COOL it a bit, then add into the pie shell, chill.
3) Whip up 4-7 eggwhites, with superfine Tate&Lye sugar, and a dash of fine salt, til stiff peaks form. Use immediately! So don´t make it til you are about to use it! Spread over top of chilled pie, then put in a superhot oven, as hot as it will go, just long enough to softly brown the meringue. Keep an eagle eye on the pie, or it will surely burn to hades,). Don´t think you can nip into the kids room to quickly put on that duvet cover, or pick up a few toys,).
4) Serve warm or hot, it´s best the next day, but will be fine for supper today too.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN & Bon Appétit ya´ll!
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CRANBERRY MOLD:
boil whole cranberries with sugar and spices (nutmeg, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, mace, allspice, pumpkin pie spice). Cool. Do not strain. Add plain gelatin sheets or powder, or Jell-o. (For sheets, I soaked 4-5 in cold water, then poured off the water, and added this to the hot cranberries and stirred til the gelatin dissolved completely. Cooled it down til good to go in fridge, poured in glass mold, the chilled overnight. It´s hard to know how much gelatin sheets or powder to use, but 4-5 of the brand I have here worked well, as I wanted my result to be still jiggly but not firm, and not able to keep the shape of the mold.
