Hard Dumplings For Soup Recipes

FARM-STYLE CHICKEN AND DROP DUMPLINGS

Steps:

• For the soup: Place the chicken pieces and the backbones in a large pot and cover with 16 cups water. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a low simmer and poach the chicken until cooked through, 25 to 30 minutes.
• Use tongs to remove the chicken pieces and set aside to cool; discard the backbones. Once the chicken cools enough to handle, pull the meat from the bones, shred and roughly chop; set aside. Strain the chicken broth and keep warm.
• In a medium pot, melt the butter over medium heat, and stir in the carrots, garlic, celery, leeks, onions and poultry seasoning. Cook the vegetables until they begin to soften, 8 to 10 minutes, then stir in the flour.
• Add the reserved chicken broth, bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook until the soup thickens slightly and vegetables soften, about 25 minutes. Stir in the shredded chicken and bring the soup back to a low simmer.
• For the dumplings: In a medium bowl, add the flour. Use two butter knives to cut in the milk, butter, baking powder, salt and eggs. Add additional milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, if necessary. The dough should be moist but not too wet.
• Pull the dough into 1/4-cup pieces and place directly in the simmering soup; cover and cook for 10 to 12 minutes. Sprinkle with the chopped parsley and serve.

EASY HOMEMADE DUMPLINGS

Steps:

• Combine flour, salt and baking powder. Add oil and water and mix until smooth. Add a bit more water until dumplings are soft and not at all dry.
• Bring broth to a boil and add dumplings by spoonful. Reduce heat and cook dumplings 4-5 minutes. (Do in batches if you are using a small pan.)
• Serve dumplings in broth garnished with chopped parsley or chives as desired.

LIGHT-AS-A-FEATHER DUMPLINGS (FOR SOUP OR STEWS)

Steps:

• In a bowl sift together the flour, salt, black pepper (if using) and baking powder.
• In another bowl mix the egg with melted butter; add to the dry ingredients with enough milk to make a semi-stiff batter (do not over-mix, you might use a little more than 2/3 cup milk).
• Drop by a teaspoon into simmering soup or stew.
• Cook covered for about 18-20 minutes and NO PEEKING for the first 10 minutes.

DUMPLING SOUP

Steps:

• In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and salt. Crack the egg into a measuring cup, and add enough water to equal 1 cup. Whisk with a fork. Gradually stir the egg-water and oil into the flour mixture with the fork until a soft dough is formed. Use your hands to mix the dough until is smooth and no longer sticky, adding more flour or water as needed. Cover the bowl, and set aside until the potatoes are ready.
• Place potatoes in a large pot with the salt and water, and bring to a boil. Cook for 10 to 15 minutes, until potatoes are tender.
• Meanwhile, melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add the bacon and onion; cook and stir until onions are golden and bacon is cooked. Set aside.
• When the potatoes are cooked, pinch off small pieces of the dough, and drop them into the boiling potato water. Turning the dough in your hand will help keep it from sticking to your fingers. Once all of the dumplings have been added, you can stir in the bacon and onions. Ladle some of the water from the soup into the skillet, and swish it around to clean out all of the tasty bits and juices. Pour back into the soup. Turn off the soup, and let stand for a few minutes before serving.

SOUP DUMPLINGS (XIAOLONGBAO)

Steps:

• In a small pot, add the pork skin and pork bones and cover with cold water. Bring to a rolling boil, and immediately drain and rinse off the bones and the skin. This gets rid of any impurities. Rinse out the pot and put everything back in. Add 4 cups (950 ml) water, ginger, scallion and wine. Bring the pot to a boil and then reduce the heat to low. Cover and simmer for 2 hours.
• After 2 hours, turn off the heat, allow the soup to cool, and strain the liquid into a bowl. Once the liquid is completely cooled, cover and refrigerate overnight.
• In a mixing bowl, add the flour and the warm water 1 tablespoon at a time. Work and knead the dough for 15-20 minutes. The dough should be very soft and smooth. Cover with a cloth and let it rest for 30 minutes.
• Take your ground pork and put it in the food processor. Pulse for 30-60 seconds until the pork resembles paste. In a mixing bowl, add the pork and the rest of the ingredients except the aspic. Whip everything together thoroughly, for about 2 minutes. You want everything to be extremely well combined, and the pork should look like a light, airy paste. Gently fold in the diced aspic, and do not over-mix. Cover and transfer the filling to the refrigerator until ready to make the dumplings. If you're ready now, you can put it in the freezer for 15 minutes to allow it to firm up and make assembling the buns easier.
• Lightly dust a clean work surface with flour and roll the dough into a long cylinder/cigar, about an inch in diameter. Cut the dough into small equal pieces weighing about 11 grams each (the dough chunks should be a size resembling that of gnocchi). Roll out each piece into a round disc about 3 - 3 ¼ inches diameter. Keep everything under a damp cloth.
• Prepare your bamboo steamer. You can line it with cheese cloth, napa cabbage leaves, or these lovely bamboo steamer discs, which can be found in some Chinese restaurant supply stores (if using these, you must brush the discs with oil first!).
• When all that is prepared, take out the filling. You'll be making each bun one at a time. Place about 1 tablespoon of filling in the middle of your dumpling skin. Pleat with as many folds as you can muster: 12-20 folds should do it. Make sure the top is sealed. If the filling ever gets too wet or hard to handle, put it in the freezer for another 15 minutes and start again.
• Place the buns in the lined steamer basket, about 2 inches apart.
• In a metal steamer pot or wok, boil water. If using a wok, put the water at a level so that when you put the bamboo steamer into the wok, the water rises about ½ inch up the bottom of the bamboo base. You never want the water to touch the dumplings inside, though, so make sure not to fill it too high!
• Once the water is boiling, put the bamboo steamer in the wok or steamer pot, cover with the bamboo steamer lid, and steam over high heat for 8 minutes. Immediately remove the bamboo steamer from the pot and serve.
• Ok, so there is definitely a proper way to enjoy these dumplings. Put away the soy sauce because it has no place on the table right now. What you want is Chinese black vinegar. Pour some out into a small, round dish or bowl, and top with some very thin matchsticks of ginger.
• Take out your two utensils-chopsticks and a Chinese soup spoon (a fork would just butcher these and the soup would dribble out all over the table. It would be a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions).
• Carefully, slowly peel the xiaolongbao off of the steamer basket and dip it into the vinegar. Gently transfer the dumpling to your soupspoon and take a tiny bite out of the skin on the side of the bun to make a little hole. Proceed to slurp the soup out of the bun (Carefully. It's HOT). Then, with a little more vinegar, finish the whole thing off in one bite.

HARD DUMPLINGS FOR SOUP

Steps:

• Break egg in cup.
• Add milk & beat with fork.
• Mix flour, baking powder & salt.
• Add egg & milk and mix.
• Batter will be stiff.
• Drop in little pieces on end of spoon into boiling soup.

EASY DROP DUMPLINGS FOR SOUPS AND STEWS

Steps:

• Gather the ingredients.
• Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl.
• Add the milk and mix. The batter should be thick enough to be scooped and dropped from a spoon. Let it rest for a few minutes.
• Once the boiling stew or soup is nearly done, drop spoonfuls of the batter on top. Be sure that there is plenty of liquid in the pot, but try to keep the dumplings on top of the vegetables and meat.
• Cover and cook for about 10 to 15 minutes, depending on the size of the dumplings. Do not remove the lid until it is time to check the dumplings; when ready, a toothpick inserted into one of the dumplings should come out clean.
• Once done, spoon the stew or soup with the dumplings into a bowl and enjoy.

HEAVY DUMPLINGS

Steps:

• 1. Beat together milk, salt and eggs.
• 2. Add enough flour to make a stiff dough.
• 3. Bring a large pot of salted water to a full boil. Dip a large clean spoon into the water and then drop a large spoonful of dough into the water. Dipping the spoon into the boiling water before each spoonful of dough helps keep the dough from sticking onto the spoon.
• 4. When all dumplings are in the water, cover loosely and cook 20 minutes stirring occasionally.
• 5. Drain, place in a serving dish and add melted butter. Toss to coat.

CHICKEN DUMPLING SOUP

Steps:

• In a small amount of cooking oil sweat the onion, carrots and celery. Add chicken, broth, green beans, barley, celery salt, parsley and bay leaves. Simmer until the barley is tender, about 30 minutes.
• Bring the milk and butter to a boil, add salt and nutmeg. Remove from heat and immediately add flour stirring until dough leaves the sides of the pan. Incorporate the eggs, 1 at a time, forming a sticky dough.
• Season the soup, to taste, with salt and pepper. Add spoon sized balls of dumpling dough and simmer until dumplings rise.