Chicken and Dumplings
They call chicken and dumplings a "comfort food," that is, a traditional regional cuisine that reminds you of your happy, carefree times as a child. My mom made it when I was a youngster. Curious, I looked into the history of this traditional dish and found some surprising things.
Chicken and Dumplings date back to the Great Depression, created among French Canadians. The style popular in the northern US uses round dough balls, the southern style uses flat strips of dough, rolled out with a rolling pin. If you use round dough balls for dumplings, you might be a yankee.
Of course, we all remember the verse about chicken and dumplings in the old folk song, She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain. This verse, though, was a much later addition to the song. The original tune comes from an antebellum Negro Spiritual about the Rapture, called When the Chariot Comes.
This song migrated to the Appalachian coal country where the lyrics were changed to those we know today. The song followed the westward movement across the plains and became popular among railroad work gangs. We still remember the song today thanks to its use by railroad workers.
Carl Sandburg, poet and first person to publish the lyrics, believed the eponymous She referred to Mary Harris Jones, a union organizer among the Appalachian coal mining camps.
Aine's dad sang her the Scottish version of this song when she was little. The verses go like this:
Oh ye cannae shove yer granny off a bus
No ye cannae shove yer granny off a bus
No ye cannae shove yer granny, 'cause she's yer mammy's mammy,
Ye cannae shove yer granny off a bus!
Just Dumplings
Dumplings as we know them, wads of boiled dough, date back to 1600s Norfolk in England, where they began their lives as a way to fill the stomach as cheaply as possible. The British and Irish use flour and suet (a wad of beef fat) to make dumplings, which they call doughboys.
Calling US soldiers Doughboys started during the Mexican American War in the 1840s. No one really knows why. Experts hold on to a few cherished theories:
Around the world, dumplings vary depending on culture and regional crops. In Asia, they're often made from rice, in central Europe from flour, in Scandanavia from potatoes. They've become prominent dishes in every cuisine:
I found a recipe online. I usually hate individual recipes I find online, so I pick three or four and incorporate my favorite elements of each. Many online recipes feel like a Cecil B. DeMille film: long, sprawling epics with a cast of thousands. I learned two things about cooking in the food business. A good dish doesn't need a hundred ingredients. The simpler the better. And it shouldn't take two hours to make. Most of these ingredients we keep on hand anyway (I think we only had to buy chicken, broth, and carrots) and I only spent about 30 minutes in the kitchen.
This recipe makes a lot of food. We usually make a large batch of something and eat it for two or three nights in a row.
The Dish:
3 stalks celery (chopped)
1 large onion (chopped)
3 carrots (peeled, chopped)
2 bay leaves (I've only recently started using bay leaves when I cook. I'm now hooked.)
6 cups chicken broth
1 can cream of celery soup
1-2 tsp of chopped garlic
salt, pepper, chili powder to taste
3-4 chicken breasts (raw, chopped)
Throw all the ingredients in a pot, bring it to a boil, cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Now, make your dumplings.
Dumplings:
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking flour
2 tbl butter
1 tbl dried parsley
salt, pepper, garlic powder to taste
Mix all the ingredients in a bowl except for the flour. Then add a little flour at a time and work it into the mixture. After it was dry, I kneaded it by hand. You should end up with a wad of dense, dry dough. Roll this into small dough balls (maybe 1/3 to 1/2 ping pong ball). After the chicken is completely cooked, drop the dumplings into the pot, replace lid, simmer for another 10 minutes.
I got paranoid about the dumplings getting cooked all the way, so I left them in for longer. Apparently, overcooked dumplings get quite chewy. I wasn't blown away, my disappointment resulting from my mismanagement of the dumpling situation. Aine loved it. So I guess it was a win. Next time, I won't cook the dumplings so long and I might substitute oregano or rosemary for the parsley.
If you're curious about my sources:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/chicken-and-dumplings-recipe/index.html
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/old-fashioned-chicken-and-dumplings/
http://www.food.com/recipe/chicken-and-dumplings-72963
Food Pictures
Of course...
Dumplings as we know them, wads of boiled dough, date back to 1600s Norfolk in England, where they began their lives as a way to fill the stomach as cheaply as possible. The British and Irish use flour and suet (a wad of beef fat) to make dumplings, which they call doughboys.
Calling US soldiers Doughboys started during the Mexican American War in the 1840s. No one really knows why. Experts hold on to a few cherished theories:
- US soldiers in Mexico lived off of a diet of dumplings.
- They actually looked like dumplings when covered in adobe dust.
- The buttons on their uniforms looked like dumplings.
Around the world, dumplings vary depending on culture and regional crops. In Asia, they're often made from rice, in central Europe from flour, in Scandanavia from potatoes. They've become prominent dishes in every cuisine:
- Italian gnocchi
- Jewish matzah balls
- Mexican empanadas
- Chinese wontons
- Indian samosas
I found a recipe online. I usually hate individual recipes I find online, so I pick three or four and incorporate my favorite elements of each. Many online recipes feel like a Cecil B. DeMille film: long, sprawling epics with a cast of thousands. I learned two things about cooking in the food business. A good dish doesn't need a hundred ingredients. The simpler the better. And it shouldn't take two hours to make. Most of these ingredients we keep on hand anyway (I think we only had to buy chicken, broth, and carrots) and I only spent about 30 minutes in the kitchen.
This recipe makes a lot of food. We usually make a large batch of something and eat it for two or three nights in a row.
The Dish:
3 stalks celery (chopped)
1 large onion (chopped)
3 carrots (peeled, chopped)
2 bay leaves (I've only recently started using bay leaves when I cook. I'm now hooked.)
6 cups chicken broth
1 can cream of celery soup
1-2 tsp of chopped garlic
salt, pepper, chili powder to taste
3-4 chicken breasts (raw, chopped)
Throw all the ingredients in a pot, bring it to a boil, cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Now, make your dumplings.
Dumplings:
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking flour
2 tbl butter
1 tbl dried parsley
salt, pepper, garlic powder to taste
Mix all the ingredients in a bowl except for the flour. Then add a little flour at a time and work it into the mixture. After it was dry, I kneaded it by hand. You should end up with a wad of dense, dry dough. Roll this into small dough balls (maybe 1/3 to 1/2 ping pong ball). After the chicken is completely cooked, drop the dumplings into the pot, replace lid, simmer for another 10 minutes.
I got paranoid about the dumplings getting cooked all the way, so I left them in for longer. Apparently, overcooked dumplings get quite chewy. I wasn't blown away, my disappointment resulting from my mismanagement of the dumpling situation. Aine loved it. So I guess it was a win. Next time, I won't cook the dumplings so long and I might substitute oregano or rosemary for the parsley.
If you're curious about my sources:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/chicken-and-dumplings-recipe/index.html
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/old-fashioned-chicken-and-dumplings/
http://www.food.com/recipe/chicken-and-dumplings-72963
Food Pictures
Of course...
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