![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Sep. 28th, 2015
I use Atora vegetable suet, which means that it's presumably possible to do this with butter or oil or solid vegetable fat instead of faffing about buying suet, but I haven't got around to working out how yet. (Executive dysfunction, rather than expecting it to be hard.)
half suet (or suet+cheese, if making cheese dumplings) to flour (e.g. 50g suet, 100g flour)
flour (plain, wholemeal, SR, a mixture, your call)
~1tsp baking powder (omit if using SR flour)
seasonings (salt, pepper, rosemary, ...)
water
Dumplings, like pastry, will be happier the colder everything involved in making them is, and the less they're handled. They come together very quickly: you can make them at the point at which you're about to add liquid to the stew.
In a bowl, combine the suet, grated cheese (if using), flour (I am currently on a 1:1 plain:wholemeal kick), baking powder (if using), and seasoning. Mix to combine.
Gradually add cold water, stirring with a cold knife. When the mixture starts to clump, you're there. With cold hands (if possible, and this is somewhere where I can recommend Reynaud's syndrome), press it into a single ball, then pull off small lumps (~1" diameter spheres), roll quickly between hands to give a smoothish surface, and then add to the top of the stewpot as soon as you put liquid in, cover, and simmer until the root veg in your stew are done. It's important to simmer not boil: boiling is prone to breaking the dumplings up. Be careful not to stir them too vigorously when making sure things aren't burning to the bottom of the pan, likewise.
As with most cooking, you've actually got a lot of leeway in terms of proportions; I've got the hang of the texture I'm aiming for (and I think I actually tend to go slightly over double the weight of flour to fat) and never bother weighing out these days.
half suet (or suet+cheese, if making cheese dumplings) to flour (e.g. 50g suet, 100g flour)
flour (plain, wholemeal, SR, a mixture, your call)
~1tsp baking powder (omit if using SR flour)
seasonings (salt, pepper, rosemary, ...)
water
Dumplings, like pastry, will be happier the colder everything involved in making them is, and the less they're handled. They come together very quickly: you can make them at the point at which you're about to add liquid to the stew.
In a bowl, combine the suet, grated cheese (if using), flour (I am currently on a 1:1 plain:wholemeal kick), baking powder (if using), and seasoning. Mix to combine.
Gradually add cold water, stirring with a cold knife. When the mixture starts to clump, you're there. With cold hands (if possible, and this is somewhere where I can recommend Reynaud's syndrome), press it into a single ball, then pull off small lumps (~1" diameter spheres), roll quickly between hands to give a smoothish surface, and then add to the top of the stewpot as soon as you put liquid in, cover, and simmer until the root veg in your stew are done. It's important to simmer not boil: boiling is prone to breaking the dumplings up. Be careful not to stir them too vigorously when making sure things aren't burning to the bottom of the pan, likewise.
As with most cooking, you've actually got a lot of leeway in terms of proportions; I've got the hang of the texture I'm aiming for (and I think I actually tend to go slightly over double the weight of flour to fat) and never bother weighing out these days.
One of the things that Brits seem to find surprising or weird about how I go about managing a kitchen (other examples include vanilla sugar) is the Jar Of Breadcrumbs.
If you're baking your own bread, or buying non-sliced stuff, you'll be generating a lot of breadcrumbs. Let them go stale (sweep them onto a tray and leave them out for a day or so if you're that way inclined), then pop them in a jar.
Or ends of bread that are going stale before you can finish them: stick them through a food processor, or grate them, or let them go proper hard then put them in a bag and whack it with a rolling pin, and then pop them in a jar.
Or if you find you have bread that goes mouldy before it goes stale (this is more likely if you're keeping it in plastic, or in metal breadbins, or if it's longer-life stuff generally), before the point at which it goes mouldy, slice it up and toast it very lightly or bake it in an oven gently similarly, then apply the steps previous and stick it in a jar.
Okay, Alex, you may at this point very well be saying, but why? So! Herewith the list of things I use breadcrumbs for, probably to be added to as I remember:
& you? & so on!
If you're baking your own bread, or buying non-sliced stuff, you'll be generating a lot of breadcrumbs. Let them go stale (sweep them onto a tray and leave them out for a day or so if you're that way inclined), then pop them in a jar.
Or ends of bread that are going stale before you can finish them: stick them through a food processor, or grate them, or let them go proper hard then put them in a bag and whack it with a rolling pin, and then pop them in a jar.
Or if you find you have bread that goes mouldy before it goes stale (this is more likely if you're keeping it in plastic, or in metal breadbins, or if it's longer-life stuff generally), before the point at which it goes mouldy, slice it up and toast it very lightly or bake it in an oven gently similarly, then apply the steps previous and stick it in a jar.
Okay, Alex, you may at this point very well be saying, but why? So! Herewith the list of things I use breadcrumbs for, probably to be added to as I remember:
- Apfelstrudel
- topping pasta bakes
- crumbing thing to fry in general (coat with flour, coat with beaten egg, coat with breadcrumbs, drop in hot oil; or in the case of sweet dumplings, fry them with butter and sugar then roll the cooked dumplings in the breadcrumbs)
- thickener in sauces/stews/dumplings
& you? & so on!