Savory Steamed Dumpling

We made veal stew for supper and wanted a dumpling to go with it. Tom remembered having a giant savory steamed dumpling, made with a yeast dough and bread cubes, at a little Hungarian restaurant in New York about 30 years ago and wanted to try to recreate it. His version is below - it made a huge dumpling that was light and scrumptious. Serve by putting a slice in the bottom of a soup bowl and spooning stew on top.

Savory Steamed Dumpling (Serviettenknodel; Hefeknodel)

3 cups bread flour

1 pkg dry yeast

1 egg

2 lg 1/3" slices bread, white, stale

1 cup lukewarm milk

1 tsp sugar

2 tsp salt

1 onion

1 sm bunch coriander or parsley

2 Tbsp goose fat (optional)

Chop onion into 1/8" dice. Fry in olive oil until lightly colored.

Cut bread into 1/4" dice. Fry in olive oil until golden.

Finely chop coriander. When onions and bread have cooled, mix onions, bread, coriander, and goose fat. Reserve mixture.

Mix milk, sugar, and yeast and proof by letting it sit 10 minutes until bubbly. Beat eggs and stir into milk mixture.

In a large bowl, mix salt, flour, and milk mixture until almost all the flour has been absorbed. Mix in the reserved onion mixture and knead by hand until it is fairly uniformly dispersed. Knead by hand (10 minutes) or by machine (6 minutes). Add more flour only as needed to prevent sticking.

Let rise until double in bulk.  Turn out onto floured board and knead by hand for a minute or two and then shape into ball. Let rise until doubled in bulk in an oiled or floured bowl just big enough to contain the volume – You want to have something close to a ball when it has risen.

Turn the ball into the middle of a large piece of cotton or linen cloth and using a tall pot, suspend the dough over (not in) boiling water to steam. (We use a large wooden spoon across the top of the pot to suspend it by knots in the cloth and cover the pot with aluminum foil to keep the steam in.)  Plan to start making the dumplings about 3 1/3 - 4 hours before serving time.

Steam for one hour and serve it forth. Dumpling may be kept warm for 30 minutes after steaming by leaving it suspended over the hot water with the lid on and the heat off.

The poultry were taken out to pasture (really the space between the coops) and everyone enjoyed the sun, the grass and the bugs.

These are Dorkings who have seen a bug.

And these are two of the White Dorking chicks - the one buried in the shavings on the left is having its first "dust" bath. They have now learned to negotiate the ramp to the outside run and can have a dust bath in real dirt!