CookingBites dish of the month: dumplings (any type)

Here's another one from my youth:

Recipe - Clear Chicken Soup w/ Crackerball Dumplings



TBH, I'd sort of forgotten about these, then when I mentioned dumplings to my sister, she said, "You should make Grandmom's cracker dumplings!"

...so I did.

I don't have her recipe, or my mom's, and I'm sure they didn't have one written down, and if I asked my mom for it, I'd get the usual, "Oh, you jus' take a little o' this, an' some o' that, an' mix it up real good, an' add in a pinch o' t'other...an' jus' cook it 'til it's done," which doesn't help me at all. :laugh:

That meant I had to delve into my Amish cookbooks, and sure enough, I got lucky with the first one. That author refers to these as "crackerball dumplings," though we just called them cracker dumplings, since they're made from saltine crackers. My dad would always make the same joke every time we had these; he'd say one of the few Jewish phrases he knew, like "mazel tov," something like that, or he'd say, "Amish matzo ball soup, huh?" - and he liked to pronounce "Amish" as "Aimish," just to annoy my mom. :laugh:

Anyway, just about the simplest dumpling you can make, very quick to throw together, and very tasty at that, and in a clear chicken broth, it makes a nice little starter, but if you wanted to bulk it up, throw in some carrots, celery, chicken, anything like that.
 
Veg suet dumplings







Hubby thought they needed cooking for a little longer. I thought they were spot on. Lovely and soft and melted in the mouth...
 
Veg suet dumplings







Hubby thought they needed cooking for a little longer. I thought they were spot on. Lovely and soft and melted in the mouth...

They look delicious. Is that dimple in the dumpling intentional? I've not come across that before.
 
Veg suet dumplings
The dish looks interesting.
Here´s a question. (because I looked for the recipe and couldn´t find it; probably because I´m not looking in the right place)
If the dumplings are veggie, why do they have suet in them? Or if they´re veggie and they dont have suet in them, why are they called suet dumplings?
I´m not trying to be be polemical - I´ve eaten vegetarian food almost all my life - just trying to understand why they´re called veggie SUET dumplings.
 
They look delicious. Is that dimple in the dumpling intentional? I've not come across that before.
The dimple is intentional because the stew doesn't have much few liquid in it or much space for the dumpling to expand and it just aids the cooking in my experience. I've had some batches of veg suet that haven't worked well.
 
The dimple is intentional because the stew doesn't have much few liquid in it or much space for the dumpling to expand and it just aids the cooking in my experience. I've had some batches of veg suet that haven't worked well.
I thought maybe that was a hole that swelled shut and you were creating a new dish: Doughlings? Dumpnuts? :wink:
 
The dish looks interesting.
Here´s a question. (because I looked for the recipe and couldn´t find it; probably because I´m not looking in the right place)
If the dumplings are veggie, why do they have suet in them? Or if they´re veggie and they dont have suet in them, why are they called suet dumplings?
I´m not trying to be be polemical - I´ve eaten vegetarian food almost all my life - just trying to understand why they´re called veggie SUET dumplings.
The whole thing is actually vegan and it does use suet. You can buy vegetable suet in both regular and light versions. The make I buy is Atora (Atora Shredded Vegetable Suet 240g - Google Search)

I'm not certain if I have the recipe written up, but I can do over the next few days of you'd like.
 
I thought maybe that was a hole that swelled shut and you were creating a new dish: Doughlings? Dumpnuts? :wink:
I think I started doing it when I couldn't get veg suet and was using a savoury scone mixture instead... I'm on my last box of veg suet, so will soon have to experiment with homemade alternatives. It's been discontinued over here sadly. (It was accessible in the international isle in the British section. Nigella Lawson suggests grating a hard vegetable fat as an alternative. )
 
I think I started doing it when I couldn't get veg suet and was using a savoury scone mixture instead... I'm on my last box of veg suet, so will soon have to experiment with homemade alternatives. It's been discontinued over here sadly. (It was accessible in the international isle in the British section. Nigella Lawson suggests grating a hard vegetable fat as an alternative. )
Hard vegetable has fat? Which? Interesting!
 
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