[Sca-cooks] Chard and cheese dumplings

[ranvaig at columbus.rr.com]

We did a test cook today, to settle the side dishes for the upcoming Red Dragon feast.  I picked the dumpling recipe because our baroness is celiac, and it was an interesting side dish that didn't use flour.  

Of all the recipes, this is the only one I hadn't tried at all. They were VERY good.  

However in test cooking we found that they fell apart without at least a little flour.  I know  that sometimes recipes assume things that aren't mentioned.  Could this be true here?    I may try rice flour, but apparently there is some new anti-gluten med that may make it unnecessary.

The recipe didn't specify the cheese, I used parmesan because it is mentioned by name in other German recipes.  I should have used  marjoram not thyme, but I bought a poultry blend package that had sage, rosemary, and thyme.

The first batch was chopped by hand and rather coarse.  The finely chopped ones had a much better texture.

The first time I read this recipe, I had the idea that it would use cottage cheese, and we tried a batch with parmesan and cottage cheese.  They tasted ok, but not nearly as good, and the texture was not as good either.

We also tested cherry sauce.  Rumpolt has an uncooked sauce with sugar and cinnamon, and a cooked sauce with wine and sugar.  The verdict was to combine them and add cinnamon to the cooked sauce.

I did a second test for rice with almond milk.  I did the first batch with arborio rice, because I had this idea that it was likely to be the type available.  It tasted good, but had a rather gluey texture.  Maybe I'm not Italian enough.  Tonight we made a batch with long grain rice, and the texture was much better.  

And they weren't meant to be served together, but the cherry sauce was quite amazing with the almond rice.

Ranvaig


Welserin 119   If you would make boiled dumplings.

Then take chard, as much as you like, some sage, marjoram and rosemary, chop it together, also put grated cheese into it and beat eggs therein until you think that it is right. Take also cinnamon, cloves, pepper and raisins and put them into the dumpling batter. Let the dumplings cook, as one cooks a hard-boiled egg, then they are ready.

1 bunch chard, chopped and blanched, a little over a cup
4 oz parmesan, grated
2 T raisins, plumped in hot water and drained
1 tsp fresh sage
1/2 tsp fresh rosemary
1/2 tsp fresh marjoram (I used thyme)
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
3/8 tsp ground black pepper
1/8 tsp ground cloves
2 eggs
about 3/8 c flour

Chop the chard, herbs, and cheese in a food processor to a fine texture.  Add the eggs, spices, and raisins, mix well.  Add the flour, starting with a 1/4 c at first, adding by spoonfuls as necessary.

Drop by tablespoons into  simmering water and cook until they float and the middle is cooked, about 5 mins.  It made about 16 dumplings.