Basil (and caraway) dumplings

For my second dumpling soiree I delved into a cookery book that has a whole chapter on dumplings. Feasts by Silvana Rowe is a a compendium of deliciously semi-exotic recipes from Central and Eastern Europe.

Today I chose to tackle the Basil and Caraway Dumplings, although I had to drop the caraway seeds from my version. Our pot was empty and two shopping trips in two different directions out of the house to all the ethnic grocers I could find turned up no caraway seeds. So, just basil it was.

Firstly I cubed 300g of brioche (about 6 of the little rolls) and mixed it with 100g plain flour and a teaspoon salt.
Then I melted 60g butter and mixed it in as much as possible to the brioche mix - although it inevitably only soaked into a quarter of the breadybits. Ho hum.

Last ingredients were chopped basil (just a smallish handful), 250ml milk and 2 beaten eggs.
It looked like something already semi-digested at this stage but it made a pleasing squealchy noise when stirred up. Leaving it for an hour got it all soakedy-good.
In the intervening hour I made gyuvech, a Turkish ratatouille thing, also from Feasts, and sat down with the paper.

With wet hands I shaped little boules of the mixture - each about the size of a large conker - and set them on a floured-plate.

The flour did seem to help the dumplings keep some shape at the next crucial stage.

Which was the poaching. In a pan I boiled up some chicken stock (which I had to keep topping up with plain water as it boiled lower) and dropped the little balls in about 5 at a time. They cooked for 12 minutes, which felt long, and meant that doing 5 at a time took 45 minutes. Oy.


After 12 minutes' cooking in the boiling stock, I removed them with a slotted spoon and drained in a colander.

Then I served them up with the tasty gyuvech.

Admittedly the dumplings look somewhat anaemic and sloppy in this pic, but they were surprisingly and unusually tasty. I should probably have waited a little longer for them to dry before serving. Using brioche is supposed to make them light, but they did nevertheless feel quite weighty and dumpling-like. A great accompaniment to the vegetable main dish.



Top marks to Hungary for proper, tasty, unusual dumplings.