Recipe 3 and 4 - Vegetable and herb stock with semolina dumplings

I'm not behind on cooking, just the blogging. Had combined two recipes to one dish last week, so this will be a longer entry - brace yourself.


Vegetable and herb stock

The book

Many books mention the use of stocks, but usually I take the easy way out with OXO and co. I needed to get rid of a bunch of carrots and suspect I will have to get rid of many more during this year, so thought this might be a good opportunity to see if homemade stocks are an easy way to combine the necessary with the useful (carrots gone - stock in stock). I used a recipe from "Hausgemachtes. Pikantes für den Vorrat" from Reinhardt Hess (ISBN 3-7742-5452-4). I've used the book before, but less for the recipes, more for the useful tips on how to make preserves. 

The ingredients

1 leek

4 carrots

3 onions

1 potato

4 celery sticks

stems of one bunch of parsley

200ml white wine

2 cloves of garlic

2 tomatoes

1 bunch of mixed herbs (basil, thyme, marjoram, a bit of tarragon)

The recipe

Cut the leek open along its length and wash. Peel onions, carrots and potato, clean and wash the celery sticks. Cut everything into big 3 cm long chunks. Wash the parsley, shake dry and cut into 4 cm long pieces. 

Heat the prepared ingredients in a non-stick pot on medium heat for about 10 minutes, until brown. Add wine and let the mixture simmer until the wine has evaporated. Add 1.5 l of water and the unpeeled garlic cloves, slowly bring to a boil. 

Wash the tomatoes and cut them into big chunks and make sure to remove the green bits. Wash the herbs, shake them dry. Add both to the stock mixture and cover with the lid, but not fully, so that a small gap remains. Simmer for 2 hours on low heat. 

Put stock through a sieve. (I'm leaving out the part about the preserving of the stock in glasses, as I used the stock right away. Moreover, it would lead me to another recipe and I'm having issues with these two already.)

The testing

This was not my best day, I have to admit. I started after work, so was a bit under pressure to get things done fast. I first forgot to add the onions and gave them the wine treatment in a second pot and added them as soon as I could to the big pot. Then I forgot about the garlic until about halfway through cooking time. I do blame the book for that a bit as well (yeah, looking for excuses!) - they were apparently trying to save space and printed two recipes on one page so they listed the ingredients like this: 

1 leek | 4 carrots

3 onions |1 potato

To save space, or maybe because they thought is was unnecessary, they also didn't add any explanations - and I really could have used some. There's no oil or fat mentioned anywhere, yet they want me to put the vegetables into a dry pot for 10 minutes. This is the first recipe that I've ever used that was doing this without any fat. Couldn't bring myself to do this and used a bit of oil as I usually do, because I expected a failure without it. According to the recipe I also don't need to wash the carrots and potato (not mentioned anywhere), but they specify that the garlic should be unpeeled. Why? I don't know! I was also puzzled by the stems of parsley (in the German text is really says "Stängel von 1 Bund Petersilie". What about the leaves? Standing in the kitchen, shaking stems of parsley dry, I felt utterly stupid and decided to add the whole thing. If I put the whole thing through a sieve later on, does is matter? I couldn't get marjoram and tarragon, but apart from that I used the ingredients they mentioned. 


Semolina dumplings

The book

For the semolina dumplings, known as "Grießnockerl" in Bavaria, I used a recipe from "Meine Bayerische Küche" by Alfons Schuhbeck (ISBN 3-89883-097-7). I had inherited the book from my late father. Although he died in 2007 I can't remember using the book. About time! 

Schuhbeck is one of those "world famous in Germany" celebrity chefs. The name might sound familiar to tourists who went to the Hofbräuhaus in Munich. At the same location Schuhbeck enterprises have mushroomed from one to too many and you can now get Schuhbeck icecream, Schuhbeck spices, Schuhbeck chocolate and Schuhbeck whatever there. Last thing I heard about him was that he created a McDonald's burger. Despite all that the book seems nice enough; maybe a bit too many promo shots of the chef looking at ingredients somewhere in the beautiful Bavarian country side and not enough of the actual food. 

The ingredients

50g soft butter

1 egg (room temperature)

80g semolina

Salt

freshly grated nutmeg

The recipe

Whip the butter until foamy, add the egg and whip the mixture until it all comes together. Add the semolina and salt and nutmeg to taste, combine into an even mixture. Let it rest for at least an hour at room temperature. 

In a pot bring salted water to a boil. Use two teaspoons to form evenly shaped dumplings, dip the spoons into hot water in between each dumpling to keep the dough from sticking to them too much. Let the dumplings simmer in the water for about 15 minutes, until they are done (do not boil). Remove with a slotted spoon in serve in a broth (with chicken meat, vegetables, etc. as you like)

The testing

Did I mention it wasn't a good day? Well, this was doomed from the beginning, because Grießnockerl and me - that's a long, unhappy and complicated relationship. Those stupid little Nockerl never turn out right for me. In a little side note Herr Schuhbeck had mentioned how important it is that the egg has the right temperature, so that the butter keeps the right consistency. Usually, butter and eggs do what ever I like them to do, but the Alfons' comment must of jinxed it or maybe it was my bad Nockerlkarma. They stubbornly refused to come together and in my desperation I added a bit of flour first and the semolina without trying my luck with a new batch of egg and butter. They still looked like Nockerl anyway and kept their shape in the water without falling apart. That reminds me that my father had bad dumpling karma, too. Three crying kids at home who refused to eat the dumpling slush he had fished from pot with boiling water. Clearly it must be hereditary bad dumpling karma!

The result

Once everything was ready I added the dumplings to the stock, together with a few leftover carrot slices. 

The verdict

The stock was, of course, much better than the stuff you get from the cubes. Hubby remarked that the celery taste was a bit too overwhelming (I didn't agree with that), whereas I thought the tomatoes had come out too strong (hubby didn't agree with that). Despite the slightly confusing recipe I guess I got it right and I hope to be making this more often. I used the leftover stock for a risotto and it was great! I guess, though, I will better keep my eyes open for a less confusing stock recipe and I will not do this on a workday evening again. Dinner happened way too late that day. 

The dumplings, however, need some work. Or maybe just my karma. The core wasn't cooked through properly - or did it just feel like that, because of the butter-egg issue? Despite that they were much closer to the ideal Grießnockerl than most of the other Nockerl stuff I've tried so far. I think I will need to try making these again.