I made this soup 1 day before my surgery. I knew I could only eat "light" food after surgery and this soup is perfect: it has proteins, carbs and fat, vitamins and minerals. The Romanian dumplings are different than the American or Chinese dumplings. They are easy to make and very delicious! This is the only soup where I have to use my kitchen scale and a CALCULATOR, or a pen and paper! The farina ( semolina flour) and egg proportions have to be exact: for every 60 grams of egg we need 90 grams of semolina or 80 grams of semolina for softer dumplings. So, I put all the eggs on the scale and weiged them, then calculated how much semolina I have to put(I usually use 3-4 eggs...it all depends how many dumpligs you want to make...it also depends on how big of a soup pot you have...these dumpligs get big and they need not to be crowded in the pot you're cooking them...they need room to expand).
Ingredients:
For dumplings
- 4 eggs ( 244 grams total)
- 330 grams farina or semolina flour..same thing
- 1 TBS oil
- pinch salt
For soup: water,a whole chicken cut up, 1-2 onions, 4-5 carrots, celery, 2-3 bell peppers different colors, salt OR yo can also use homemade or store bought chicken stock or chicke broth if you don't want to go through the whole process of boiling the chicken with all the vegetables.
Step 1 (for people who use already made chicken stock/broth
skip this step): clean the chicken and put it in cold water in a 6 or 8 quart pot to boil and add some salt. When the water will begin to boil skim all that unpleasant looking foam that forms. When you get rid of the foam completely add the onions (whole or cut in half, not sliced), the carrots, bell peppers cut in half, the celery. Boil on medium heat until the chicken meat starts to fall off the bone.
Step 2 Fish the chicken pieces and the vegetables from the pot...we don't have any use of them as we wanted them for taste only. Grab another 6 quarts pot (as wide as possible). Using a strainer, strain the liquid from the pot we boiled the meat and vegetables into the new pot and put it back to heat and bring it to a boil.
If using already made chicken stock/broth put 2 quarts of stock or broth in a 6 quart pot and bring it to a boil
Step 3 We are going to make the dumplings. Follow these instructions very close to get the best dumplings:
Separate the yolks from the whites. Weigh the farina ad have it ready. Mix the yolks with a pinch of salt and with the tablespoon of oil. Beat the whites to medium peaks. Carefuly fold in the whites into the egg yolk mixture. We don't want to deflate the whites and loose all that air we incorporated in the egg whites because that is what is going to make our dumplings fluffy. Add all of the semolina flour and again mix only enough to incorporate.
Step 4 Scoop the dumplings with a small ice cream scoop into the simmering broth. You don't want the broth to be boiling like crazy or the dumplings are going to desintegrate when they hit the boiling broth. I always have cold water on had and tame the boiling. You don't want to make the dumplings too big are they are going to expand 2-3 times their size. Cover the pot lightly (allow the steam to excape)and let it simmer for like 10 minutes.After 10 minutes turn each dumpling, tame the boiling with some cold water if necessary,cover again and simmer for another 5-10 minutes.To know if the dumplings are done, you'll have to try one dumpling..cut it in half and check the middle...if it's not tough and it's completely done and fluffy in the middle they are ready to be eaten!! Traditionally, you only serve the dumplings and the broth, but you can add back some of that chicken meat you boiled and some of the boiled vegetables..it's up to you!
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