Recipe Trials – Week Four

I had to use up the turkey that I had left on hand.  I also still had some carrots, celery and a lot of turkey gravy.  Sunday night was a lazy night in for Bryan and I just with the beginning of our Lord of the Rings movie marathon and puzzle doing so I picked out this recipe.  I chopped up the carrots, celery and turkey and made the base while the boy whipped up the dumplings.  It was a team meal and came together with only about 10 minutes of prep and active time and then the 20 minutes of simmer time.  I would most definitely make this again…if I had leftover turkey and gravy on hand.

Turkey and Dumplings

Ingredients:

GRAVY BASE

• 1 1/2 tablespoons butter
• 1 bunch scallion, finely chopped (white and light green parts)
• 1 cup carrots and celery, sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 cups leftover turkey, cut into bite-size pieces
• 4 cups turkey broth or 4 cups leftover turkey gravy (I had 2 cups of very thick turkey gravy)
• chicken broth, as needed  (added about 8 cups of water to it because I needed more liquid and the broth to not be so thick)
• salt and pepper

DUMPLINGS

• 2 cups flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon table salt
• 1 cup milk
• 1/4 cup melted butter

Directions:

• If using gravy instead of stock, it needs to be quite thin. Thin it down with a little chicken stock (I used water because it was already salty and flavorful enough).
• In a 10″ skillet with straight sides, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the celery and carrots and cook for 2 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute longer. Add the turkey then the turkey broth/gravy/chicken broth and stir to combine. Bring to a simmer and taste for seasoning. Add salt and pepper to taste. Don’t under season the broth. Once the dumplings are added, the flavors will be muted so season the broth a little more robustly than you normally would.
• While you are waiting for the broth to come to a simmer, make the dumplings by whisking together the flour, baking powder, and salt. When the broth mixture comes to a simmer and you have adjusted the seasonings, add the milk and melted butter to the flour mixture and use a spoon to stir everything together until it is just combined. Don’t over mix or you’ll toughen the dumplings.
• We used our hands to form the dumpling dough and add it to the broth. Continue adding dough as quickly as you can – leaving a little room between dumplings, if possible. It’ll be a tight squeeze to get all of the dough into the broth but it’ll fit. IMMEDIATELY cover the dumplings with a tight fitting lid and cook for 20 minutes. Whatever you do, DON’T PEEK while they’re cooking. The dumplings should lightly simmer while cooking. I reduced the heat to someplace between medium low and medium after the first 5 minutes of cooking so the liquid does not simmer too aggressively.
• After 20 minutes, take the skillet off the heat and serve piping hot. This is an EXCELLENT way to use up Thanksgiving leftovers. Delicious and easy!

  Read more at: http://www.food.com/recipe/turkey-and-dumplings-399612?oc=linkback

This was so, so good.  I had about 2lbs of leftover turkey meat and this used up at least half of it.  I also knew that one of Bryan’s favorite dishes as a kid that his mom would make was chicken and dumplings.  I thought the broth was super flavorful from the gravy and I thought the dumplings were actually quite delicious (Bryan would have preferred them made with white flour or Bisquik but we used what was on hand and he still liked them a lot).  I love one pot meals that are super substantial and provide great leftovers to bring to work for lunch.  And so warming on a wet, drizzly day month!  day month!  Buon appetito!!

Chelsea