The Cat from Outer Space brought Chicken and Dumplings

BANG! Tires squeal as my Mom jerks the steering wheel of our Ford pick-up, left and right. I flop around in my seat like a ragdoll, the seatbelt doing little to hold me in place as the vehicle comes to a stop. I blink and push myself upright as my head throbs and my knee aches. I look at my Mom. She leans against the door and laboring to catch her breath.

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The day had been a good one for me. School was out for the year and I had gone to the movies with two of my cousins to see The Cat from Outer Space. The year was 1978 and I was ten years old. We had just dropped off my cousins at their house and were headed home ourselves when a driver who was running from another accident slammed into the side of our truck.

This was the third tragedy to beset my family in a month. My father had lost control of his car and slammed into a tree during a major rainstorm in late May. Then my brother in the infinite wisdom of a teenage boy, decided to jump from a second story window and broke his foot. Our family was beaten and broken but we weren’t down for the count.

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My Grandmother on my mother’s side flew up from California to help us out. Grandma Hetrick, not to be confused with my father’s mother, Grandma Hohman, had been widowed five years earlier. We never referred to either of them as Grandma H, or any other nickname. During the few months she lived with us I got to know my grandmother and the life she had lived.

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Grandma Hetrick had been born on March 17th, 1912 someplace in Germany. The family left Germany between 1918 and 1920, moving to Holland. They lived there for a year before moving to the United States and settling in Nebraska. She grew up on a farm in the middle of nowhere outside of Sydney, Nebraska.

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Life was difficult for her. Chores needed to be completed no matter the weather. Food was scarce first because of the war and again because of the depression. People learned to make do with what they had, to make the most and the best of their personal situations.

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My injuries from the accident were minor. I had four stitches in my forehead from where it had collided with the vent window latch and eight stitches in my knee from where it had smashed into the glove box. My Mom on the other hand had three broken ribs and a concussion. She slept sitting upright in a chair in the Livingroom and could not move very much except to use the restroom.

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So, my Grandmother cooked for us. Mostly meat and potatoes with a vegetable on the side. It was hearty food that filled our stomachs and satisfied the palate. Then one day, she decided to make chicken and dumplings. Now these were not the kind of dumplings you would buy at a restaurant. These were egg dumplings made with eggs, flour, salt, and water.

The first step is to kill a chicken… no, wait boil a chicken either an intact chicken or chicken pieces on the bone, your choice. Leave the skin on as it adds flavor. Salt the water. I like to add a little bouillon to make the chicken flavor fuller. How big of a pot should you use? I suggest you use a larger pot. You want to make certain that your broth only fills about half of the pot as the dumplings will expand as they cook.

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Let the pot simmer for 10 to 15 minutes then pull it out and let it cool for a several minutes. As the chicken cools, turn down the heat and add your fresh vegetables. Let those simmer. If you are using frozen vegetables, skip this step until the dumplings are cooking. It’s your choice what vegetables you want add. I usually use carrots, peas, and green beans.

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Debone the chicken. Throw away the bones and skin. I like to use my hands and pull the chicken off the bones. Sometimes, I need to use a fork and knife if the chicken has not cooled enough. Cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces and put them back into the pot. Now you’re going to make the dumpling batter. Yes, I said batter. And don’t forget to wash your hands!

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A lot of recipes use milk and baking powder, this recipe does not. Remember, this was created when food was in short supply so, you used what you could. This is where the recipe goes a little rogue as it is not an exact science. If am making this for two people I will use three eggs. For three people, I use four or five eggs depending on how hungry we are at the time. Honestly, I will often use four or five eggs even when I am cooking for myself and will keep the leftovers for the next day.

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Crack your eggs into a bowl. Don’t throw away all the shells just yet. Use one half of a shell to fill with water. For how many eggs you use, add a half shell of water. Two eggs equal two half-shells of water, etc. Once you have all your eggs and your water, you can then throw the shells away. Add salt liberally. You can be generous with the salt as the batter and the broth will soak it up. I suggest some salt as without it the dumplings are bland, however, if you are not certain then add the salt when you serve each portion. You can also use other seasonings at this time. I add parsley or garlic salt and pepper. You can add red pepper flakes if you want. Feel free to experiment.

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Mix all these ingredients together before you add the flour. Once again, we don’t have an exact amount of flour. Depending on the size of your eggs and how much water was added, it could take between three quarters of a cup to one and a quarter cup of flour PER EGG. I usually scoop in three or four heaping spoonful’s of flour, mix it together, then add more flour one or two spoonful’s at a time.

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You want to get to a point where the batter is not wet, and it is not a dough. For me, I will scoop up a spoon of batter and when I can lift the spoon eighteen or so inches and it hasn’t broken off from the rest of the batter, I know it is ready.

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If you decided earlier to use frozen vegetables, now is when you want to add them to the broth. Turn up the heat on the stove and get the liquid to a rolling boil. Once your broth is boiling, take a large metal spoon and dip it into the broth coating the entire ladle part of the spoon. This will ensure that the batter doesn’t stick to the spoon!

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Scoop out portions of the batter and dunk it into the boiling broth which allows the batter to slide off the spoon. Each scoop of batter should be about the size of a single scoop of ice cream. Even without baking powder your dumplings are going to expand, hence the larger pot and only filling it half way with liquid.

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Once you have scooped out all of your batter, turn the heat down and let it simmer for three to five minutes. Use this time to rinse or wash your batter bowl or spoon because once that dries it is incredibly difficult to clean. After five minutes, remove one of the larger dumplings and cut it in half. The interior should look like bread, kind of airy. If it doesn’t look like that, cook for a few more minutes.

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Serve it like a soup. I fill my bowl with dumplings and vegetables then drizzle the broth over the top until everything is almost covered. This will fill you up and warm you from the inside out. Every time I make this it reminds me of my Grandmother. She’s been gone for almost thirty years now, but I can still picture her next to me patiently guiding me through the steps.

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The simpleness of the ingredients reminds me to be grateful for all that I have now. My Grandmother raised a family through wars and the depression and yet made the basic necessities seem extravagant. I hope that if you decide to make this yourself, you give yourself the time and pleasure to enjoy the process of making something from scratch. That you find joy in the simplicity. Cooking from scratch takes time and patience, but I promise you the food you make will taste ten times better than anything you could buy in a restaurant.

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For this recipe you will need:

a large pot

chicken

chicken bouillon (optional)

vegetables, raw or frozen (optional)

flour

water

eggs

salt

other seasonings of your choice