You Know Chicken and Dumplings?

A Vegetarianized Recipe

Erk had high hopes of utilizing crossed-out fonts for unused things & steps, as well as tidily bracketing off his text from the original. In the end, the text matches the process: plagiarized mishmash with a random sprinkling of brackets...

1 cup total sugar snap peas (trimmed) + frozen peas
1/2 cup chopped celery
1 cup carrots (original recipe calls for baby carrots)
12 pearl onions (optional)

Olive oil or whatever you like— a ¼ c.?
3 tablespoons butter
1 bay leaf
some chopped onion (1/2 c?)
some chopped celery (1/3 c? a stalk or two)
some minced garlic if you want
Lots of mushrooms cut in nice meaty bits—Erk used just under a pound total of white + portabella
3 tablespoons all purpose flour
¼-1/2 cup dry white wine (optional)
1/4+ cup whipping cream
1 tablespoon chopped fresh Italian parsley
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
Parsley dumplings

Cook sugar snap peas and chopped celery in large saucepan of boiling salted water until crisp-tender [or tendercrisp], about 1 minute. Using slotted spoon, transfer vegetables to bowl of ice water to cool. Cook baby carrots in same water until crisp-tender, about 5 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer to same bowl of ice water to cool. Cook pearl onions in same water until tender, about 8 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer to bowl of ice water to cool. Trim root end of onions; peel. Transfer sugar snap peas, celery, baby carrots, and pearl onions to medium bowl. DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate. [Erk didn’t do the pearl onions; Ina Garten is a fan of frozen pearl onions and Erk believes she knows what corners to cut.] Sugar snap peas were very expensive so he only got a handful of those and added a bunch of frozen peas to compensate. He cut the sugar snap peas in half. He threw the frozen peas into the boiling water for just a second—just long enough to thaw/warm them. He also used cut up normal carrots instead of baby carrots, which he thinks are silly unless you’re serving them, in which case he finds them charming] [Erk took a cup or two of the light broth created by boiling the vegetables and ladled it over a vegetable bullion cube and set that aside.]

Sautee some onions, celery, and bay leaf in the oil until they turn soft. Feel free to throw in some minced garlic late in the game if you wish. Then toss in mushrooms and a little salt. Cook until the mushrooms release their liquid. You could throw in some white wine at this point if you want. Erk didn’t have any on hand, so he didn’t.] Toss in the butter, and stir until it melts and sizzles. Sprinkle the vegetables with flour and stir over medium-low heat just long enough so that the flour is no longer raw—3 minutes. Stir in reserved broth and cream. [The dish is very forgiving at this point: you can add water if the gravy seems too thick, but if you add too much water, you just simmer a while to thicken.] Stir in the parsley & thyme. [Actually, Erk added a bit of dried thyme to the oil when he threw in the onions-- this gets the flavor into the oil and removes any possibility of a dried herb taste. Once Erk gets this year’s thyme up and running, he’ll add fresh at this point.] Add the reserved vegetables and stir until they are warm. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Stir in dumplings and simmer until dumplings are warmed through—a few minutes.

The dumplings:
Erk made the dumplings a few times [adding an egg yolk to one batch, etc]: he thought they were best when made with buttermilk instead of milk, when cooked 8-9 minutes, when a few grinds of fresh pepper were added, and when the dumplings were formed on the smaller side—the dough going into the steamer was in balls the size of jumbo gumballs or red rubber balls. Maybe a touch smaller. You really can make the dumplings in advance and let them sit until you need them. Don't try and keep them warm in the steamer-- they will overcook and do something in between drying out and toughening. Who knew that steam heat could dry something out!?!