On a Saturday afternoon I felt a sudden urge for pasta in a rich broth. I brought a quart of mushroom broth from my freezer to a boil with chopped ginger and minced garlic. In a large bowl, I mixed one cup of all purpose flour, a little salt, and enough cold water to make lumpy noodles or dumplings with a pair of chopsticks rubbed across the flour mixture.
The scissor motion of the chopsticks in the flour, salt and water makes small lumps or ropes of dumplings. Add just enough water absorb all loose flour.
After the dough rested, I dumped the lumps into the boiling broth. After the dumplings cooked, I added a chopped scallion. A simple, savory meal.
Special note: If you don’t have any mushroom broth handy, bring the following to a boil on high heat for a couple of hours: 1-2 oz dried porcini or shiitake mushrooms, a chopped onion, 2 chopped carrots, 2 chopped celery stalks, handful of parsley, a Bay leaf, and a 1/2 Tbsp black peppercorns. Separate solids from broth.
Chinese Lump Noodles in Mushroom Broth
Ingredients:
- 4 cups mushroom broth
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- A piece fresh peeled ginger (about the size of of 2 two garlic cloves), minced
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- ~1/4 cup cold water
- 1 scallion, chopped on the diagonal
- Sichuan chile flakes
Directions:
- Add broth, garlic and ginger to a medium sized pot on medium heat.
- Mix flour, salt, pepper and water with chopsticks in a bowl until flour aggregates into small stringy dumplings. Set aside covered for 30 minutes.
- Bring broth to a boil on high heat then add dumplings. Stir thoroughly to ensure separation. Cook for 10 minutes or until dumplings expand. Test for doneness (soft and only softly chewy). Add chopped scallions.
- Serve into bowls. Add some Sichuan chile flakes to taste.
Place at the Table 