Notes to Rachel

Sorry, Buddy, but I got plans for you!

It's finally Fall in Austin, Texas, USA. Which means that it's only 89 degrees outside instead of 95. It's also looking like rain. I say looking like because there are dark clouds in the sky, though it might be a trick. After a few years of EXTRAORDINARY drought, most of us have forgotten what rain looks like, and given the idiocy I saw on Lamar Boulevard when we finally got a few inches last week, I'd say that the average Austinite has forgotten how to drive in it as well. If they ever did.

[UPDATE: It's pouring down rain right now. I hope that rye grass seed I put down in the backyard doesn't wash away]

Since it's October (almost) and I'm feeling all autumnal even though I probably ought to put on sunscreen most days around here, I've got quite a hankering for long-simmering stews and such. A big fave of mine has always been Chicken And Dumplings. It's capitalized because it deserves to be. Also, if you happen to live in South Austin, where we Keep It Wierd with pride, it's a good way to get rid of that rooster the neighbors have been keeping in their misguided attempt to become Urban Farmers. You'll eat well and get to sleep longer in one fell swoop.

If you don't want to wait around all day for this Font of All Deliciousness to cook on the stove, the first thing you gotta do is get yourself a pressure cooker. Like this baby:

The one reason not to hate Emeril Legasse

I bought it for my lovely wife, Chef Leslie, to use in her catering business. Up late one night watching television, it was on HSN. I'd probably already taken my sleeping pill, so it counts as an Ambien-induced Shopping Experience (ASE). Remind me to write y'all about how I got our Dyson vacuum cleaner sometime.

The pressure cooker I got is branded by Emeril Legasse, the Most Obnoxious Man in New Orleans, but don't hold that against it. It ended up becoming my favorite kitchen tool. You don't have to heat up the kitchen. You don't have to wait hours. It does a great job on things like making chicken, beef, or veggie stock, cooking Sunday Sauce and meatballs, making a really good boeuf bourguignon and boiling chicken till it's falling off the bone in like fifteen minutes. Got kids and a job? It'll make cooking a real meal much easier, and you don't have to come home to the mush that slow cookers make out of everything that's not chili.

Now that I'm on Lipitor, I can profess my undying devotion to you, dear Paula.

The recipe I use, which I adapted from my homegirl, Miss Paula Deen, is if you'll excuse my New English, Wicked Awesome.  I feel a little conflicted about this because I learned a lot about cooking from my other homegirl, that Paragon of Southern Womanhood and Le Cordon Bleu grad, Nathalie Dupree, but she's not on the teevee around here anymore, which is a danged shame.

Nathalie Dupree, Godmother of New Southern Cooking

You never get over your first love.  Miss Dupree won my heart when I was a fat teenager camped out in the livingroom on hot summer days instead of playing football like all the other Texan boys. Her show on PBS was just wonderful. Later, I learned that she ran a write-in campaign against the premier jackass of all Washington, Senator Jim DeMint, saying that she wanted to "cook his goose." This was before DeMint endorsed Todd Akin, who infamously lectured the American public on legitimate rape and how women's bodies can "shut down" a pregnancy caused by one. Nathalie was just carrying on her long-standing policy of being ahead of her time. Plus, she taught me how not to overcook shrimp (see The Roux Goes On Forever, And The Gumbo Never Ends.)

CHICKEN AND DUMPLINGS

Chicken:

• 2.5-3 lbs chicken legs and thighs
• 3 ribs celery, chopped
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 head garlic, cut in half latitudinally
• 3 quarts water or stock to cover
• salt, pepper to taste

Roux:

3 tbs butter

3 tbs flour

Dumplings:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Ice water

Directions

To start the chicken: Place the chicken, celery, onion, carrot, bay leaves, garlic and stock or water in the pressure cooker. Cook under high pressure for 15 minutes. Remove the chicken from the cooker and, when it is cool enough to handle, remove the skin and separate the meat from the bones. Skim the fat from the stock. 

Make the roux in a sauce pan: melt butter until it stops foaming, then add flour and whisk for a four or five minutes. Ladle stock into the roux while whisking, and add this mixture to the remaining soup and stir.

Return the chicken meat to the cooker. Set the cooker to simmer and put the cover on loosely until it bubbles.

To prepare the dumplings: Mix the flour with the salt and mound together in a mixing bowl. Beginning at the center of the mound, drizzle a small amount of ice water over the flour. Using your fingers, and moving from the center to the sides of the bowl, gradually incorporate about 3/4 cup of ice water. Knead the dough and form it into ball.

Dust a good amount of flour onto a clean work surface. Roll out the dough (it will be firm), working from center to 1/8-inch thick. Let the dough relax for several minutes.

Cut the dough into 1-inch pieces. Pull a piece in half and drop the halves into the simmering soup. Repeat. Do not stir the chicken once the dumplings have been added. Poke at the dumplings with a chopstick or a skewer to turn them over so they cook evenly. Cook until the dumplings float and are no longer doughy, 3 to 4 minutes. OR, cook under the low pressure setting for five minutes. They'll be wonderful either way.