Amish Penicilin?

I spent much of the last week being sick.  I am not sure if I'm working through every Australian cold variant, it's allergies that I let get out of control, a flu of some sort, or something else entirely, but it took a lot out of me, and I spent last Friday through Thursday coming down with and getting over whatever it actually was.  And then, being the nice person I am, I decided to give it to my dearest.  Now he is in the miserable portion of the illness.

But now that I am on the mend, I'm anxious for real food -- something more than noodles with butter or scrambled eggs.  I had the last of my leftovers for dinner last night.  I wanted something real and home-cooked for dinner.  It made no sense to cook an entire meal for myself and dearest is in no condition to handle anything too heavy.  Thinking over the options, I decided that what my dearest needed was a good, warm, hearty bowl of soup.  Everyone knows that chicken noodle soup is the universal curing food.  A quick pantry inventory revealed the sad fact that we have no chicken, no noodles, and no celery.  That meant I had to search for a soup that I would make with what I had on hand.  Diving through my cookbooks, I picked out From Amish and Mennonite Kitchens, and in it I discovered a recipe using stuff I had on hand -- Potato Soup with Rivels.  The soup is made from about a dozen small potatoes, about 1/4 cup butter, salt and pepper, and enough water to cover the potatoes and have some left for broth.  I looked at the recipe and thought -- there is no way that will turn out well, but if I add some vegetable stock powder, it might approach good.  So into the pot went the potatoes with a knob of butter, I liberally sprinkled salt, topped with copious amounts of freshly ground black pepper and set the whole thing on the burner to boil.  Looking at the developing soup, I added four good spoons of vegetable stock powder and turned my attention to the rivels.

I had never made rivels, but looking at the ingredients -- 1 cup flour, 1 egg, and 1/4 cup milk -- they looked a great deal like the rolled egg dumplings I was used to making for my homemade chicken and dumplings.  The directions said to make them into crumbs the size of cherry stones.  Well, the soft, sticky dough proved difficult to turn into crumbs, so I gave up and made the rolled dumplings I knew.  I love the rolled egg dumplings, because it is nearly impossible to over-roll them.  I have a tendency to make rolled doughs too thin, but the rolled egg dumplings specifically call for them to be rolled as thin as possible.  A liberally flour-dusted cutting board, a bit of kneading and, wham! I had rolled egg dumplings, if a bit softer and stickier than I am used to.  Taking no great care, I cut the thin dough into square-ish shapes, roughly the size of cherries and dropped them in the boiling broth with the potatoes.

The recipe instructions said to drop the rivels in and cook until the potatoes were done, so that is what I did -- and hoped for the best.  And the resulting soup became so much more than the sum of its parts.  The flour on the dumplings helped thicken the broth, just as the cooking potatoes did.  The melted butter incorporated well, making the broth rich and creamy.  The potato chunks were just beginning to dissolve.  And the addition of the vegetable stock powder enriched the broth with a bit of "je ne sais quoi."

What resulted was a great soup.  I can't speak yet as to its healing properties, either alone or as compared to chicken noodle soup, but even if it fails in a medicinal sense, it will have a place on my recipe rotation from now on.

Potato Soup with Rivels (adapted from From Amish and Mennonite Kitchens)

10-12 small to medium potatoes, peeled and diced
1/4 cup butter
salt and pepper
4 teaspoons vegetable stock powder or granules (give or take)

Place potatoes and butter in large pot, covering with water by about an inch.  Season with salt and pepper.  Add stock powder.  Bring to boil over medium heat.

Rivels/Dumplings

1 cup flour
1 egg
1/4 cup milk

Blend flour and egg, adding milk to make sticky dough.  Turn dough onto well floured board, kneading 4-5 times.  Roll thin.  Cut into small squares.

When soup is at a full and rolling boil, drop dumplings into broth, stirring well to keep from sticking together.  Continue boiling until potatoes are done, stirring often.  Season to taste.

Serve soup and dumplings in bowls with toasted bread.

Note:  you can add more water to the soup to make it a bit "brothier," but do not double the rivels/dumplings.  I have tried with other recipes to double the dumplings, but it never turns out correctly and all that results is a gummy mess.