Dampfnudeln mit Grumbeersupp

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Large mixing bowl
• •Soup pot, 4 litres
• •Wide heavy lidded skillet, 28 to 30cm
• •Bench scraper or sharp knife

Instructions

1. 1

   Make the dough

   Warm the milk to blood heat, then mix it with the yeast and sugar; hotter milk kills the yeast before the dough has a chance. Work in the flour, egg, soft butter, and fine salt until you have a smooth, elastic dough. Knead it until it pulls cleanly from the bowl, because a weak dough tears in the pan instead of rising into a proper Dampfnudel.

   If the dough feels stiff, add a spoon of milk. If it sticks like paste after kneading, dust in a little flour. Soft is good; sloppy is not.
2. 2

   Let it rise

   Cover the dough and leave it somewhere warm until doubled, about 60 to 75 minutes. Das braucht seine Zeit. Yeast dough that hasn't risen enough goes heavy in the middle, and no crust underneath will rescue it.

3. 3

   Start the soup

   Melt the butter or lard in a soup pot and sweat the onion, leek, carrot, and celeriac with a pinch of salt until glossy but not browned. This first gentle cooking pulls sweetness out of the roots, so the soup tastes like vegetables rather than boiled water with potatoes in it.

4. 4

   Cook the potatoes

   Add the diced floury potatoes, stock, bay leaf, and marjoram. Simmer until the potatoes break when pressed with a spoon, about 20 minutes; floury potatoes are right here because their starch thickens the soup without flour. Remove the bay leaf, crush some of the potatoes against the side of the pot, then stir in the Riesling and cream. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg at the end, because the soup reduces as it cooks and early salt can turn heavy. Keep it warm.

   Nicht aus dem Glas: use real stock if you can. A ham bone, vegetable trimmings, or chicken bones give the soup backbone, and Weggeworfen wird nichts.
5. 5

   Shape the dumplings

   Turn the risen dough onto a lightly floured board and divide it into 8 pieces. Cup each piece under your palm and roll it tight so the top is smooth; a sealed skin traps the gas inside, which gives the dumpling height. Set them on the board, cover them, and let them puff for 15 to 20 minutes while you prepare the pan.

6. 6

   Set the pan

   Use a wide heavy skillet with a tight lid, large enough to hold the dumplings with space between them. Add the oil or clarified butter, water, and coarse salt, then bring it to a lively simmer. The water will cook the dough first, and the fat and salt left at the end will build the crust. That's the whole trick.

7. 7

   Steam and crust

   Set the dumplings into the simmering pan, smooth side up, and clamp the lid on at once. Lower the heat to medium-low and do not lift the lid for 25 minutes. The trapped moisture cooks the bread through; when the sound changes from wet bubbling to a dry crackle, the water has gone and the salted bottom is frying. Lift the lid too early and you lose the heat, drop water back onto the dough, and spoil the crust.

8. 8

   Serve the bowls

   Spoon the Grumbeersupp into warm shallow bowls, scatter with parsley, and set two Dampfnudeln on each bowl with the crust facing partly upward so it stays crisp at the edge. Eat them at once, tearing the soft top into the soup and saving the salty base for the last bite. Schön ist, was schmeckt.

Chef Tips

• •The lid stays shut. If you need courage, use a glass lid and trust your ears: bubbling means cooking, crackling means crust.
• •Use floury potatoes for the soup, the kind that fall apart when boiled. Waxy potatoes stay neat and give you thin broth; this soup wants body.
• •Dry Riesling belongs here because the Pfalz grows it and the acidity cuts the cream and potato. Pour a little into the soup and the rest into glasses.
• •A tight heavy pan matters more than a fancy one. Thin pans scorch in spots before the water has gone, and then the crust tastes bitter instead of salty and crisp.

Advance Preparation

• •Make the soup up to 2 days ahead and reheat it gently, adding a splash of stock or water because potato soup thickens as it sits.
• •Mix the dough the night before with cool milk and let it rise slowly in the refrigerator; bring it to room temperature before shaping so the dumplings rise evenly.
• •Cook Dampfnudeln just before serving. Reheated ones lose the crust, and the crust is why we're here.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 900g)