My Grandma's Noodles
The recalcitrant brother called me up and asked me for my grandma's noodle recipe. I have it written on a slip of paper stuffed into my childhood Bible, which, surprise, I cannot find.
So, I said, I think it's a cup of flour, an egg, and some salt.
My dad found it written down someplace at their house and here is the actual recipe.
2 eggs
1 cup of flour
2 teaspoons of salt.
You make the flour and salt into a volcano shape and put the eggs in the middle and then work in all the flour you can until the mixture is stiff, but still workable. Then you roll it out on a well-floured surface, flouring to keep it from sticking, until the dough is 1/8 of an inch thick. You let it dry for two hours and then cut it into strips for noodles.
My grandma would cook a pot roast in a dutch oven on the stove and then cook the noodles in the juice of the pot roast while she cut the roast into chunks. Then, everything would go back in the pot in this tasty starchy mess.
I'm going to walk the recalcitrant brother through the process tomorrow.
posted by Aunt B at 2/18/2006 08:17:00 PM
6 Comments:
I think you have hit on a basic midwestern and southern difference. I have never seen a noodle recipe and would have had no clue how to make them. This seems pretty straight forward. I 've only ever had egg noddles from a bag.
I grew up with dumplings as probably the closest things to noodles, but they are much more bread-like. Can you clue me in on "Chicken and pastry"? Would this dish use your noodles too?
I haven't ever heart of "chicken and pastry." Maybe some other Midwesterner can clue us both in. Dumplings and these noodles are not that much different, as my poor mom can tell you. Every time she tries to make my grandma's noodles, she ends up with dumplings in the pot.
Mmm. We got an Italian pasta maker for Christmas, and your Grandma's recipe and technique is the same as that described in the Italian manual. (Which is hilarious in itself because it was apparently translated by a non-native speaker of English and so has wonderful lines like, "If you have been provident and bought the ravioli attachment...") Anyway, C. made our first batch the other night. You have to make sure that your volcano has sides tall enough to house both the eggs, because if you don't, as he found, the volcano erupts egg everywhere. The noodles were *awesome* though. I can't wait to make lasagna with those giant flat fresh noodles that you get before you slice them. Pasta is just like the ultimate comfort food.
Miss J
Perhaps 'chicken and pastry' is something like a pot pie?
A difference between dumplings and noodles is the addition of some baking powder (or is it soda, I can never remember) and a bit of liquid, and dumplings are usualy poached in a liquid rather than boiled like noodles. They are more roundish (golf ball sized) and should be fluffier, rahter than solid like a noodle.
Homemade noodles are the best.
I wondered if it was a pot pie, too, or something fancier. Saraclark, come back and answer our questions!
J., it's funny because it's just a normal noodle recipe, but I think the fact that she never actually rolled them extremely thin and that she cooked them in, basically, beef broth made them taste much different than pasta noodles.
The recalcitrant brother is going to try them and see if he can get them to work.
Peg, my poor mom. Her dumplings always disintigrate and her noodles turn to "numplings." The woman can cook up a storm and she makes a pie crust better than just about anyone, but any kind of main course dough fails her.
In Eastern North Carolina, "chicken and pastry" or, more simply, "chicken pastry" is basically large, flat pasta noodles boiled with a whole, cut-up chicken (or chicken parts). You boil them together in a large pot of salted and peppered water. No vegetables, no gravy. You end up with tender pasta noodles and savory chicken in a rich chicken broth.
I grew up in Eastern NC, and this dish was always a treat. We have it on special occasions like Thanksgiving but also for Sunday dinner (i.e., lunch). Simply one of my favorite meals. It takes me back . . . .
I finally learned to make the pastry myself in the last year, so now I don't have to rely on Grandma, my Mom, or my Aunt Jean to make this for me whenever I go home.
You can buy the noodles commercially now from Anne's Dumplings--http://www.annesdumplings.com/. They even serve them "way up North" in Pennsylvania where I now live.
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