I feel I must digress on a topic I brought up over the weekend...the failed Chicken and Dumplings recipe. The fact that I am still thinking about this three days later tells me I did not properly address the topic in the first place! While I love trying new things, I tend to be a creature of habit. When I go out to eat, 99% of the time I will order the same thing despite the fact that I take 30 minutes to read the menu (this particular quirk of mine drives MM crazy). It's not that I don't like attempting a new dish, but I don't eat out as much as I used to and the thought of being disappointed in my meal isn't worth the risk. For me, trying a new dish usually comes at a new high end restaurants as that seems to be the place where I find that you can't really go wrong on a menu.
I apply some of the same principles when cooking at home. I do try new recipes a fair amount, and have a tendency to doctor them to my own likes. In the full fat recipe experimental days finding a great recipe was far easier. When dieting I find recipe sampling far more dangerous. Diet recipes are hit or miss. And most of the time a dieter is so hungry that a miss can trigger either a set back or pure rage. This weekend we had one success and one failure. Friday night MM found a recipe for chicken stuffed with chopped spinach, mushrooms (left out of mine as this is yet another food I do NOT like...yes, the list grows as you read) and mozzarella topped with a tomato basil puree. I admit, I was somewhat skeptical but willing to give MM a shot (he love to cook new things on the weekends). While it certainly wasn't world's most fabulous stuffed chicken breast (sadly it's hard for me not to compare what I would do if calories weren't an obstacle) it was a nice change to my usual rotation of foods that I'm growing weary of eating. So...I'll place this recipe in the "winner" category. More than anything I LOVE his effort to find a meal that fit his tastes and my diet needs.
Night number two...the big fat loser. I'm not sure how many of you have had true Southern Chicken and Dumplings. I'm not talking about Cracker Barrel (I guess a reasonable version for us Northern Folk, but nothing compared to a local Southern joint). This dish is a staple at any buffet counter in the South. Honestly, until a year into my relationship with MM, I'd never even heard of the dish (I can't speak for other Northern people because I think I am even more within a food bubble than other normal folk up here). If you'd told me it was sort of a thick white gravy dish I'd have been less than excited. When MM wanted to make it for dinner one night I sort of grumbled but acquiesced. I rue the day. I never knew what I was missing and right now, deep into my diet, it's recipes like this that kill me. I'm like a dog obsessed with a ball (funny I should use that reference as MM actually called the dog by my name this morning....not sure what that says!) I knew if we made our normal version it would be a gateway drug so to speak. The beginning of the end of my diet as I knew it. Therefore when MM found the recipe for the Weight Watcher's version I was eager to try (and even more impressed by his level of support to forgo his version and eat what we both knew would not taste anything like the original...little did I know he had planned a back up version for himself...bastard).
I did all the prep work for him. It's not that I like playing the role of the sous chef so much as I like to control not only the ingredient calculation whilst preparing a diet meal but to contain the kitchen mess (can you all say a collective "control freak?") I always appreciate the effort MM puts forth to cook, but his method (or lack there of) is enough to push this OCD person over the edge. (In retrospect the marriage of two type A's, one with OCD tendencies and the other an off the charts A.D.D. sufferer, may not have been the brightest union!) Let me give you a little visual. Start with an immaculate kitchen (ironically the man decides to play cooking school inevitably on the day I've decided to scour the kitchen). Now, line the counters with grocery bags. Any normal human would unpack the bags first and get needed ingredients in order. Not MM. He unpacks the bags partially as he uses each ingredient, never mind if there are items requiring refrigeration or freezing. Next take out every single pot and pan, some are used and some just there because it's too hard to put them back. Now imagine pots bubbling over and extinguishing all four flames on the gas stove. It's usually this point when I can smell the escaping gas that I go to the kitchen and attempt to intercede in the background (said activity usually leads to an argument where I'm called controlling and banished from the kitchen). At any rate, to avoid this scenario I try to do some prep work in advance!
Wow, I realize that this entry has been one giant digression. Isn't that what blogging is all about people? OK readers, stay with me a little bit longer, I promise I have a point! I should have known with an ingredient list 22 items long I was in for trouble. Red flag that many items for a dish that is pretty basic is a sign the recipe creators are trying to create flavor where there is none! Furthermore the recipe called for 4 leaks and 4 shallots (I am an onion lover of all varieties but even this seemed to skew on the high side). Needless to say, I followed the prep work to a T and left tiny bowls and plates of ingredients all along the counter. MM was thankful and remarked he felt like he was attending cooking school (ah, success on my part to be so organized!).
Stage two, assembly of said products. MM had some difficulty browning the chicken due to the small amount of oil used in the recipe. I knew the slight issues with this process could not possibly have lead to the poorness of the dish's flavor. When all was said and done we were both left looking at the pot wondering how the broth like mixture was going to magically turn into savory chicken and dumplings. Let me save you the suspense, no such transition was made. The dumplings, made mostly from cornmeal, did nothing to thicken the broth. Despite the fact that the recipe supposedly served six, there may have been six dumplings. Weak, Weight Watchers Chefs, really weak! The grand finale was nothing more than mealy over oniony soup. I refused to waste it and was far too tired to come up with an alternative dinner (MM had his back up of course) so I ate the damn "Chicken and Dumplings" masked as soup! It wasn't the worst thing in the world, but so far from expectations it was merely functional eating at that point.
Let me assure you, there are dozens of versions of Chicken Dumplings and all vary slightly in appearance. But none looked anything like the version we tried. Just to give you a few visuals:
Paula Dean (the Queen of Southern Cooking) does Chicken and Dumplings right!
Here is the Weight Water's version...notice a difference right away?
Another picture of "real" Chicken and Dumplings...no veggies but same creamy gravy-like consistency.
Back to the Weight Watcher's version...notice the dripping liquid from the ladle. I'm pretty sure the real version would stick to a spoon like glue.
On this picture of "real" Chicken and Dumplings note the sheer volume of Dumplings...basically an entire layer!
Notice anything missing here?? Yeah, I don't see any dumplings either. The 6 or so "dumplings" dissolved upon serving. As well, note the amount of leaks...is this onion soup or Chicken and Dumplings:
The conclusion of this pictorial essay is the companion photo that accompanied the Weight Watcher's Chicken and Dumpling recipe I found online.
Really? An empty clean plate and some silverware? If that wasn't a huge missed red flag I don't know what was.
In conclusion I made a really nasty version of chicken soup. No rice or noodles, but just some wet cornmeal as the soup's starch. I'm not knocking chicken soup. It is one of my favorites. I have a recipe to die for. Had I wanted chicken soup, I would have made my own.
As I started this post, you win some, you lose some. Put this in the lose pile and move on. Hopefully through this post my rage and disappointment will subside and I can move on to calmer days!!
Until tomorrow, happy healthy eating.
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