Sabine's Farina Dumplings

From: Carol cooks #2

On Feb 11, 2009

I am almost 70 yrs old and have been making these knoedels all my life as handed down from my Austrian grandmother to my mom. We don't melt the butter, just use a fork to combine it with the beaten eggs. (Thre butter will be in tiny little pieces and will tenderize the dumplings like shortening does in pie crust.) After the rest of the ingredients are added, it is imperative to cover and let the dough rest for 30 minutes. This gives the farina (cream of wheat) time to absorb the moisture from the eggs which makes each individual granule soft and tender. When cooked, these dumplings will TRIPLE in size, so I just can't see spooning golf-ball size amounts of dough into the boiling liquid. We use less than 1 teaspoonful of dough (use 2 teaspoons to form football shapes). You may drop them one by one into the liquid, but then you can 't tell which ones are done first. What I do is spoon each dumpling onto a piece of parchment paper and when all are done, dump them all at once into the boiling liquid. Boil them only 2 minutes, remove from heat, cover and let stand 15 minutes. Dumplings will have tripled in size and be tender and delicious. HINT: cook a test dumpling in small amount of boiling water. If it falls apart, you must add more farina to the dough. When you are ready to cook them all, drop them directly into your soup, not in water. They will absorb the chicken or beef flavor and be just fantastic. Also, add some chopped parsley for added color and flavor. By the way, we don't like the nutmeg, but that's a matter of personal taste. I hope other people try this recipe. The dumplings are truly unique and wonderful, aren'l they?