Grandmother Nelly's "ham, Peas and Dumplings (Old Recipe)

Submitted by Tiomarrano

"This is an old heirloom family recipe that has been in my family for 8 generations and it has always been a family favorite as I was growing up. I have never seen another recipe like it and I want to publish this before it gets lost to posterity. The dough recipe is unique, but maybe not too unlike some French dough recipes I've seen. Yet this is something I have seen nobody else publish. It seems to be an ancient recipe and I don't want it to get lost. So here it is. Beware: the dumplings are heavy, but that is part of what I like about this dish."

 

• Ready In: 1hr 30mins
• Ingredients: 15
• Yields: 12 dumplings
• Serves: 12

ingredients

• 1 cup water
• 1 cup flour (slightly heaping)
• 3 ounces margarine
• 4 large eggs
• 1⁄4 teaspoon salt
• 1⁄4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 2 (12 ounce) packages frozen peas
• 2 tablespoons margarine
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups water (or to cover)
• 2 (8 ounce) jars plum jelly or (8 ounce) jars currant jelly
• 2 teaspoons mustard
• 4 tablespoons white vinegar
• sliced pre-baked ham (served as part of final dish)

directions

1. Dough.
2. Bring water and margarine to boil in 2 qt sauce pan. Add one slightly heaping cup of flour, salt, pepper, nutmeg all at once. Stir vigorously in the pan until mixture no longer adheres to the bottom or sides of the pan. Let dough cool to luke warm. Then beat in the eggs, one at a time until the dough absorbs the egg and is no longer glossy. Do this with each egg.
3. PLEASE NOTE: you can possibly eliminate the back breaking nature of incorporating each of the eggs into the luke warm dough ball which would be the case if you do this all by hand. The process of incorporating the egg into the dough is very labor intesnsive since it takes a lot to beat until the egg(s) no longer make the dough glossy after beaten in long enough. So, you can take a shortcut by using the dough blade in your food processor and putting the WARM dough (do while dough ball from pan is still luke warm but not hot), place dough ball into the processor bowl and using your dough blade beat each egg into the dough in your food processor until the dough loses its glossiness from the egg. But if you don't have a food processor you can do the egg incorporation by hand, however it is pretty labor intensive.
4. Once the eggs are beaten into the dough, you now have completed the dumpling dough for this recipe.
5. Preparing the Dumplings and Peas.
6. Place 2 standard 12oz pkgs frozen peas into a large skillet and add WATER just to cover. Add the ¼ teaspoon of salt and the sugar and a two tablespoons of margarine. Bring peas to a simmer. Place one tablespoon of dough for each dumpling over the already simmering peas. Cover the peas and dumplings closely and keep covered while dumplings are rising).
7. Keep on simmer low enough so mixture boils only lightly, not hard and rapidly. Simmer all, covered, for 12 to 14 minutes.
8. To serve: Plate the peas and dumplings for each person, accompanied by generous slices of just baked ham. Each person can garnish with jelly sauce (below) to taste.
9. SWEET/SOUR JELLY SAUCE FOR HAM.
10. (Jelly sauce garnish that goes over the sliced, baked ham which accompanies this dish).

11. INSTRUCTIONS TO MAKE SAUCE:

12. Mix together either currant or plum jelly, vinegar and mustard into sauce pan and blend over low heat until jelly melts. Blend and adjust ingredients to taste and keep warm until served.
13. Serve on table in a gravy bowl or similar serving container and each can spoon it over their baked Ham slices.
14. Garnish portions of sliced (already baked) ham and the peas and dumplings with the sweet/sour jelly sauce (to taste).
15. Enjoy.