Rich Country Chicken Soup
Makes 6 servings
Very rich, very yummy

3 tbsp butter
4 ozs. button mushrooms, chopped
1/3 cup all purpose flour
2.5 cups strong chicken stock
2.5 cups milk
12 ozs cooked chicken, diced
2 egg yolks
2/3 cup half and half
Salt and pepper to taste

WATERCRESS DUMPLINGS
1 cup self rising flour
2 ozs. shredded suet (we used crsico, it worked fine)
1 bunch watercress, trimmed, finely chopped
1 small egg, beaten
Chicken stock for cooking dumplings

Melt butter in a large saucepan.  Gently cook mushrooms 4-5 minutes.  Stir in flour, then gradually add stock and milk.  Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.  Cover and simmer 15 min.  Meanwhile to prepare dumplings, sift flour into a medium sized bowl.  Mix in salt, herbs, suet, and watercress.  Add egg and water and mix to form a dough,.  Roll dough into 24 balls.  In a large saucepan, bring stock to a boil.  Drop dumplings into stock, cover and simmer 10 min.

Remove soup from heat and stir in chicken.  In a small bowl, beat egg yolks and half and half.  Ladle in a small amount of soup into half and half mixture and mix quickly.  Pour back into soup and heat gently without boiling until thick.  Season with salt and pepper.  Using slotted spoon, remove dumplings from stock and add to soup to serve.
 

From "The Complete Step-By-Step Cookbook", Copyright 1998 Salamander Books, Ltd
I recommend that you buy the book if you find it.
 


Notes: We first made this for one of the sunday dinners, probably around '98.  It takes a while but if you have time and want some good comfort food, this is it.  It's not just rich, it also has a nice chicken and mushroom flavor.  When we make the dumplings, they get all mushy on the outside, unlike the picture in the book.  They still taste good and the watercress give them a slight chlorophyll 'bite' that goes well with the super-cream of the soup.
 

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