Remembering Aunt Fruzie

Yes, I had an Aunt named Fruzie. It was her real, full name. Fruzie was Southern to the last bone in her body. A sturdy little woman who ran a beauty parlor from the side parlor of her house in Chattanooga and grew tomatoes in her backyard.

In the summers, my parents would ship us off to Chattanooga for August - after summer school and camps were finished. We stayed with our Grandparents mostly - who lived in a modest house across the street from a cemetery and a pond full of catfish.

It was hot, sticky, and slow in August in Tennessee.

Aunt Fruzie would always pick us up - my brother and me - and take us on a trip to the Chickamauga Battlefield where our people lived during the Civil War, in a small log cabin.

Every year, she'd tell us about our people who abandoned that cabin to flee the Union Army. When they returned, it was a bit of a mess - a makeshift hospital of sorts used to treat the wounded. Those damn Yankees didn't clean up after themselves.

After a lot of war talk, Aunt Fruzie would take us to her house for dinner. Chicken and dumplings, a plate of sliced tomatoes, and ice cream. The dumplings were ALWAYS rolled. So thin. Served in a shallow bowl of broth with a few shreds of chicken. Divine.

I have her recipe written on a card. It's pretty simple. But, try as I might, my dumplings always came out like a hot mess. Thick and chewy. Not Aunt Fruzie delicious.

So, I did a bit of research. Alton Brown is from the South. I decided to trust his method for dumplings.

Since it's just the two of us, I split the recipe in half.

• 4 ounce all-purpose flour, approximately 1 cup, plus extra for rolling

• 1 teaspoon aluminum free baking powder

• 2 teaspoon kosher salt, divided

• 2 Tablespoons vegetable shortening, at room temperature

• 1/2 cup milk, chilled

Mix flout, baking powder, salt in a bowl. Add the shortening and with your hands, mix it into the flour until it resembles small crumbles. Add the milk, a bit at a time, and bring the dough together, using only enough milk to make it shaggy. Knead the dough a few times on a floured surface. Lay down a piece of parchment or wax paper and roll the dough until it is about 1/16". It's gotta be thin. Using a pizza wheel or a sharp knife, cut the dough into strips, then into pieces. Cover the dumpling dough with a clean dish cloth and leave it to dry out for at least a day. The longer the better.

By the time I cooked these beauties last night, they were very dry.

I previously made stock (Instant Pot all the way) and had quarts in the fridge ready to go. I cooked the chicken breasts in the oven (olive oil, salt, pepper) at 350° for about 45 min. until the internal temp was 165°. Cooled and shredded the meat.

I decided to defy Aunt Fruzie a bit and add some color to the bowl. I poured two quarts of stock into a sauce pan and cooked carrots and some sliced celery. I did them separately.

When just tender, I removed them. I assembled the bowls with the chicken, the veg, and started on the dumplings.

I dumped the dumplings in all at once and tasted along the way to make sure that they were cooked. They took way longer than I thought - like 15 minutes. But here's the thing - they were a bit chewy, a few puffy bubbles on the top, and delicious.

In fact they were so good, I forgot to take a picture. The broth thickened and reduced creating a smooth rich texture. We ate it all. Yum.