This is a great way to utilise stale bread or bread that’s coming up to its sell by date. We waste 900,000 tonnes of bread every year in the UK. This equates to around 24 million slices, or 1 million loaves, every day.
Seaweed Bread Dumplings with Wild Miso Broth
Overview
| Preparation Time:
Dumplings: 30 mins Broth: 10 mins | Cooking Time:
Dumplings: 30 mins Broth: 20 mins | Serves 6 |
Ingredients
For the dumplings:
Ingredients
1 small handful of washed pepper dulse
2 large handfuls of washed channel wrack
4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 large egg yolks
1 1/2 cups milk
10 slices stale (or to use up) bread, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
Fresh wild herbs & flowers, for garnish (such as common sorrel, wild fennel and gorse flowers)
For the broth:
Ingredients
1 large bunch of sea beet leaves
1 bunch of wild chives
A few sprigs of Alexander leaves
1 handful of fresh sea lettuce,
1 handful of fresh dulse
1 large onion (or a bunch of 3 cornered leeks)
Vegetable oil
A 5cm piece of ginger
2 garlic cloves
1 heaped teaspoon miso paste
800 ml vegetable stock (can be made with a stock cube)
Method
For the dumplings:
Mix together flour, bread pieces, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl, then set aside.
Whisk together egg yolks and milk in a separate medium bowl.
Pour the egg-milk mixture into the bowl with flour.
Roughly chop the channel wrack and pepper dulse & add to the mixture.
Work the dough with your hands, adding a little more flour if too sticky.
Using floured hands, shape the dough upon a chopping board into 3 or 4 rolls that are about 8 inches long and 2 1/2 inches wide, then cut them into thick slices.
Set aside to make the broth.
For the broth:
Lightly sauté your onions, ginger and garlic for a few minutes and then add the chopped sea beet leaves.
Add water and stock, turn up the heat to bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until the sea beet leaves are soft. At this point add your miso paste, chopped dulse and sea lettuce, chives and Alexanders then cook for a few minutes more.
Reduce the heat and now carefully add your dumplings, placing them around the broth to space them out slightly. Don’t have the heat high as cooking the dumplings at a rapid boil can cause them to disintegrate. Cover with a lid.
Remove a dumpling from the pot using a slotted spoon after 10 minutes of cooking and test for doneness by cutting through the middle of the dumpling with a sharp knife. The dumpling is done when the knife comes out almost clean after slicing it.
Serve warm in bowls and garnish with fresh wild herbs and flowers.