I love living in the same town as Mrs. Mildred Council, an inspiration for chefs, home cooks, kids and anybody with a dream of making a go of it in the business world by doing what she loves to do. Mama Dip’s Kitchen on Rosemary Street here in Chapel Hill, NC, is my go-to breakfast place, whether I’m looking for country ham with eggs and grits, or sausage gravy biscuits. For Sunday dinner, it’s the home of dynamite fried chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy, salmon cakes, fried fish with hush-puppies and slaw, and greens every day. For family-reunion-style cakes and pies, her son Joe Council has it covered, always.
Mrs. Mildred Council’s two best-selling cookbooks brighten any kitchen, with her memories of cooking at home and in her restaurant, and an abundance of satisfying can-do recipes.
Mama Dip’s
Country Bonnet Green Peas with Dumplings
This essential dish is family fare, where home cooks turned a cup of flour, an apronful of English peas, and a pot of water with butter and salt into a worthy and satisfying meal. If you have fresh English peas from the garden, use them here. If not, frozen peas make a memorable soup. I've adapted this recipe from Mama Dip's Kitchen by Mildred Council (UNC Press, Chapel Hill, NC.)
Ingredients
- 3 cups fresh shelled green peas (3 pounds whole) or 2 10-oz pkgs frozen peas
- 4 cups water
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup butter, cut into pieces (half a stick, 4 tablespoons)
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup broth from cooking the peas
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan, combine the peas, water, salt, and butter, and stir well. Bring to a lively boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat and simmer for about 15 minutes, until the peas are tender. Remove from heat and scoop out 1/3 cup of broth from the pot.
- In a medium bowl, combine the flour with the broth and stir well. You will have a raggedy bowlful of dough. Using your hands, press and push and scoop it into a lump and then knead it a few dozen times, until you have a fairly smooth, springy dough. stir broth into flour to make dough.. raggedy, knead it a little bit.
- Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out into a thin round. Cut it into long slender strips, and then cut each strip into lengths, about 1-inch wide and 2 inches long, or smaller. To cook, the pot of peas to the heat and bring to a rolling boil once again.
- Drop in the dough pieces, one by one, until all these dumplings have been added. Stir as you go to mix everything in well. Add water if needed, and simmer about 10 minutes more. When dumplings are tender and chewy like good pasta, and peas are sweet and tender, taste for salt and adjust if need be. Serve hot in bowl, with spoons for the broth.
- Serves 4 to 6
Nutrition Information
Yield 4 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 367Total Fat 13gSaturated Fat 7gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 4gCholesterol 31mgSodium 762mgCarbohydrates 51gFiber 9gSugar 9gProtein 13g
Thanks For Sharing this amazing recipe. My family loved it. I will be sharing this recipe with my friends. Hope the will like it.
First had this is southern Del. Loved it & figured out how to make it, but not from scracth like you. I cheated by using pre-made pie dough for the dumplings & canned peas. I will use fresh or frozen peas in the future. Also used a TBSP of powdered chicken bullion in the broth. Thanks for showing the right way!
You did good, as we say! While I call these dumplings, as in my family’s Piedmont NC chicken and dumplings, in Eastern NC the dish is called “chicken and pastry”; and some cooks use their standard piecrust dough instead of these very simple broth-and-flour version. (Another word for them is “slick-um’s”, which I love). Using prepared piecrust sounds to me like a worthy shortcut; and putting a little chicken stock in the broth boosts the savory flavor. I will say that I love the flavor of this dish with simply the butter and green peas, fresh or frozen petite peas. You could use frozen standard size peas too but the prettiest and tastiest for me is either fresh or frozen petites. Glad you are on Team Dumpling with me. I have a whole dumplings chapter in my cookbook, “Southern Soups and Stews”!
I had it for the first time in Southern Delaware too!! It’s the best
Oh how wonderful! I adore it for so many reasons. Time to make it with fresh peas, while I can still find them in the grocery store. Though it’s delicious and practical with frozen peas of course. Did you have it in someone’s home/from a home kitchen, or at a restaurant/cafe/meat&3?
I live in southern delaware and Im making some right now! I use better than boullion ham base. The key is to simmer those dumplings on low so they puff up real big soaking up all the delicouis ham flavor
Dan!!! Thank you for your response — I’m so slow to respond but delighted you checked in, and gave two gifts! Tip on Better than Bouillion ham base (I have chicken, beef, and vegetarian, but never even saw ham up there. I really like them so I will get that this week); and your note on simmering them low and slow. Will do! Happy cooking, and keep in touch!
My mother made these when I was a child. As an adult, I moved to Texas, where the peas were black-eyed. Recently, I noticed that HEB has started carrying fresh English peas. This was the first recipe I thought of, but I couldn’t remember how my mother cooked the peas. You know, though! I cannot wait to try these.
Thank you!
susan
Oh how wonderful! Have you had a chance to make it this year? What a lovely memory. I have friends from Austin and they are very fond of and proud of their purple hull peas. I love ALL the field pies so much, especially fresh, but dried is tasty too. Where did you grow up ? I love this recipe and am wondering how far away its roots grow, beyond Chatham County where Mrs. Council was born and raised.
I have made this recipe and enjoyed every bite! About to make it again. I grew up in Delaware, although my mother’s family was from Virginia. Thanks for your response!
I am delighted to know this, Susan! I’m making it this week, too. Happy tail-end-of-spring/hello, summer from me in NC!
all this looks good but i dont like noodle dumplings i like the bread dumplings sorry just my opion
Room for all the dumplings! I love those too. My friend Sherri calls them ‘fluffy dumplings’. With cool weather coming, it’s time to get out those “with dumplings” recipes and enjoy some comfort food.
I hear you, Bonnie! I just came across your comment from almost a year ago — how did I miss it? Dumplings are many and varied and we have our preferences. While these are my favorite, I know it’s not a better/worse thing in my case. It’s a matter of what my grandmother made, and that has a head start in terms of my heart. I think fluffy dumpling, bread or biscuit style, would be delicious here. Need to try it and report back. Happy summer to you!
Great post. I feel so ashamed though, six years in the south and I still haven’t made these!
This looks so soul-satisfyingly delicious! Oh, yummmmmm.
Well Marge, you are right on the money there. It is just that — I love it for the way that peas, flour, butter and water come together with an assist from salt and heat, into a homey feast. I’ve made it more times with frozen peas than with fresh ones, and either way, it’s pure, homespun pleasure.
I made this recpie with fresh peas from my garden and it was delicious and really flavorful. I added a bit more salt and some Accent to the water and a little salt and pepper to the flour. I don’t like soft peas so I only boiled the peas for 6 minutes then strained them reserving all the cooking liquid for cooking the dumplings. The dough was very stiff but I kneaded it til smooth then rolled it out to about 1/8” but next time I will roll it out even thinner! The dumplings were very firm and chewy like pasta. These are excellent “slippery dumplings” and would be great in a chicken and dumpling recipe! The broth was buttery and the fresh pea flavor came through. I put the peas back in the pot for a few minutes at the end of the Dumpling cooking time. Perfect!
Thank you so much Donna, for letting me know that you cooked this recipe and how it turned out. “Slippery dumplings!” Yes, my favorite kind. The biscuit-dough dumplings most Americans think of when they hear the words, “chicken and dumplings”, are great, but I’ll always go for these noodle-like ones typical of North Carolina home cooking. All the best to you and thank you for stopping by.