Recipe: Egg Dumplings with Bison NY Strip Steak

So this was kind of a weird meal... definitely protein packed, as you can tell from the title! The story is it snowed all night and all day. It was cold and icy and since I work from home most days, there was nothing forcing me to leave the house all day. So, I was resolved to stay inside and NOT scrape off my car just to go to the grocery store.

So I made this meal using ingredients I already had in my house. The awesome thing is it doesn't take much: Eggs, Flour, Water, Onions, Butter & Steak!

Egg dumplings are one of the meals my dad would make when I was growing up. I don't make them often, but I like to have them every once in awhile. They're not hard to make, they're incredibly cheap and I like the way the taste. My biggest complaint is just that I can never think of anything to really go with them. But I've been thinking for awhile, that steak might be an interesting way to complement them, so I decided to give it a try!

This is a classic 'no-measurement' recipe... but I did my best to make measurements for you. I had seven eggs in my fridge, so I used all seven of them and added about 3.5 cups of flour. (You'll want to keep some extra on hand for when you're pulling out the dough.)

Above is what the dough looks like once it's mixed. Literally, it's just the eggs and the flour. You just mix it up really well with your hands until it forms a nice sturdy ball. Use just enough flour so it's not sticky.

To make the dumplings, you then just pull the dough apart into little chunks as seen above. Just pull out bite sized pieces. Use extra flour to keep it from sticking to your fingers and hands.

You'll take a large pot filled with water and bring it to boiling. Once the water is boiling, you'll add the dumplings to the water. You can do several at a time. Use a slotted spoon or strainer to make sure they do not stick to the bottom of the pot, then allow to remain in the water just until they pop up to the top. Using the spoon or strainer, pull them out and put them in a bowl or dish.

Once all the dumplings have boiled, you'll then need to pan fry them in a skillet. This is where you add the butter (about 6-8 tbsp.) and a sliced onion. Allow the butter to begin melting and add the dumplings. You can do these all at once or in waves. It usually works better to do them in smaller batches, but I didn't have much onion, so I did them all at once. 

Allow the dumplings to fry until they turn golden and start to brown. Remove from skillet and place in serving dish.

For my steak, I used a Bison NY Strip and seasoned it with garlic, pepper and rosemary. I cooked it in my cast iron skillet once the dumplings were done over medium low heat for 6-7 minutes on each side until it was cooked rare.

With bison you can cook up to medium doneness, but you don't want to go any further than that or your meat will become very tough.

Here is my cooked steak. I then sliced off the fat strip and cut it into thin slices to serve with my dumplings. 

Definitely a non-traditional meal, but a great, easy and delicious choice for avoiding the grocery store! 

Try a Bison NY Strip Steak: