Humpty Dumplings

I love dumplings. There's really no easier way to say it.

I love them steamed, I love them fried, I love them boiled. I've never met a dumpling I could say "no" to. Even the janky ones served at cheap Chinese buffets I scarf down, and then go back for more.

Last night my husband wanted Thai lettuce leaf wraps (blog post to follow). Unsure this would quench our hunger, I decided to pick up some pork, cabbage, and wrappers to whip up some easy dumplings.

My usual method of dumpling making is quite simple. I throw cabbage, pork, and soy sauce into the food processor, I cook the filling, then fill the dumplings and pan fry them in oil. Horrifically un-authentic, you say? Yes, but when you have an unreasonable fear of raw meat (as I have for most of my life) you leave nothing up to chance.

After getting home, I had a forehead smacking moment when I realized that even after going to two grocery stores to get everything required, I had forgotten to pick up the dumpling wrappers.

Not to be deterred, I put on my thinking cap, rolled up my sleeves, and discovered my new favorite website, Epicurious.

Rediscovered is more like it, I guess. Around Christmas this year I made my sister a Tastebook using a few recipes from epicurious, but I had never taken the time to explore the website. Yesterday I found a treasure trove of recipes and, even better, videos! Including this awesome step by step video and recipe guide for making 1) dumpling wrappers 2) dumpling filling 3) directions for filling and cooking the dumplings AND 4) dipping sauce.

I decided it was time to get over my unreasonable fear of cooking dumplings with raw meat. I enlisted the husbot to help with the dumpling filling. We choose to steam half and pan fry half. Both were delicious and almost all were devoured last night.

These might have been the best dumplings ever (definitely the best I've ever made). If you've got an hour to spare, and a hankering for something tasty, try these out!

Sushi 2

A quick post to show off pictures of our recent sushi dinner. The ingredients used were: ahi, cucumber, avocado, cream cheese, and a spicy crab mix I whipped up. The rice didn't turn out too great, so I'll have to work on that some more, but overall everything was pretty easy, tasty, cheap (except for the ahi) and healthy (except for the cream cheese). That's my kind of meal!

Sushi!

Sushi, the unatainable dream for midwesterners. I used to say "i don't eat sushi, because we can't get fresh fish here". I now think different, but am still leary of any kind of 'fresh fish' dish in the midwest (save catfish-and so far I haven't seen that as a sushi highlight...except for these crazy cats).

However, the lure to create my own sushi masterpiece has grown to new heights, fueled by a series of well written instructables.

Tonight at 8:00 I decided it was high time, I conquered sushi. I found a sushi mat at world market (i know, i know--but in my defence, the previous midwest argument), smoked salmon and nori and set off on an adventure. As the pictures show, my rolling technique needs some work, but all in all my cucumber-cream cheese-smoked salmon rolls came out pretty good. To heck with the fact that no self-respect legit sushi maker would put include cream cheese...referring to that Midwesterner argument: everything's better with cream cheese in it!

I tried to make some sesame fish sticks for appetizers. They turned out well, but were a bit too sesame-y, i think maybe next time they could do with some added spices in the batter.