Recipes.3

I'm behind! I've made a few good dishes in the last little bit. This one was for when we had Kendall and Luke over! Fun times! :)

Fried Chinese Dumplings and Asian-Style Stuffing

Those are the two main components to this dish, so I'll detail them one at a time. Both recipes are a little bit labor-intensive but can be done over the course of a couple of days. - you can freeze the dough, refrigerate the filling, puree the beets, etc. in advance. Simplifies it.

Fried Chinese Dumplings

1st: the dough - just a basic flat-bread dough.

2 1/2 cups of white flour
1 stick of cold butter
1/2 cup of cold water
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cloves

You probably already know how to do this... just roll it out and punch out rounds with a cup - about 3". Now you can refrigerate this for a while. Just bring it back to room temp before you fry them up.

2nd: the filling - chicken-based

2 chicken breasts
2 cups chk stock
1 small white onion
2 stalks of celery
2 small potatoes
1 stalk of leek
3 cloves garlic, minced
About an inch of ginger, broken off, skin and minced
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. white pepper

Chop everything into similar sizes (so it cooks at the same rate)
Combine everything in a pot and boil softly until everything is tender. Put everything into a food processer and blend it until it's a rough puree. You can also refrigerate this for as long as you need to.

3rd: Assemble.

Take the round circle, scoop a small spoonful of filling into the center, fold over until the edges match. With a fork, mash the dough closed so you have a pretty half-moon with ripples on the edges.
You can also refrigerate and save these.

4th: Fry it up!

Heat about a quart of oil until it jumps when you toss a drop of water into it.
With a wire-netted spoon, lower the dumplings down and fry through. When they're light-brown, put them onto a paper towel to cool. When the rounds are done and your dumplings are cooked, they can be kept warm in an oven for quite a while.


Asian Style Stuffing

Buy a package of regular stuffing (the kind where you just add water and boom, you're set)
1 can of beets
1 frozen package of broccoli, thawed
1/2 can of coconut milk
1/2 cup of brown sugar
2 T of maple syrup
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. black pepper
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. clove
1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1st step: prepare the stuffing normally. Steam the beets, roughly chopped, and broccoli in 1 cup of water with the brown sugar and seasonings. After the veggis are cooked through, blend them up in a food processer.

2nd: in a glass casserole dish, empty a first layer of stuffing with a spatula. Then, spread the pureed veggies on top. Finish with the coconut milk and syrup and put it into a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.
This stuffing becomes a beautiful purple color and is super flavorful.

Last but not least: have dinner!

To plate: put 4 dumplings on a plate and spoon a T of Thai chili sauce on top; spoon the stuffing on the side.

I served this with a bowl of easy soup: chicken broth, green onions (the whole thing), garlic, salt and pepper.