I know there are a lot of recipes out there for waffles, and there is that Waffles of Insane Deliciousness recipe you find left, right, and center on the web these days. This is the recipe I have used for many years now which gives me waffles that are crispy on the outside, tender in the middle, and absolutely delicious.
Ingredients
3/4 cup bleached all purpose flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup milk
6 Tbsp butter
1 large egg
1 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Melt the butter over a low heat until just melted then set aside- you want it completely liquid without being hot.
Combine the flour, corn starch, salt, baking powder, baking soda in a
large bowl. No need to sift, but go ahead if you feel like you have to.
Separate the egg yolk from the egg white. Combine the egg yolk, milk,
and butter milk. Whip the egg white until soft peaks have formed, then
add the sugar and vanilla and continue to whip until stiffened.
Add the butter to the dry ingredients, then add the milk mixture to the
dry ingredients. Rapidly mix with a whisk until it is just homogenous.
It doesn't have to be absolutely lump-free, but should be close. Make
sure you do this in a large bowl because you want to do it rapidly. The
longer you whisk, the tougher the resultant waffles will be.
A dollop at a time, fold the egg white into the batter using a soft
rubber spatula. Again, don't worry about lumps too much, but you don't
want giant chunks. Use a soft spatula- I have found it is less likely to
destroy the egg white.
If you want to make a batch and serve all at once, have an oven pre-heated to 200 and lay the waffles inside in a single layer and they'll be crispy and warm for service.
If you want a slightly different taste, use almond extract instead of
vanilla- you get more of a nutty taste which compliments the browning
flavor of the waffle.
I don't bother to grease the waffle iron because there is a fair amount of butter in the recipe. Your waffle iron may vary.
Wednesday, October 16, 2019
Sunday, October 13, 2019
Beef Jerky
~1/2 cup Kikomon Low sodium soy sauce
1 tsp dijon
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp horseradish
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp sriracha
Look, here's the thing with home made beef jerky. No matter what you do, it's going to taste delicious. So if you look at my ingredients and think something sounds terrible, then swap it for something else. Try using a teriyaki sauce or a barbeque sauce. Maybe you like a hotter jerky or a sweeter jerky, so add more hot peppers or some honey. You really can't go wrong with the ingredients.
Where you do go wrong is with the meat itself. You want a very lean cut of meat- london broil, top round, something like that. Buy whichever is on sale. Now trim off all of the fat.
Normally when eating meat, you want to cut against the grain. You get a more tender bite of meat when you do so. For my jerky, I prefer to cut with the grain. Cutting against the grain gives a more crumbly jerky, while cutting with the grain gives a harder, chewier jerky. There is no right answer here, it's really a question of whether you prefer more tender jerky, or a jerky that gives your jaw a workout.
1 tsp dijon
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp horseradish
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp sriracha
Look, here's the thing with home made beef jerky. No matter what you do, it's going to taste delicious. So if you look at my ingredients and think something sounds terrible, then swap it for something else. Try using a teriyaki sauce or a barbeque sauce. Maybe you like a hotter jerky or a sweeter jerky, so add more hot peppers or some honey. You really can't go wrong with the ingredients.
Where you do go wrong is with the meat itself. You want a very lean cut of meat- london broil, top round, something like that. Buy whichever is on sale. Now trim off all of the fat.
Normally when eating meat, you want to cut against the grain. You get a more tender bite of meat when you do so. For my jerky, I prefer to cut with the grain. Cutting against the grain gives a more crumbly jerky, while cutting with the grain gives a harder, chewier jerky. There is no right answer here, it's really a question of whether you prefer more tender jerky, or a jerky that gives your jaw a workout.
Friday, October 4, 2019
New York Bagels
I love bagels. A good bagel is everything I want in bread. A dense chew, a crispy skin, flavors and toppings galore. And yet it is a true nightmare to find them anymore, even in New York where everything is increasingly made mass-produced and quickly because with rent the way it is, nobody can afford to do things slowly anymore. The profit margin is simply too thin.
So I decided to make my own. This took research from old cookbooks, looking into the science, experimentation, and even finding an old amateur home move made in the 70's by a man who wanted everybody to know his love for bagels and actually got one of the ubiquitous bagel bakeries in Brooklyn to walk him through all the steps of how they made bagels.
This recipe will make 12 medium or 8 large bagels. I use it to make 8 large bagels and will refer to it accordingly. Note that this makes bagels with a lot of chew. If you like fluffier bagels, skip adding the gluten and use AP flour. If you are taking the time to make this from scratch, you make it how you like it and don't let anybody judge you for how you like it.
You will need:
Sieve flour, salt, vital wheal gluten into bowl of stand mixer with a dough hook. Add 1 teaspoon salt.
If you have instant yeast, you can add it directly into the flour. If instead you have Active Dry Yeast, wait to add it because the recipe changes slightly: Add a pack of yeast to 1/4 cup warm water along with a teaspoon sugar, then stir to dissolve and set aside. If after ten minutes it is not frothy, your yeast is dead and you need to stop cooking, throw it out, and get new yeast. Be sure to change the amount of water added later to 1 1/2 cups instead of 1 3/4 cups so that it balances out.
Turn stand mixer on the lowest speed.
Add ~3 tablespoons (a generous couple of glugs) malt syrup to 1 cup cold water and stir to dissolve.
If you used the Active Dry Yeast, now is the time to add it. Rinse the cup with the yeast mixture out with the water/malt syrup mixture in order to get all the yeast, adding the water to the flour a little bit at a time.
The first cup of water (with the malt syrup) can be added pretty quickly. Add the last half cup or 3/4 cup very slowly- you are looking for a very shaggy consistency where it just comes together into a shaggy ball. Then add a tiny amount more water and leave the machine to continue to work the dough. The shagginess should go away after a minute to two and the dough come together. The last few tablespoons added in the end should make the dough slide around in the bowl, and that is okay, it is how you know it is the right amount.
This is a very dry, dense dough. It is very sensitive to water content; if you add too much water, the texture will be affected. Continue to work the dough for a few more minutes until you are certain that the moisture has worked its way through. Baking is sensitive to a lot of things like the kitchen's temperature and humidity, so you may need to add a little more or a little less water, which is why you are adding the final half cup a little bit at a time.
Remove the bowl and set aside, covered, for ten minutes. This gives the gluten time to form, chemicals to break down, wheat granules time to absorb moisture, etc.
Put the bowl back and knead again for another 2-3 minutes. Take the lump of dough out and cut into 8 equal pieces. Cover and leave on the countertop for ten minutes.
While the dough is rising, take out a baking sheet. Make sure that you have a shelf in your refrigerator large enough (and cleared) to accommodate the sheet. Sprinkle the sheet generously with cornmeal.
Roll a dough piece into a ball shape by pressing a flat palm firmly against it and rolling- you may see the dough having twisted around and forming a navel (or even a second one on the bottom) as you do so. If you do, congratulations, you are doing well! As you roll, you will feel the dough tighten under your hand- you are bringing the dough together and adding strain to the structure, which helps develop the chew.
You should feel the dough as quite silky, dense, tough. Flatten out and roll out with a rolling pin. You don't need to go too crazy with this, you are looking for 5 mm or under (a little under 1/4 inch). Flip it over and re-roll as needed. Set the rolling pin aside and roll one edge all the way to the other side into a nice, tight cylinder- like a rolled up newspaper. Roll it back and forth a couple of times until it is ~8 inches or so long. Twist the dough cylinder a couple of times, like wringing out a towel.
If you have small hands, use all four fingers for this next step. If you have huge hands like me, use the forefinger, middle, and ring finger. Form the twisted cylinder into a ring with the ends overlapping one another. Classically you do this by wrapping the cylinder around your fingers and rolling the two ends together. Place rolled bagel dough onto the baking sheet with cornmeal.
Many instructions will tell you to just punch a hole through the middle of the dough ball with your thumb and stretch it out. I have seen arguments back and forth about whether or not this is proper. I don't do it, because the Bagelmen of old didn't, and they did it long and often enough to have tried doing that, and they didn't.
You want to be pretty quick about these last couple of steps so that the bagels are all in place before they have a chance to dry out. The speed comes with practice, so do not be afraid to have some plastic wrap you can drape over the dough as you roll out more bagels. Good bagels do not have a huge hole, and the dough in this shape wants to retract into a smaller form. With the dough in your hand you can gently squeeze the dough to encourage that retraction and make the hole smaller. Do not go crazy with this; between rising, boiling, and baking much of the hole will fill in so don't worry about it too too much.
Repeat process until all eight bagels have been made. Cover pan with plastic wrap and set aside ten minutes, then place in refrigerator overnight.
The next day:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Take the sheetpan out of the fridge and set on your countertop to warm a little before boiling.
Prep a stockpot of water to boil. Add a generous glug or two malt syrup and a tablespoon either baking soda or (if you have it) potassium bicarbonate. As you will see from the results below, this gave a lovely textured skin with great browning and flavor.
I do not have a huge stockpot, so I can only boil two or three bagels at a time. Take two bagels from the sheet and drop them into the boiling water. Do not worry about the cornmeal, most or all of it should come off in the boiling water. After thirty seconds, flip the bagels. After another thirty seconds, remove to cooling rack. Repeat until all eight bagels are on the cooling rack.
If you are going to add toppings, now is one of the two times to do it.
Place cooling rack onto a new sheet pan, then place in the hot oven. After 3 minutes, remove the rack and baking sheet from the oven. Take the bagels off of the cooling rack and flip them over onto the baking sheet; the top skin will have begun to dry and harden.
The gel layer that forms on the outside of the bagel after being boiled will act like a glue and attach the bagel to whatever surface it is on. By flipping it, you use the already dried skin as the contact layer, so that it does not stick. If you wait more than three minutes, the bagels will stick to the wire rack and be more difficult to remove, potentially ruining the skin.
If you are going to add toppings, this is the second time to do it. Sprinkle the toppings on top of the bagels (now it is actually the top of the bagel). Stick the baking sheet with the bagels back into the oven. Continue to bake for 10 minutes, flip the bagels, bake for another 10 minutes. Remove from oven, then remove bagels to cooling rack.
Some notes:
So I decided to make my own. This took research from old cookbooks, looking into the science, experimentation, and even finding an old amateur home move made in the 70's by a man who wanted everybody to know his love for bagels and actually got one of the ubiquitous bagel bakeries in Brooklyn to walk him through all the steps of how they made bagels.
This recipe will make 12 medium or 8 large bagels. I use it to make 8 large bagels and will refer to it accordingly. Note that this makes bagels with a lot of chew. If you like fluffier bagels, skip adding the gluten and use AP flour. If you are taking the time to make this from scratch, you make it how you like it and don't let anybody judge you for how you like it.
You will need:
- 1 pack or 3/4 teaspoon instant yeast
- 1 teaspoon salt (use a humble inexpensive kind, bagels are a proletariat bread)
- 1 3/4 cup cold water
- 4 cups flour. You can use bleached white all purpose flour and it will turn out okay (fluffy, but okay). If you want it to be really the right consistency though, use high gluten flour. I use King Arthur High Gluten Flour (also known as King Arthur's Sir Lancelot Flour, so named because it is the finest and mightiest of their flours. Seriously.)
- 8 teaspoons vital wheat gluten. You will want at least 1 tablespoon per cup flour for lower gluten flours.
- Malt syrup
- Cornmeal.
- Toppings (optional): coarse salt, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, dried onion, dried garlic, whatever. For Everything Bagels mix equal parts onion, sesame seed, and poppy seed.
- baking soda or potassium bicarbonate
Sieve flour, salt, vital wheal gluten into bowl of stand mixer with a dough hook. Add 1 teaspoon salt.
If you have instant yeast, you can add it directly into the flour. If instead you have Active Dry Yeast, wait to add it because the recipe changes slightly: Add a pack of yeast to 1/4 cup warm water along with a teaspoon sugar, then stir to dissolve and set aside. If after ten minutes it is not frothy, your yeast is dead and you need to stop cooking, throw it out, and get new yeast. Be sure to change the amount of water added later to 1 1/2 cups instead of 1 3/4 cups so that it balances out.
Turn stand mixer on the lowest speed.
Add ~3 tablespoons (a generous couple of glugs) malt syrup to 1 cup cold water and stir to dissolve.
If you used the Active Dry Yeast, now is the time to add it. Rinse the cup with the yeast mixture out with the water/malt syrup mixture in order to get all the yeast, adding the water to the flour a little bit at a time.
The first cup of water (with the malt syrup) can be added pretty quickly. Add the last half cup or 3/4 cup very slowly- you are looking for a very shaggy consistency where it just comes together into a shaggy ball. Then add a tiny amount more water and leave the machine to continue to work the dough. The shagginess should go away after a minute to two and the dough come together. The last few tablespoons added in the end should make the dough slide around in the bowl, and that is okay, it is how you know it is the right amount.
This is a very dry, dense dough. It is very sensitive to water content; if you add too much water, the texture will be affected. Continue to work the dough for a few more minutes until you are certain that the moisture has worked its way through. Baking is sensitive to a lot of things like the kitchen's temperature and humidity, so you may need to add a little more or a little less water, which is why you are adding the final half cup a little bit at a time.
Remove the bowl and set aside, covered, for ten minutes. This gives the gluten time to form, chemicals to break down, wheat granules time to absorb moisture, etc.
Put the bowl back and knead again for another 2-3 minutes. Take the lump of dough out and cut into 8 equal pieces. Cover and leave on the countertop for ten minutes.
While the dough is rising, take out a baking sheet. Make sure that you have a shelf in your refrigerator large enough (and cleared) to accommodate the sheet. Sprinkle the sheet generously with cornmeal.
Roll a dough piece into a ball shape by pressing a flat palm firmly against it and rolling- you may see the dough having twisted around and forming a navel (or even a second one on the bottom) as you do so. If you do, congratulations, you are doing well! As you roll, you will feel the dough tighten under your hand- you are bringing the dough together and adding strain to the structure, which helps develop the chew.
You should feel the dough as quite silky, dense, tough. Flatten out and roll out with a rolling pin. You don't need to go too crazy with this, you are looking for 5 mm or under (a little under 1/4 inch). Flip it over and re-roll as needed. Set the rolling pin aside and roll one edge all the way to the other side into a nice, tight cylinder- like a rolled up newspaper. Roll it back and forth a couple of times until it is ~8 inches or so long. Twist the dough cylinder a couple of times, like wringing out a towel.
If you have small hands, use all four fingers for this next step. If you have huge hands like me, use the forefinger, middle, and ring finger. Form the twisted cylinder into a ring with the ends overlapping one another. Classically you do this by wrapping the cylinder around your fingers and rolling the two ends together. Place rolled bagel dough onto the baking sheet with cornmeal.
Many instructions will tell you to just punch a hole through the middle of the dough ball with your thumb and stretch it out. I have seen arguments back and forth about whether or not this is proper. I don't do it, because the Bagelmen of old didn't, and they did it long and often enough to have tried doing that, and they didn't.
You want to be pretty quick about these last couple of steps so that the bagels are all in place before they have a chance to dry out. The speed comes with practice, so do not be afraid to have some plastic wrap you can drape over the dough as you roll out more bagels. Good bagels do not have a huge hole, and the dough in this shape wants to retract into a smaller form. With the dough in your hand you can gently squeeze the dough to encourage that retraction and make the hole smaller. Do not go crazy with this; between rising, boiling, and baking much of the hole will fill in so don't worry about it too too much.
Repeat process until all eight bagels have been made. Cover pan with plastic wrap and set aside ten minutes, then place in refrigerator overnight.
The next day:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Take the sheetpan out of the fridge and set on your countertop to warm a little before boiling.
Bagels removed from fridge
Experiments with changing active ingredients in the boiling water.
From left to right- sugar, baking soda, plain water, and malt syrup.
There are a million different suggestions for what to add to the water. I experimented with a bunch:
Just water: Did not brown brilliantly, skin was thin. Slight sweetness to the dough.
Sugar: Bland and dull. Tasted like something from a supermarket.
Baking soda: Great browning, skin texture good. Nice flavor.
Malt syrup: Browning okay, skin texture great with a little crisp to it. Nice flavor.
Vinegar: Did not brown well. Stank up kitchen. No particular taste.
Baking soda and malt syrup: Very nice. Good browning, great skin texture, nice flavor.
Potassium bicarbonate: Great browning, more intense than baking soda, skin texture too soft. Great flavor.
Calcium carbonate: Almost inedible. Pale white with a tinge of brown in spots, the calcium carbonate somehow deposited a visible layer over the whole bagel (and on the bottom of the pot too!). Unpleasant skin, flavor was doughy.
Potassium bicarbonate and malt syrup: The winner for me, which is lucky since I have to cut my sodium. Great skin, great browning, great flavor, a real winner. That said, it is almost exactly the same as baking soda and malt syrup, to the point that there may be variations like the dough and the temperature and such influencing the test, as these are very close.
Sodium hydroxide probably works beautifully, but I have to watch my sodium. If you decide to handle lye in your kitchen, you are responsible for handling it safely. I do not condone its use for most people. I am a professional chemist and have been trained in the safe handling of hazardous chemicals, while you probably have not. You have been warned.
Bagels post-boil. Note the color change compared to when taken from the fridge.
If you are going to add toppings, now is one of the two times to do it.
Place cooling rack onto a new sheet pan, then place in the hot oven. After 3 minutes, remove the rack and baking sheet from the oven. Take the bagels off of the cooling rack and flip them over onto the baking sheet; the top skin will have begun to dry and harden.
The gel layer that forms on the outside of the bagel after being boiled will act like a glue and attach the bagel to whatever surface it is on. By flipping it, you use the already dried skin as the contact layer, so that it does not stick. If you wait more than three minutes, the bagels will stick to the wire rack and be more difficult to remove, potentially ruining the skin.
If you are going to add toppings, this is the second time to do it. Sprinkle the toppings on top of the bagels (now it is actually the top of the bagel). Stick the baking sheet with the bagels back into the oven. Continue to bake for 10 minutes, flip the bagels, bake for another 10 minutes. Remove from oven, then remove bagels to cooling rack.
Final Product
Some notes:
- That's a lot of work just for 8 bagels, and my fridge is big- is there a way to scale this up and maybe make a double batch?
- Yes and no. Yes, the recipe does at least double. However, the trouble is the time it takes to roll out each bagel. When there are only 8, the bagels are not sitting out on your counter for very long before going into the fridge. When there are 16, this time becomes significant, and the earlier rolled bagels will overprove. If you have more than one person rolling the dough together, you can get away with this. If you are doing this by yourself, I would instead suggest two batches instead.
- As an aside, I have a professional series kitchen aid stand mixer with all metal gears. This was a very deliberate purchase. I have owned this stand mixer for ten years. When I doubled the recipe, for the first time I could smell the motor overheating, and it shut itself off from it. I had read of the automatic overheating shutoff, but never actually seen it. If you double this recipe, make sure your equipment can handle it.
- Is there a way to make these ahead of time?
- Absolutely! Make the bagels all the way through baking them for the initial 3 minutes to tighten the skin. Then take the bagels and stick them into freezer bags and freeze them. When you are ready to cook them, place on baking sheet, frozen, and stick them into a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes, flip, then 5 more minutes. This is also a good way to prepare large batches of them ahead of time (see previous question)- 8 bagel batches are much easier to handle, and you can just make a bunch of them and freeze them, so you have freshly baked bagels anytime!
- Eight bagels! How can I possibly eat so many all at once? How do I prevent them from going stale?
- After the bagels have cooled, they are best enjoyed within two or three hours. If you will not eat them within that time, place into freezer bag and freeze. You can microwave on high for 30-45 seconds if you have a powerful microwave, or a full minute if you have a puny microwave like me.
Sunday, September 22, 2019
Chicken Pot Pie dumplings
Ingredients:
Asparagus, 1 kilo
Milk: ~1 cup
Flour: 2 tablespoons
Fat: 1-2 tablespoons
Chicken: ~1 breast, cooked.
1 large onion.
Snap your asparagus to get rid of the woody part. Dump into boiling water for 5 minutes, sample for doneness, then drain and set aside. The asparagus should be tender (not soft) and sweet. This cooks the asparagus and removes excess oxalate.
Dice your onion medium-fine and saute with a little PAM for ~5 minutes, enough that they soften and sweeten.
I had some chicken schmaltz handy (if you don't, you should start collecting it), but you can use butter. To a small saucepot, add the fat and a sieved 1-2 tablespoons flour. We want that rich, creamy interior from a pot pie. If you do not have schmaltz, you will want to add some chicken stock to give the sauce a rich chicken-y flavor. If you do have schmaltz, you may want to as well. Add the milk, stirring. You want a fairly thick sauce, so that it helps glue everything together. I would have made a veloute, but discovered that I had no stock.
Chop chicken into small pieces.
Combine asparagus, sauce, chicken, onion. Salt and pepper to taste, then fold with a rubber spatula.
Fill dumplings as usual. Steam. I have not found that this particularly benefits from frying, though it does not do it any harm either.
Asparagus, 1 kilo
Milk: ~1 cup
Flour: 2 tablespoons
Fat: 1-2 tablespoons
Chicken: ~1 breast, cooked.
1 large onion.
Snap your asparagus to get rid of the woody part. Dump into boiling water for 5 minutes, sample for doneness, then drain and set aside. The asparagus should be tender (not soft) and sweet. This cooks the asparagus and removes excess oxalate.
Dice your onion medium-fine and saute with a little PAM for ~5 minutes, enough that they soften and sweeten.
I had some chicken schmaltz handy (if you don't, you should start collecting it), but you can use butter. To a small saucepot, add the fat and a sieved 1-2 tablespoons flour. We want that rich, creamy interior from a pot pie. If you do not have schmaltz, you will want to add some chicken stock to give the sauce a rich chicken-y flavor. If you do have schmaltz, you may want to as well. Add the milk, stirring. You want a fairly thick sauce, so that it helps glue everything together. I would have made a veloute, but discovered that I had no stock.
Chop chicken into small pieces.
Combine asparagus, sauce, chicken, onion. Salt and pepper to taste, then fold with a rubber spatula.
Fill dumplings as usual. Steam. I have not found that this particularly benefits from frying, though it does not do it any harm either.
Dumplings FAQ
I realize that there are things that should be addressed so I don't need to keep repeating them, as well as various troubleshooting steps.
Q: How do I make the wrapper?
A: I buy mine pre-made at an Asian supermarket. Making the dough is a pain in the butt and takes forever. Pre-made are both easy and cheap. It's kind of like filo dough or puff pastry. Can you make them at home? Sure. Nobody does- you just buy them frozen from the supermarket.
Q: How do I seal a dumpling?
A: Have a little bowl of water next to you while making dumplings. Dip your finger in and run it along the edge of the wrapper. Don't be afraid of going back and re-dipping your finger. This allows the dough to seal properly, but if your dough was frozen and got a bit of freezer burn, the edge of the wrapper may have dried out (you'll know when the edge is hard and cracks). When that happens, I moisten a finger and gently rub it over the edge on that spot.
Q: Is there a right way to wrap the dumpling?
A: There is no one right way. Some folks just fold the wrapper over in half and seal. If that is what you like, more power to you. There are also crimpers which allow you to do that, and it will put waves along the edge. I do not personally care for those, because it tends to lead to a much higher wrapper-to-filling ratio and you get doughy dumplings as a result. But you may like that, or you may be okay with trimming off the excess dough.
Properly speaking, you pleat the dough, and there is symbolism in the number of pleats. I do not bother counting the number of pleats, but if you do, more power to you. I think the pleats make the dumplings look nice, work well to seal the dumpling, and help pull the dumpling into shape so that it can stand up instead of laying on its side, making it easier to pack more dumplings into a steamer/pan.
Q: How do I pleat?
A: Pleats are only on one side, while the other side remains flat. Wet the wrapper edge, then add your filling. Pull the wrapper up like a taco. I pleat the side further away from me. Push in with a finger closer to me and push out with the finger away from me to make an S-shape in the dough. Push the side of the taco closer to you onto the S-shape, then press the S shut along with the flat side. Do not be discouraged- there is a certain amount of juggling involved, but you should get the hang of it pretty quickly, and start knocking them out. Honestly, I am not afraid of cutting corners but I still use the pleats. It seems intimidating, but it is just not as difficult as it seems.
Q: The dumplings are sticking to the steamer, help!
A: Lay parchment paper down on the steamer bottom. Place the dumplings onto the parchment paper so that they do not touch each other or the walls of the steamer. They will adhere slightly when cooked, because of the moisture, but they will not actually stick to the paper. This is also handy when making a batch of dumplings, to lay a sheet of parchment paper onto a cookie sheet or cooling rack while waiting to batch them. My wife taught me this trick- I tried oiling the steamers and other tricks, none of them worked. The parchment paper works beautifully.
Q: How long do I steam the dumplings for?
A: I steam them for ten minutes. They are probably done in 8 or so, but it does them no harm to steam a little bit longer. Make sure if you plan to fry the dumplings to take them out of the steamer quickly, so the skin has a chance to dry a touch before adding to the hot oiled pan.
Q: What temperature do you use for frying?
A: My pan will be on a medium-high heat. If you have pleated your dumplings, you can always pick the dumplings up by hand to watch the progress of the fry so you don't burn them. A nice golden brown is what you are aiming for.
Q: What kind of oil do you use in the pan?
A: I use PAM. A quick spritz is more than sufficient for several batches of dumplings.
Q: I don't have a bamboo steamer, can I use a metal rack steamer that fits inside a pot?
A: Sure, why not?
Q: Can I boil the dumplings?
A: Yes, but you really need to be very careful to be absolutely sure that the dumpling is sealed properly.
Q: I steamed them for ten minutes, why are my dumplings still raw?
A: Unless you are using huge dumplings, ten minutes should be fine. But make sure the water is boiling *before* you place the steamer onto the pot.
Q: I have so many dumplings, what do I do with them all?
A: Freeze them! They will reheat very nicely by just popping them into a steamer for ten minutes.
Q: I tried to freeze my dumplings, but they became one giant dumpling!
A: I steam the dumplings before freezing them. This prevents the wrappers from welding to one another, especially if you use a vacuum sealer.
Q: This is a LOT of work.
A: You can do it sitting down while watching a movie or YouTube- something you can glace at and listen to occasionally. It can also be something fun to do with friends and loved ones- my wife and I enjoy making dumplings together. You might be surprised what a difference it makes having something to watch or someone to chat with while you work.
Q: I went to the grocery store and all they had were wonton wrappers. I said I wanted dumpling wrappers, but the woman who worked there yelled at me and told me they were the same thing and got angry when I politely disagreed and started screaming that she had been to culinary school and what do I do?
A: So, wonton wrappers and dumpling wrappers are both the same dough. However, dumpling wrappers are a little bit thinner on the edges to make them easier to pleat, and are round where wonton wrappers are square. I have not tried to pleat a square wrapper, you might be able to, but wontons are not usually pleated, instead being boxed.
Q: The dumpling wrappers claim they are vegan, I don't want vegan, I want the real thing!
A: A wrapper claiming to be vegan is like a steak claiming to be gluten-free. It's just how you make it. Wonton wrappers are flour, water, and a touch of salt. That's it. It's vegan because of the ingredients used, not because they did anything weird to it. It does not generally contain egg, milk, or butter.
Q: How do I make the wrapper?
A: I buy mine pre-made at an Asian supermarket. Making the dough is a pain in the butt and takes forever. Pre-made are both easy and cheap. It's kind of like filo dough or puff pastry. Can you make them at home? Sure. Nobody does- you just buy them frozen from the supermarket.
Q: How do I seal a dumpling?
A: Have a little bowl of water next to you while making dumplings. Dip your finger in and run it along the edge of the wrapper. Don't be afraid of going back and re-dipping your finger. This allows the dough to seal properly, but if your dough was frozen and got a bit of freezer burn, the edge of the wrapper may have dried out (you'll know when the edge is hard and cracks). When that happens, I moisten a finger and gently rub it over the edge on that spot.
Q: Is there a right way to wrap the dumpling?
A: There is no one right way. Some folks just fold the wrapper over in half and seal. If that is what you like, more power to you. There are also crimpers which allow you to do that, and it will put waves along the edge. I do not personally care for those, because it tends to lead to a much higher wrapper-to-filling ratio and you get doughy dumplings as a result. But you may like that, or you may be okay with trimming off the excess dough.
Properly speaking, you pleat the dough, and there is symbolism in the number of pleats. I do not bother counting the number of pleats, but if you do, more power to you. I think the pleats make the dumplings look nice, work well to seal the dumpling, and help pull the dumpling into shape so that it can stand up instead of laying on its side, making it easier to pack more dumplings into a steamer/pan.
Q: How do I pleat?
A: Pleats are only on one side, while the other side remains flat. Wet the wrapper edge, then add your filling. Pull the wrapper up like a taco. I pleat the side further away from me. Push in with a finger closer to me and push out with the finger away from me to make an S-shape in the dough. Push the side of the taco closer to you onto the S-shape, then press the S shut along with the flat side. Do not be discouraged- there is a certain amount of juggling involved, but you should get the hang of it pretty quickly, and start knocking them out. Honestly, I am not afraid of cutting corners but I still use the pleats. It seems intimidating, but it is just not as difficult as it seems.
Q: The dumplings are sticking to the steamer, help!
A: Lay parchment paper down on the steamer bottom. Place the dumplings onto the parchment paper so that they do not touch each other or the walls of the steamer. They will adhere slightly when cooked, because of the moisture, but they will not actually stick to the paper. This is also handy when making a batch of dumplings, to lay a sheet of parchment paper onto a cookie sheet or cooling rack while waiting to batch them. My wife taught me this trick- I tried oiling the steamers and other tricks, none of them worked. The parchment paper works beautifully.
Q: How long do I steam the dumplings for?
A: I steam them for ten minutes. They are probably done in 8 or so, but it does them no harm to steam a little bit longer. Make sure if you plan to fry the dumplings to take them out of the steamer quickly, so the skin has a chance to dry a touch before adding to the hot oiled pan.
Q: What temperature do you use for frying?
A: My pan will be on a medium-high heat. If you have pleated your dumplings, you can always pick the dumplings up by hand to watch the progress of the fry so you don't burn them. A nice golden brown is what you are aiming for.
Q: What kind of oil do you use in the pan?
A: I use PAM. A quick spritz is more than sufficient for several batches of dumplings.
Q: I don't have a bamboo steamer, can I use a metal rack steamer that fits inside a pot?
A: Sure, why not?
Q: Can I boil the dumplings?
A: Yes, but you really need to be very careful to be absolutely sure that the dumpling is sealed properly.
Q: I steamed them for ten minutes, why are my dumplings still raw?
A: Unless you are using huge dumplings, ten minutes should be fine. But make sure the water is boiling *before* you place the steamer onto the pot.
Q: I have so many dumplings, what do I do with them all?
A: Freeze them! They will reheat very nicely by just popping them into a steamer for ten minutes.
Q: I tried to freeze my dumplings, but they became one giant dumpling!
A: I steam the dumplings before freezing them. This prevents the wrappers from welding to one another, especially if you use a vacuum sealer.
Q: This is a LOT of work.
A: You can do it sitting down while watching a movie or YouTube- something you can glace at and listen to occasionally. It can also be something fun to do with friends and loved ones- my wife and I enjoy making dumplings together. You might be surprised what a difference it makes having something to watch or someone to chat with while you work.
Q: I went to the grocery store and all they had were wonton wrappers. I said I wanted dumpling wrappers, but the woman who worked there yelled at me and told me they were the same thing and got angry when I politely disagreed and started screaming that she had been to culinary school and what do I do?
A: So, wonton wrappers and dumpling wrappers are both the same dough. However, dumpling wrappers are a little bit thinner on the edges to make them easier to pleat, and are round where wonton wrappers are square. I have not tried to pleat a square wrapper, you might be able to, but wontons are not usually pleated, instead being boxed.
Q: The dumpling wrappers claim they are vegan, I don't want vegan, I want the real thing!
A: A wrapper claiming to be vegan is like a steak claiming to be gluten-free. It's just how you make it. Wonton wrappers are flour, water, and a touch of salt. That's it. It's vegan because of the ingredients used, not because they did anything weird to it. It does not generally contain egg, milk, or butter.
Saturday, September 21, 2019
More savory dumplings
Today's dumplings are a bit of a variation on a theme- mushrooms and onions. My local Costco had wild chanterelle mushrooms, so I thought I would take advantage of that. I made a large batch which was used for all three recipes below. So, let's start with making the mushrooms.
Mushrooms:
I used 1 1/2 pounds chanterelle and 1 1/2 pounds of white mushrooms. You can absolutely use white mushrooms, this is, if anything, probably a waste of chanterelles. Each were washed with cold water. If you are paranoid about them absorbing the water (they don't), it's okay, because we are going to cook it all out anyway.
After washing, chop the mushrooms medium-small. Take one giant onion (or 2 large, or 3 medium- there is no wrong answer here, you can use shallots as well I bet, and they would taste amazing- I wish I had some) and chop medium. Add mushrooms into a large, high-sided frying pan over a medium heat with a tablespoon or so of butter. The butter is there more for a hint of flavor than anything, and you can feel free to leave it out. Dump in the mushrooms and cover tightly. My pan has a clear lid, so I can see through to when the fluids start to come out of the mushrooms. Once the fluids start to come out, add the onions in. Stir it all together. Every once in a while, take the lid off and give it all a stir, making sure to scrape the bottom of the pan. First it will be very wet, and then eventually it will dry out. You do not need to have a high heat to drive off the moisture, you can cook it at a medium heat and take the time to really let everything soften. Once it is dry, add a splash of white wine to the pan to get the fond off the bottom of the pan, and cook until dry again. Set aside for use, or heck, eat with a spoon.
Note: if you are not on a restricted diet, I would add a sprinkling of salt and pepper. However, the dishes this is used for already have salty ingredients generally. So don't feel pressured to salt absolutely everything.
Breakfast dumplings
Eggs, mushrooms, onions, swiss cheese, bacon
Fry a half dozen strips of streaky bacon. You want them fried crispy. Set aside on some paper towels and reserve the fat.
Chop a large onion to medium pieces and add to pan with the residual bacon fat. Cook until soft.
Whisk four eggs, then add to the pan with the bacon fat (if any remains) and scramble. I scramble hard, but your taste is your own. Between my personal tastes, the fact that it will go through a steaming process, freezing, steaming and possibly frying, all that means loads of moisture inside the dumpling, so I am more than happy to cook the eggs dry. Up to you tho.
Shred some cheese- I use a low sodium swiss, but again it is up to you. I think the swiss is good, as the flavor is there but will not overwhelm the other flavors the way something like a cheddar might.
Take the cool bacon and chop into matchstick-width pieces.
Combine the eggs, mushrooms, onions, cheese, and bacon.
But you didn't tell us how much cheese or mushrooms or onions! I know. It's up to you. Maybe you like something more bacon-y. Or heavier on the eggs. Or more mushrooms. There is no going wrong on this, it's really your choice. I used about a third of the mushrooms, a third of the onions, and a third of a block of swiss cheese.
Make as dumplings, then steam for 10 minutes. This made 25 large dumplings. After steaming, freeze, eat, or fry and eat. Suggested dipping sauce- ketchup, salsa, or if you have the energy, a fresh pica de gallo.
Beef dumplings
Ground beef, mushrooms, onions, swiss cheese
This recipe uses another third of the mushrooms, onions, and swiss cheese from above.
Roughly 1 1/2 pounds of a lean ground beef (I think mine was 93%/7%, but I do not remember off the top of my head) should be browned in a pan, then drained thoroughly. This recipe uses half of the beef, while the next recipe uses the other half.
Combine beef, mushrooms, onions, swiss. Sprinkle some slat, pepper, and paprika if you are not on a restricted diet. Make dumplings as mentioned above. Makes roughly 25 large dumplings.
Experimental beef dumplings
Ground beef, mushrooms, onions, swiss cheese, horseradish, gorgonzola
You will use: the rest of the ground beef, mushrooms, onions, and swiss cheese from above.
I shredded a knob of horseradish roughly a 1 inch cube, maybe a little larger, on a microplane (you really don't want that to be in chunks).
I also took a hunk of gorgonzola roughly the size of 1 1/2 decks of cards. Break up the gorgonzola by hand and cut and fold everything together using a rubber spatula. Gorgonzola chunks remained, but I thought they would add bright, intense notes. They did.
Combine all ingredients and make dumplings as mentioned above. I made 25 large dumplings, then ran out of wrappers, with more filling left. I would estimate this probably makes about 35-40 large dumplings.
Edit- it ended up being 45. I also pan fried them after steaming, and that extra burst of heat melted the gorgonzola. It is lovely, but it is up to you if you want that more homogenous experience versus an individual bright note in the dumpling.
I'm not going to lie, while all of these are experiments, this one was really experimental. I actually expected it to not be great. Instead, the end result was funky and delightful. This really worked out, and I am very happy with them all.
Mushrooms:
I used 1 1/2 pounds chanterelle and 1 1/2 pounds of white mushrooms. You can absolutely use white mushrooms, this is, if anything, probably a waste of chanterelles. Each were washed with cold water. If you are paranoid about them absorbing the water (they don't), it's okay, because we are going to cook it all out anyway.
After washing, chop the mushrooms medium-small. Take one giant onion (or 2 large, or 3 medium- there is no wrong answer here, you can use shallots as well I bet, and they would taste amazing- I wish I had some) and chop medium. Add mushrooms into a large, high-sided frying pan over a medium heat with a tablespoon or so of butter. The butter is there more for a hint of flavor than anything, and you can feel free to leave it out. Dump in the mushrooms and cover tightly. My pan has a clear lid, so I can see through to when the fluids start to come out of the mushrooms. Once the fluids start to come out, add the onions in. Stir it all together. Every once in a while, take the lid off and give it all a stir, making sure to scrape the bottom of the pan. First it will be very wet, and then eventually it will dry out. You do not need to have a high heat to drive off the moisture, you can cook it at a medium heat and take the time to really let everything soften. Once it is dry, add a splash of white wine to the pan to get the fond off the bottom of the pan, and cook until dry again. Set aside for use, or heck, eat with a spoon.
Note: if you are not on a restricted diet, I would add a sprinkling of salt and pepper. However, the dishes this is used for already have salty ingredients generally. So don't feel pressured to salt absolutely everything.
Breakfast dumplings
Eggs, mushrooms, onions, swiss cheese, bacon
Fry a half dozen strips of streaky bacon. You want them fried crispy. Set aside on some paper towels and reserve the fat.
Chop a large onion to medium pieces and add to pan with the residual bacon fat. Cook until soft.
Whisk four eggs, then add to the pan with the bacon fat (if any remains) and scramble. I scramble hard, but your taste is your own. Between my personal tastes, the fact that it will go through a steaming process, freezing, steaming and possibly frying, all that means loads of moisture inside the dumpling, so I am more than happy to cook the eggs dry. Up to you tho.
Shred some cheese- I use a low sodium swiss, but again it is up to you. I think the swiss is good, as the flavor is there but will not overwhelm the other flavors the way something like a cheddar might.
Take the cool bacon and chop into matchstick-width pieces.
Combine the eggs, mushrooms, onions, cheese, and bacon.
But you didn't tell us how much cheese or mushrooms or onions! I know. It's up to you. Maybe you like something more bacon-y. Or heavier on the eggs. Or more mushrooms. There is no going wrong on this, it's really your choice. I used about a third of the mushrooms, a third of the onions, and a third of a block of swiss cheese.
Make as dumplings, then steam for 10 minutes. This made 25 large dumplings. After steaming, freeze, eat, or fry and eat. Suggested dipping sauce- ketchup, salsa, or if you have the energy, a fresh pica de gallo.
Beef dumplings
Ground beef, mushrooms, onions, swiss cheese
This recipe uses another third of the mushrooms, onions, and swiss cheese from above.
Roughly 1 1/2 pounds of a lean ground beef (I think mine was 93%/7%, but I do not remember off the top of my head) should be browned in a pan, then drained thoroughly. This recipe uses half of the beef, while the next recipe uses the other half.
Combine beef, mushrooms, onions, swiss. Sprinkle some slat, pepper, and paprika if you are not on a restricted diet. Make dumplings as mentioned above. Makes roughly 25 large dumplings.
Experimental beef dumplings
Ground beef, mushrooms, onions, swiss cheese, horseradish, gorgonzola
You will use: the rest of the ground beef, mushrooms, onions, and swiss cheese from above.
I shredded a knob of horseradish roughly a 1 inch cube, maybe a little larger, on a microplane (you really don't want that to be in chunks).
I also took a hunk of gorgonzola roughly the size of 1 1/2 decks of cards. Break up the gorgonzola by hand and cut and fold everything together using a rubber spatula. Gorgonzola chunks remained, but I thought they would add bright, intense notes. They did.
Combine all ingredients and make dumplings as mentioned above. I made 25 large dumplings, then ran out of wrappers, with more filling left. I would estimate this probably makes about 35-40 large dumplings.
Edit- it ended up being 45. I also pan fried them after steaming, and that extra burst of heat melted the gorgonzola. It is lovely, but it is up to you if you want that more homogenous experience versus an individual bright note in the dumpling.
I'm not going to lie, while all of these are experiments, this one was really experimental. I actually expected it to not be great. Instead, the end result was funky and delightful. This really worked out, and I am very happy with them all.
Thursday, September 12, 2019
Tex-Mex Breakfast Dumplings
You will need:
1/2 pound mushrooms
Roughly 1 medium bell pepper (note: I used only the tops from a green, yellow, and red pepper, with the rest of the peppers left behind. I estimate this to be roughly a bell pepper worth of pepper. )
1/2 a giant onion
2 eggs
50 g Swiss cheese (roughly a chunk about 2 inches x 1 inch if you use one of those grocery store bars of cheese)
Dumpling wrappers
Everything needs to be sliced and chopped pretty thin. Slice and combine the onions with the peppers. Slice the mushrooms and set aside.
Over medium-high heat, Sauté the onions and peppers with a sprinkling of black pepper and sweet paprika until they are all soft and dry (there is a focus on dryness in this recipe). Pour them into a bowl and set aside.
In the same pan, sauté the mushrooms with a little bit more black pepper. Because the mushrooms are chopped fine, and the pan is very hot, their moisture comes out and evaporated very rapidly. Instead of getting the more stewed-type mushrooms, they slowly caramelize and get reddish-gold. These will be quite dry. Once they have reached that point, the bottom of the pan will have some nice caramelization stuff. Add a little water to the pan and quickly scrape the bottom to get the mushrooms coated with the fond.
Once they are dry again, add the onions and peppers back into the pan. Let the flavors mingle for a few minutes, then pour everything into a bowl and set aside.
Crack and whisk two eggs, then add the still-hot vegetables. This will not cook the eggs but they will thicken and coat the veggies. Shred the cheese finely and add and mix it all. You should not need to add salt to any of this. The salt naturally present in the cheese and such once it has melted from the hot vegetables will be enough and will also help leach more moisture out.
Set the mix aside for ten minutes or so and pour out the liquid which has pooled. Scoop into dumpling wrappers and steam for ten minutes. I think they would be nicer being subsequently fried. As a dipping sauce? Either a hot sauce of some description, or a sweet chili sauce.
Monday, September 2, 2019
New twists on dumplings
I'm trying to lose weight, but have also found out about some...pretty restrictive dietary restrictions. But I also like my food to be delicious. How can I have something unctuous but still healthy? I think one way is to have something full of flavor and texture so that you feel satisfied with a smaller amount. That means for both meals and desserts. And you know what does all of that? An amuse-bouche.
An amuse-bouche is a one-bite expression of an idea. Nowadays, many cooks use it as a one-bite expression of themselves and their heritage. It's not enough to just take bits and pieces of something you like and put it all on a spoon- you are trying to distill the essence of the idea- the proportion of ingredients, flavors, textures, all in a tiny, tiny portion.
Part of who I am is a New York Jew. And that means I love dumplings. And you know how many bites it takes to eat a dumpling? One or two.
So I made typical dumplings, but started to experiment with some things. All of these recipes call for being steamed for 10 minutes in a Chinese bamboo steamer that sits atop a pot. For added bonus, after steaming set aside for a couple of minutes to cool and for the wrapper to dry a little bit, then put into a hot pan with a little oil (avocado works nicely) for a couple of minutes to crisp up. Most of the time, I think this is optional, but one recipe below I think it is required. I tried all of these both steamed and fried. Here are the recipes and some thoughts:
Dumpling Sauce: This is just my take on classic dumpling sauce. Use low-sodium soy sauce, a little sugar, a little minced ginger, some green onion, mix and dilute to half with water.
Kasha Varnishkas Dumplings:
Buckwheat groats are a BIG no-no for me now, as it turns out. But I can have arguably one dumpling worth once in a while. I made kasha varnishkas as I usually do (I'm not going to write the recipe here) and stuffed it into the dumpling. I would suggest instead to make the kasha but leave out the egg noodles, and just put the cooked buckwheat and onions into the dumpling; the dumpling wrapper will act like the noodle. Steam 10 minutes and enjoy.
Baby Bok Choy Dumplings:
Clean and separate boy choy leaves. Cut to separate the white from the green, cut the whites smaller if you got bok choy too large. In a pan, saute the white parts with minced garlic, minced ginger, and green onions. Add a dash of low sodium soy sauce and Worcestershire, salt, and pepper. When the bok choy whites are toothsome, throw in the green parts. They will cook down and wilt very rapidly, they only need 1-2 minutes to cook, or else they will overcook. Wrap in dumpling wrappers and steam.
Salmon Croquette Dumplings:
Chinese broccoli (sometimes also known as Chinese kale), new potatoes, canned salmon, rinsed capers, salt, pepper, sweet hungarian paprika. If you are not on a restricted diet, spinach would work great for this, or any soft green with a little bitterness.
Wash, separate, and set aside the leaves of the Chinese broccoli. Peel the new potatoes, slice thin on a mandolin (note, may be able to use large shreds, but they are more likely to disintegrate I think) into a bowl of water while you wait for the next step. Put a large pot of water up to boil. Once it boils, dump the greens in, then drain the potatoes and pour those in too (why not just dump them in directly? Part of the point of this is to leach out soluble forms of oxalic acid, so we want to change the water, in effect). Boil for 15 minutes, then drain. Once cool enough, separate the potatoes into a bowl and put the greens onto a chopping board. Chop medium fine (it's going into a dumpling, but no need to liquify it) and set aside.
Separately, take a tablespoon of capers and give them a good rinse under cold running water. Set aside.
Finally, take that can of salmon that you bought because it seemed like a good idea at the time but now have no idea what to do with it, and open it. Drain the water (don't squeeze the salmon, you should be able to just pour it out). Into a bowl add the salmon, some pepper, and some sweet Hungarian paprika (the salmon is already salty and does not need more salt added). Using a fork, gently break up and toss the salmon until it has mixed with the spices. It is okay to let it become small flakes, but don't make the salmon a paste, this should be a gentle crumbing. We want delicate and flaky, we do not want the godawfulness that is the salmon burger.
Prep your dumpling wrapper and add a slice of the new potato, some of the Chinese broccoli greens, a little bit of the salmon and 3-4 capers. Seal the dumpling and steam.
Once it is done, set aside for a minute to let the skin dry a touch, and meanwhile heat a pan with a touch of oil (I used avocado, but it's really up to you what flavor you want it to impart or not impart). Once hot, add the dumplings (you'll know it's hot enough when they sizzle on being added). It should only take about 3 minutes to get golden brown and crispy. While you don't have to fry these dumplings, I think that you need that crispiness to bring this dumpling together to emulate the traditional crispy flakiness of a classic croquette. Serve immediately.
Note: on reflection, I think you may be able to leave the potato out altogether. I'm just not sure it really adds anything to the dumpling except more steps, more calories, and more oxalic acid. You may also need to increase the number of capers, but that's a matter of personal taste- I did mostly one caper and a couple with two in them, but would have liked it a bit more prominent so I wrote three here. I knew something was off- I left out the lemon juice, it needed a touch of acid. I would use a wedge or two worth of lemon and squeeze on the salmon in the bowl along with the spices. Or even better, make a nice, buttery, lemony hollandaise sauce to dip the dumplings into as a dumpling sauce.
Dessert Dumplings. That's right, I went there. My wife thought I was completely crazy with these, but they turned out spectacular. Read on to learn more.
Creme Brulee Dumplings:
See my earlier recipe on this blog for creme brulee. I halved that to limit how many dumplings I would make for an experiment, it turned out just fine. The steamed custard in the dumpling somehow tastes eggier and reminded my wife and myself of a really nice don tot, the Chinese egg custards you can get at dim sum.
Make the custard as usual, but don't pour into ramekins- we want it in liquid form. Take a dumpling skin and carefully pleat it as usual, leaving a gap in the middle. When you are almost done, take a turkey baster and carefully pipette the liquid custard into the skin. Do not worry about filling it all the way, this can be very tricky. The custard will happily leave through the tiniest hole, so what is more important is to have a good seal. You WILL lose some to leakage, but with practice it will be fine. Steam 10 minutes. Once done, place into some tupperware and place in your refrigerator for 30-60 minutes. You want it to be cool at least.
Pour a couple of tablespoons of white sugar on a plate. Take the now-cool dumpling and gently press the flat bottom or side into the sugar and shake off the excess. Place on a heat-safe surface and use your blowtorch to caramelize the sugar on the skin of the dumpling. Place on a plate and stick in the refrigerator another 30-60 minutes. Eat immediately.
Fruit Tarte Dumplings:
Strawberries, blackberries, banana. Note: kiwi may work but I had none. I had bought raspberries then learned I can't have those any more but should work as well.
Make the creme brulee custard from the creme brulee recipe and set aside while still liquid (before the liquid would be poured into ramekins).
Cut the green off of the strawberries, then cut in quarters lengthwise. Blackberries may be used as-is. Banana should be peeled and sliced into thin circles. All should be dry (if the berries are wet from washing, pat them dry with a paper towel). Add all to a mixing bowl and add a heaping tablespoon of cornstarch, then toss so that each piece is well coated; they will release moisture on cooking, but this will prevent there being a separate liquid layer and just having berry juice and instead being a nice thick sauce.
Into the dumpling wrapper add one round of banana, one piece strawberry, one blackberry. Here is where a few options occur:
If you just want the berries (which can be very nice) seal and steam as usual. I would suggest chilling and eating cold, but it can be eaten hot as well. As an option, follow the steps above from the creme brulee dumplings to chill, sugar, torch, and re-chill.
If you want a fruit tarte type, after adding the berries to the wrapper, close most of the way, then use a turkey baster to add the custard liquid into the dumpling wrapper. Don't worry about underfilling, you don't need to go crazy on this. Seal and steam. To replicate the crispiness of the classic tarte, follow the steps above from the creme brulee dumplings to chill, sugar, torch, and re-chill.
One final note: I accidentally bought dumpling wrappers made with pumpkin in them, so everything mentioned above, I made with both regular dumpling skins and the pumpkin wrappers (which is why you see orange and white). I really don't taste a difference, I think it's more color than anything, but you do you.
Bon appetit!
An amuse-bouche is a one-bite expression of an idea. Nowadays, many cooks use it as a one-bite expression of themselves and their heritage. It's not enough to just take bits and pieces of something you like and put it all on a spoon- you are trying to distill the essence of the idea- the proportion of ingredients, flavors, textures, all in a tiny, tiny portion.
Part of who I am is a New York Jew. And that means I love dumplings. And you know how many bites it takes to eat a dumpling? One or two.
So I made typical dumplings, but started to experiment with some things. All of these recipes call for being steamed for 10 minutes in a Chinese bamboo steamer that sits atop a pot. For added bonus, after steaming set aside for a couple of minutes to cool and for the wrapper to dry a little bit, then put into a hot pan with a little oil (avocado works nicely) for a couple of minutes to crisp up. Most of the time, I think this is optional, but one recipe below I think it is required. I tried all of these both steamed and fried. Here are the recipes and some thoughts:
Dumpling Sauce: This is just my take on classic dumpling sauce. Use low-sodium soy sauce, a little sugar, a little minced ginger, some green onion, mix and dilute to half with water.
Kasha Varnishkas Dumplings:
Buckwheat groats are a BIG no-no for me now, as it turns out. But I can have arguably one dumpling worth once in a while. I made kasha varnishkas as I usually do (I'm not going to write the recipe here) and stuffed it into the dumpling. I would suggest instead to make the kasha but leave out the egg noodles, and just put the cooked buckwheat and onions into the dumpling; the dumpling wrapper will act like the noodle. Steam 10 minutes and enjoy.
Baby Bok Choy Dumplings:
Clean and separate boy choy leaves. Cut to separate the white from the green, cut the whites smaller if you got bok choy too large. In a pan, saute the white parts with minced garlic, minced ginger, and green onions. Add a dash of low sodium soy sauce and Worcestershire, salt, and pepper. When the bok choy whites are toothsome, throw in the green parts. They will cook down and wilt very rapidly, they only need 1-2 minutes to cook, or else they will overcook. Wrap in dumpling wrappers and steam.
Above, you can see the bok choy dumplings on the left and the kasha dumplings on the right.
Chinese broccoli (sometimes also known as Chinese kale), new potatoes, canned salmon, rinsed capers, salt, pepper, sweet hungarian paprika. If you are not on a restricted diet, spinach would work great for this, or any soft green with a little bitterness.
Wash, separate, and set aside the leaves of the Chinese broccoli. Peel the new potatoes, slice thin on a mandolin (note, may be able to use large shreds, but they are more likely to disintegrate I think) into a bowl of water while you wait for the next step. Put a large pot of water up to boil. Once it boils, dump the greens in, then drain the potatoes and pour those in too (why not just dump them in directly? Part of the point of this is to leach out soluble forms of oxalic acid, so we want to change the water, in effect). Boil for 15 minutes, then drain. Once cool enough, separate the potatoes into a bowl and put the greens onto a chopping board. Chop medium fine (it's going into a dumpling, but no need to liquify it) and set aside.
Separately, take a tablespoon of capers and give them a good rinse under cold running water. Set aside.
Finally, take that can of salmon that you bought because it seemed like a good idea at the time but now have no idea what to do with it, and open it. Drain the water (don't squeeze the salmon, you should be able to just pour it out). Into a bowl add the salmon, some pepper, and some sweet Hungarian paprika (the salmon is already salty and does not need more salt added). Using a fork, gently break up and toss the salmon until it has mixed with the spices. It is okay to let it become small flakes, but don't make the salmon a paste, this should be a gentle crumbing. We want delicate and flaky, we do not want the godawfulness that is the salmon burger.
Prep your dumpling wrapper and add a slice of the new potato, some of the Chinese broccoli greens, a little bit of the salmon and 3-4 capers. Seal the dumpling and steam.
Once it is done, set aside for a minute to let the skin dry a touch, and meanwhile heat a pan with a touch of oil (I used avocado, but it's really up to you what flavor you want it to impart or not impart). Once hot, add the dumplings (you'll know it's hot enough when they sizzle on being added). It should only take about 3 minutes to get golden brown and crispy. While you don't have to fry these dumplings, I think that you need that crispiness to bring this dumpling together to emulate the traditional crispy flakiness of a classic croquette. Serve immediately.
After steaming, you can eat immediately, as seen above. However, the frying is what brings it all together. Note the texture of the salmon in the dumpling- that is the kind of flakiness you are looking for.
See how nice and crispy they were? In the one cut in half, you can also see the individual elements, as they have not been made into a paste.
Note: on reflection, I think you may be able to leave the potato out altogether. I'm just not sure it really adds anything to the dumpling except more steps, more calories, and more oxalic acid. You may also need to increase the number of capers, but that's a matter of personal taste- I did mostly one caper and a couple with two in them, but would have liked it a bit more prominent so I wrote three here. I knew something was off- I left out the lemon juice, it needed a touch of acid. I would use a wedge or two worth of lemon and squeeze on the salmon in the bowl along with the spices. Or even better, make a nice, buttery, lemony hollandaise sauce to dip the dumplings into as a dumpling sauce.
Dessert Dumplings. That's right, I went there. My wife thought I was completely crazy with these, but they turned out spectacular. Read on to learn more.
Creme Brulee Dumplings:
See my earlier recipe on this blog for creme brulee. I halved that to limit how many dumplings I would make for an experiment, it turned out just fine. The steamed custard in the dumpling somehow tastes eggier and reminded my wife and myself of a really nice don tot, the Chinese egg custards you can get at dim sum.
Make the custard as usual, but don't pour into ramekins- we want it in liquid form. Take a dumpling skin and carefully pleat it as usual, leaving a gap in the middle. When you are almost done, take a turkey baster and carefully pipette the liquid custard into the skin. Do not worry about filling it all the way, this can be very tricky. The custard will happily leave through the tiniest hole, so what is more important is to have a good seal. You WILL lose some to leakage, but with practice it will be fine. Steam 10 minutes. Once done, place into some tupperware and place in your refrigerator for 30-60 minutes. You want it to be cool at least.
Pour a couple of tablespoons of white sugar on a plate. Take the now-cool dumpling and gently press the flat bottom or side into the sugar and shake off the excess. Place on a heat-safe surface and use your blowtorch to caramelize the sugar on the skin of the dumpling. Place on a plate and stick in the refrigerator another 30-60 minutes. Eat immediately.
Fruit Tarte Dumplings:
Strawberries, blackberries, banana. Note: kiwi may work but I had none. I had bought raspberries then learned I can't have those any more but should work as well.
Make the creme brulee custard from the creme brulee recipe and set aside while still liquid (before the liquid would be poured into ramekins).
Cut the green off of the strawberries, then cut in quarters lengthwise. Blackberries may be used as-is. Banana should be peeled and sliced into thin circles. All should be dry (if the berries are wet from washing, pat them dry with a paper towel). Add all to a mixing bowl and add a heaping tablespoon of cornstarch, then toss so that each piece is well coated; they will release moisture on cooking, but this will prevent there being a separate liquid layer and just having berry juice and instead being a nice thick sauce.
Into the dumpling wrapper add one round of banana, one piece strawberry, one blackberry. Here is where a few options occur:
If you just want the berries (which can be very nice) seal and steam as usual. I would suggest chilling and eating cold, but it can be eaten hot as well. As an option, follow the steps above from the creme brulee dumplings to chill, sugar, torch, and re-chill.
Above you can see the steamed berry dumpling with some of the custard in the bottom.
Above you can see the after-blowtorched dumplings. On the left is the creme brulee, on the right is the fruit tarte.
One final note: I accidentally bought dumpling wrappers made with pumpkin in them, so everything mentioned above, I made with both regular dumpling skins and the pumpkin wrappers (which is why you see orange and white). I really don't taste a difference, I think it's more color than anything, but you do you.
Bon appetit!
Saturday, August 17, 2019
Chocolate Tapioca Pudding
I wanted to make some tapioca pudding, and my wife asked me to make it chocolate. How on earth am I going to....
This is how I did it.
You will need:
1. 1 cup tapioca pearls
2. 4 cups whole milk
3. 1/4 cup cocoa powder
4. 1/2 cup sugar
5. vanilla extract
6. 1/3 cup water
7. big pinch salt
Pour the tapioca pearls into a large mixing bowl, then add cold water until a couple of inches above the top of the pearls, allowing them plenty of water to soak- don't be worried about adding too much water. Leave in refrigerator at least overnight, but you can absolutely take them out the next evening as well.
Combine sugar, cocoa powder, salt, and the 1/3rd cup water in a large saucepan. Heat over a medium heat, stirring, until boiling. Boil for about three minutes. Add the milk and stir together, continuing to heat. Once the chocolate mixture has reached a temperature that it starts to scald slightly, add the drained tapioca pearls. Continue to stir, making sure to scrape the bottom of the pan (you may want to lower the temperature to medium-low to prevent too much from sticking to the bottom). As the mixture heats, it will slowly thicken and the tapioca pearls will begin to pop up, transparent. When enough have, add the vanilla extract and pour the whole thing into some tupperware and stick into refrigerator to chill.
Let's talk about what I have, and what I would suggest as changes.
Normally, I cook the pearls until they all float to the top, clear. That did not happen here. I continued to cook the mixture for a long time, hoping it would help, but it did not. The longer you cook tapioca, the thicker the resultant pudding it- mine became an extremely stiff gelatin. Which is fine, I enjoy that too. But the pearls were a mixture of clear and cloudy, which means that not all of the pearls were completely done, affecting the texture and the taste in a slightly chalky way.
What would I try next time to address this? I think that I would have the four cups of milk in a separate saucepan, heating with the tapioca. This is not exactly the same as typical tapioca (they would normally have eggs and such) but I am guessing that the cocoa powder is interfering with the diffusion of moisture into the pearls or whatever. Cook the pearls until they are all clear and floating on top, then add that to the chocolate mixture, cook together for a couple of minutes to make sure everything is friendly and intermingled, then decant.
Traditional tapioca pudding has eggs. I left the eggs out with this because I was afraid that adding them would at best result in a mousse-like chocolate, which I did not think would be nice, but that was only if everything worked out nice. If things went wrong, some weird eggy-chocolately concoction sounded disgusting. But you could absolutely make essentially a traditional tapioca pudding (see the previous tapioca recipe posted on this blog) and then add the chocolate. It might work.
I'd like to experiment with this more, but the sheer amount of space it requires in the fridge plus the time takes an eternity. So I will come back and update this recipe as I continue to experiment.
This is how I did it.
You will need:
1. 1 cup tapioca pearls
2. 4 cups whole milk
3. 1/4 cup cocoa powder
4. 1/2 cup sugar
5. vanilla extract
6. 1/3 cup water
7. big pinch salt
Pour the tapioca pearls into a large mixing bowl, then add cold water until a couple of inches above the top of the pearls, allowing them plenty of water to soak- don't be worried about adding too much water. Leave in refrigerator at least overnight, but you can absolutely take them out the next evening as well.
Combine sugar, cocoa powder, salt, and the 1/3rd cup water in a large saucepan. Heat over a medium heat, stirring, until boiling. Boil for about three minutes. Add the milk and stir together, continuing to heat. Once the chocolate mixture has reached a temperature that it starts to scald slightly, add the drained tapioca pearls. Continue to stir, making sure to scrape the bottom of the pan (you may want to lower the temperature to medium-low to prevent too much from sticking to the bottom). As the mixture heats, it will slowly thicken and the tapioca pearls will begin to pop up, transparent. When enough have, add the vanilla extract and pour the whole thing into some tupperware and stick into refrigerator to chill.
Let's talk about what I have, and what I would suggest as changes.
Normally, I cook the pearls until they all float to the top, clear. That did not happen here. I continued to cook the mixture for a long time, hoping it would help, but it did not. The longer you cook tapioca, the thicker the resultant pudding it- mine became an extremely stiff gelatin. Which is fine, I enjoy that too. But the pearls were a mixture of clear and cloudy, which means that not all of the pearls were completely done, affecting the texture and the taste in a slightly chalky way.
What would I try next time to address this? I think that I would have the four cups of milk in a separate saucepan, heating with the tapioca. This is not exactly the same as typical tapioca (they would normally have eggs and such) but I am guessing that the cocoa powder is interfering with the diffusion of moisture into the pearls or whatever. Cook the pearls until they are all clear and floating on top, then add that to the chocolate mixture, cook together for a couple of minutes to make sure everything is friendly and intermingled, then decant.
Traditional tapioca pudding has eggs. I left the eggs out with this because I was afraid that adding them would at best result in a mousse-like chocolate, which I did not think would be nice, but that was only if everything worked out nice. If things went wrong, some weird eggy-chocolately concoction sounded disgusting. But you could absolutely make essentially a traditional tapioca pudding (see the previous tapioca recipe posted on this blog) and then add the chocolate. It might work.
I'd like to experiment with this more, but the sheer amount of space it requires in the fridge plus the time takes an eternity. So I will come back and update this recipe as I continue to experiment.
Saturday, June 1, 2019
Creamsicle/Dole Whip
Orange Sherbet
Notes:
1. I haven't tried this with pineapple, but I believe you can just swap out the freshly squeezed OJ with juiced pineapple. Update: Have now tried with pineapple. Make the following changes: drop the vanilla. Replace orange and lemon with zest and juice of 1 lime.
2. Different oranges will really affect the flavor. I used naval oranges, which was nice but a tad too sweet for my taste; I would have preferred something sharper.
3. I like to drink orange juice with pulp. For this tho, I filtered mine through a sieve.
Ingredients:
1. 1 1/2 cups whole milk
2. 2 cups freshly squeezed OJ
3. 2/3rds cup sugar
4. juice of 1 lemon
5. zest from 1 orange and 1 lemon.
6. pinch kosher salt.
7. 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Whisk together all ingredients except milk and mix until sugar has dissolved. Whisk in the milk slowly. Quickly add to your ice cream maker, because every second freshly squeezed orange juice sits out, it loses some of its magic. Process until thick and creamy, then freeze immediately.
Edit: Decided to try this out with lemon-lime. Two notes: 1. leave the vanilla out of the lemon-lime. It works for the mellower orange and all, but not for the sharper lemon-lime. 2. 2 cups of lemon and lime juice made a sherbet tart enough that it was like licking a 9 volt. I think next time I'll try 1 cup lemon and lime juice, and add an extra cup of milk to make up the volume. The flavor is excellent, but it is just too strong.
Sweet Cream Vanilla
Ingredients:
1. 3 eggs
2. 1 cup milk
3. 2 cups heavy cream
4. 3/4 cup sugar
5. 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Whip the eggs until homogenous, then add the sugar. Whisk together until homogenous, then add the rest of the ingredients. Add to your ice cream maker, then process until done and freeze.
I'm too lazy, but if you have a popsicle maker, you can freeze the sweet cream on the stick first, then cover with the sherbet. I just scooped a scoop of each into a bowl and enjoyed that way.
Notes:
1. I haven't tried this with pineapple, but I believe you can just swap out the freshly squeezed OJ with juiced pineapple. Update: Have now tried with pineapple. Make the following changes: drop the vanilla. Replace orange and lemon with zest and juice of 1 lime.
2. Different oranges will really affect the flavor. I used naval oranges, which was nice but a tad too sweet for my taste; I would have preferred something sharper.
3. I like to drink orange juice with pulp. For this tho, I filtered mine through a sieve.
Ingredients:
1. 1 1/2 cups whole milk
2. 2 cups freshly squeezed OJ
3. 2/3rds cup sugar
4. juice of 1 lemon
5. zest from 1 orange and 1 lemon.
6. pinch kosher salt.
7. 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Whisk together all ingredients except milk and mix until sugar has dissolved. Whisk in the milk slowly. Quickly add to your ice cream maker, because every second freshly squeezed orange juice sits out, it loses some of its magic. Process until thick and creamy, then freeze immediately.
Edit: Decided to try this out with lemon-lime. Two notes: 1. leave the vanilla out of the lemon-lime. It works for the mellower orange and all, but not for the sharper lemon-lime. 2. 2 cups of lemon and lime juice made a sherbet tart enough that it was like licking a 9 volt. I think next time I'll try 1 cup lemon and lime juice, and add an extra cup of milk to make up the volume. The flavor is excellent, but it is just too strong.
Sweet Cream Vanilla
Ingredients:
1. 3 eggs
2. 1 cup milk
3. 2 cups heavy cream
4. 3/4 cup sugar
5. 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Whip the eggs until homogenous, then add the sugar. Whisk together until homogenous, then add the rest of the ingredients. Add to your ice cream maker, then process until done and freeze.
I'm too lazy, but if you have a popsicle maker, you can freeze the sweet cream on the stick first, then cover with the sherbet. I just scooped a scoop of each into a bowl and enjoyed that way.
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