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.

 Above, you can see the bok choy dumplings on the left and the kasha dumplings on the right.

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.

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.

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.

 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!