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.
