Thanksgiving II: Dumplings

This year, we voted 3-1 to switch up Thanksgiving II to not include any Thanksgiving food. Evan very stubbornly opposed this transition, but Ben, Kirsten and I beat him into submission. We decided to go for foods we normally wouldn't make, and here were a few possibilities (all from scratch, of course): tamales, sausage and dumplings. We decided on dumplings, inspired by an issue of Living which included 8 dumpling recipes. We ruled out wontons, peirogi (too easy to come by), and gnudi (which are like ravioli minus the pasta, and didn't seem particularly appealing). Topfendknodl made the list, but we ran out of time, as is so often the case during these weekends.

Dumpling #1: Manti
These are Turkish dumplings filled with lamb, onion and spices - insanely delicious, and worth the effort as they are tiny. Legend says (how often do you get to write that?) a worthy bride makes manti small enough that 40 can fit in a spoon.

The troops at work:


About the size of a dime before "pinching" . . .


. . . and more like a dime afterwards.


Coming out of the oven after first baking and then braising in yummy cinnamon infused stock


Ready to eat, dressed wth brown butter, yogurt with garlic paste, paprika and mint.


Dumpling #2: Kropkakkor
Thanks to an ill-timed migraine, I missed the making of these guys. They are Swedish potato dumplings filled with caramelized onion, allspice, bacon and smoked ham. The Swedes eat them with lingonberry jam (what else?) for breakfast, or as an afternoon snack. Along with the meds, these were a lovely headache cure.

Charlie gets in on the action






Dumpling #3: Momos
Thus fortified, we moved on to our next victim, a vegetarian version of Nepalese dumplings served with homemade hot sauce. We were all in agreement that the hot sauce overpowered the mild flavors of the dumplings (shitakes, cabbage and potatoes) but they were very tasty nonetheless.

The filling


Finished product, ready for steaming


Dumpling #4: Onde Onde
These Indonesian dessert dumplings are rice flour based, filled with brown sugar and coated with fresh grated coconut. They sounded declicious, but were, to be blunt, a total disaster.

The recipe called for glutinous rice flour, and using just regular rice flour didn't cut it. We made a special trip to an Asian market for pandan essence and should have put the flour on the list as well. We bought two different pandan products: extract and essence. The latter looked more "authentic" but was also more syrupy, so the onde onde ended up a shade of green not to be found in nature. Once it came time to boil them, the lack of all that gluten caused the dumplings to crack, and the brown sugar to leak out. Boo hiss . . . I'd like to try these again sometime, though, becasue the pandan was really intriguing, very nutty and fragrant. And it was fun to have an excuse to crack open a coconut.