shrimp dumplings

i have had dumplings four times in my life, and that includes today. i love dumplings almost i like i love sushi. the first time was at rickshaw in nyc, love at first bite. then i had them twice in the restaurant of a downtown helsinki department store, not quite the same as in nyc... because they were not even close and i don't know a restaurant in helsinki that serves dumplings, i decided to have a go at making dumplings myself.

fortunately there are a few well stocked asian stores in helsinki, i got the wrappers already couple of weeks ago and had them waiting in the freezer. i kept searching for a recipe but could not decide on any one particular. i had, at first, decided to used minced pork but my store didn't have that yesterday. as i had shrimp in the freezer... i ended up using that and free falling on everything else.

this is what i ended up using, among other things







everything minced, from right: shrimp, carrot, ginger, napa cabbage, in the cup soya sauce, sesame oil and corn starch.

i had been wondering what this napa cabbage was, almost all dumpling recipes mentioned that or regular cabbage. while shopping, as i didn't know what napa was, i got something we call chinese cabbage. turns out i got the right stuff! but, i have to tell you that i was very hesitant to get it as there was a time in the past when every salad where ever and anywhere offered was made of this cabbage and pineapple. could be that i have said "never again" about that cabbage...







filling ready to go







i found it easier to moisten the edge before putting the filling on, though most recipes tell you to do it after placing the filling







one tsp is all you need. if i'd had any experience with dumplings before, i would have made less filling. i could have easily made twice the amount dumplings if i'd had enough wrappers







this was the part i was dreading... on the first one i just pinched the enges together, but on the second i decided to try crimping, not hard at all! well, i did watch a how-to video on youtube...







quite proud on how this one turned out, not professional, but good enough for a first timer







more of the same







and more







took out my trusted non-stick soup pot, filled it almost to the rim, brought the water to a good boil before placing the dumplings into the boiling water a few at a time, then gave the water a swirl in order to keep the dumplings moving and not sticking to the pot or to each other







approx 8 mins later, by which time all were floating, i took them out with a slotted spoon. i had obviously done a good job of pinching the edges as none leaked any stuffing to the water







the ingredients for my dipping sauce, soya sauce, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil and mild spanish chili







used a small jar to mix the dipping sauce in







one package of wrappers yielded to 26 dumplings. we ate all of them at one sitting. aren't they lovely?







what did i do with the left-over stuffing? well, took my frying pan out, drained as much liquid out of the stuffing as possible, put it on a hot pan, poured in one egg and cooked the mixture on high until the egg was done, poured some dipping sauce on top... equally nice on its own. now that i think of it, some noodles might have made it even better!

next time i make dumplings i will not use any carrot (and if i do, i'll remember to squeeze out any moisture as the finely grated carrot gave out quite a lot of moisture to the stuffing)

2 x pancakes

click pancakes on my themes and you'll see that i make them quite often. this time i had some 4% milk (which was meant for rice porrigde during xmas) that was just sitting there. not that you couldn't make pancakes with fat-free milk as well...

i started by mixing the liter of milk, 4 eggs and 5 dl flour into a batter that i then divided in half. into the other half i added a pinch of salt, dash of white pepper and freshly grated nutmed, and 100 gr of fresh spinach (you could use frozen as well)







nutmeg going in here







i usually make the batter first in order for the flour to thicken the batter further, it can sit up to 30 mins.

although the package said these were washed, i rinsed and checked for bad leaves, took some of the thickest stems off, but the ones in good shape were left on. put the spinach into a colander and poured boiling water on to wilt the leaves, left in the colander to drain and cool







once the spinach is cool enough to handle, chop it roughly (or as fine as you like) and add to the seasoned batter







mix well and you should have something that looks like this







i use this very old cast iron silver dollar pancake pan, anything else that you might use for regular pancakes works. you'd want the pan on medium, even medium-low. the spinach pancakes are quite thick and if the pan is too hot you'd need to flip them before the middle part has had enough time to cook. this is not rocket science, so if you've ever made pancakes you're good to go.

when the pan is hot enough to start cooking, i add the tiniest bit of melted butter or liquid fat to the pan. (there is an explanation of this "liquid fat" in this link, look for liquid oivariini).

before you start cooking mix 2tbsps of either melted butter or the liquid fat into the batter and you're good to go. this is all the fat you need to cook them, and if you're using any non-stick pan you really don't have to use any fat at all (your pancakes might end up looking a bit anemic but they'd be fat-free)







i like mine quite light brown and thick







and i always, always eat them with lingon berries (that i have plenty of, thanks to mom who did all the hard work by picking them!)







now the other half of the batter, still remember that? it got 2 tbsp sugar and 2 tbsp liquid fat before i started cooking them. and since i was multitasking and cooking both savory and sweet at the same time, i used the big pan for the sweet ones







i know this may not sound too convincing but i really hardly ever use whipping cream on my pancakes. yesterday i remembered that there was some in the fridge (same xmas story as with the milk) closing in on its expiration date. so, what was i going to do, throw it away? (c'mon, it was perfectly good cream) that's raspberry jam from raspberries that... correct! that my mom picked and made into a jam...







there might be a recipe on my previous posts on the spinach pancakes but i will submit it to tasty kitchen and when that's done i'll update this post with the link.

pioneer woman's egg in a hole

was what we had for breakfast today. i was browsing her cookbook just before bed, well, in bed, actually. as the recipe is super easy i thought i'd make it for breakfast.

cutting out the holes here. (if i ever have the need to make fancy hors d'oeuvres, this is how i'll cut the bread)







warm up the pan, place the bread on said pan, crack one egg to each hole. how easy is that?







except if you're super-bad in following any recipe... i forgot one important ingredient... namely the butter. you're supposed to melt butter on pan first, then put the bread on the pan.

mine came out looking like this. the bread would have looked (and tasted!) a lot better had i used the butter







i did brown some cooked ham i had in the fridge to top the holes with, sprinkled some chilli powder as garnish. very nice, and easy. just don't forget the butter...







the dog then... he just dozes off in his chair. too cold to be outside, "observing" the world is easier indoors thru the window...

borscht

i saw nice big beets in the shop yesterday and borscht came to mind. i bought two kilos because if you make a mess, a slightly bigger mess isn't that much harder to clean up...

started by peeling the whole bunch. in this dry winter weather it paid to wear surgical gloves, no bright red fingers!







i love that shade of red. on beets, that is, not on me, the wall, my clothes or the rug on the floor







now the mess part... took out my kenwood processor for the grating part. i would have only needed 1 kg of beets for this soup but it pays to grate more







besides having enough for the soup today, i got two 500 gr bags to freeze for later use. only one mess but three borschts (what a mouthfull that word is!)







it's also worthwhile to pay very close attention when working with kitchen appliances... i meant to grate the carrots with the same blade as the beets, but certain someone had something very important (not!) to tell and i left the kitchen for a minute.

when i got back, i put the blade on, fixed the lid and 5 seconds later i had sliced carrots. i'm rather proud of myself on not shouting and cursing out loud, instead i counted to 50 by which time i had figured what to do with the sliced carrots. took a knife and kinda chopped them into smaller pieces, not as pretty as i would have liked but didn't want to waste the carrots







now that the mess section is over... here's what went in

1 kg beets, peeled and grated
400 gr carrots, peeled and grated
30 cm piece of leek, halved, thinly sliced
300 gr white cabbage, thinly shredded
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 l boiling water
white pepper to taste
vegetable fond, according to package directions
2 bayleaves
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tsp parsley, minced
creme fraiche to serve

(and something else that you would not use if you were making a vegetarian borscht)

i took out my big pot since i've learned that my soups tend to feed an army. this batch certainly would have, the recipe is easily halved and still feeds four...

put the pot on to heat on medium high, added the oil, leek, carrots and cabbage and sauteed them for a few minutes







then added the beets, bayleaves, fond, white pepper and boiling water. turned up the heat to bring a boil, then to medium low to a slow simmer







45 mins later it looked like this







at 45 mins turned off the heat, added the red wine vinegar and parsley







if you're in for the vegetarian version, skip this next ingredient, namely hotdogs! sliced them into 1 cm slices, browned them quickly on a hot pan before adding them to pot.

there was so much that i divided the soup between two pots, the other stayed strickly vegetarian, the other got the hotdogs. i will take some to certain someone's mom tomorrow, some to work and there'll be plenty for certain someone to eat as well.







plated with creme fraiche. i had smetana in my hand at the store but for some strange reason i bothered to see how much fat there is in it... needless to say, and eventhough creme fraiche isn't exactly diet food either, i took the lesser of two evils







as with any soup, rye and crisp breads are a natural







the outside temperature is at -20C... not the coldest in finland at the moment but thank god for the fireplace at the shack!

another cold smoked salmon pasta

when i don't have time for anything else, i make this pasta dish. it's 20 mins from start to eating, no kidding, and faster if you use pasta that cooks quick. well, sometimes i make it just because i think it tastes really good...

my shop across the street at the apartment is nowadays open from 7am to 11pm (which in itself is quite convinient, yet very dangerous as to fighting cravings at 10.30pm) i'll be able to get these ingredients whenever.

i started by bringing water to a boil for the pasta. i have used up all white pasta in the pantry, so it's whole wheat from now on (you can never get too much fiber). white pasta would look nicer with salmon, so if you made this for the looks, feel free to use white, it's equally tasty. i used whole wheat fusilli, cooking time for that is 10 mins.


leeks pre-slicing, approx 10 cm piece of the light green part





slice it fine, like here. on occasion i've used button mushrooms instead of leeks, works equally well (if not better when sauteed in butter). i'm still looking for a perfect knife, this victorinox is quite good and not that expensive, but time will tell if it'll become my absolute favourite






once the water is boiling, add pasta. i always cook plenty, if there is some left over, you get a base for a quick salad. heat up a skillet on medium heat to wilt the leeks in 1 tbsp of oil, for approx 2 mins. i used rape seed oil, if you have non-stick pan, no fat is needed, just add few tbsps of water to steam the leeks.

i buy the salmon sliced in 150 gr package, it's easy to roughly chop to smaller pieces







i could not resist, a dip in soya sauce, it is so goooood!







once the leeks are wilted, pour in 2 dl of cooking cream. i used 4%, but go as fat, or lean, as you like. bring the cream to a boil, turn off the heat, add the salmon, season with black pepper (lots of black pepper!), mix well and leave on the warm stove until pasta is done. this salmon could be eaten "raw" but if eating raw fish is repugnant to you, do leave the stove on and cook the sauce a bit longer







again, no salt added. there is some in the salmon, and i did splash some soya sauce on top. if the sauce looks too thick for your taste, thin it out with some water. serve either plated or from a big bowl, bon appetit!