Happy new year. I’m not one for new year’s resolutions; and if I were, I’d be wise not to set the goal of ‘writing actual recipes for the blog’, given its likely failure. In the absence of actual recipes, the descriptions below cover most of the ingredients, though there will be a pinch of this and that not referenced.
We had people round for new year’s eve, and I cooked an assortment of Chinese-ish dishes. I love making dumplings and wontons (though I rarely get round to it), and last night featured two types. We started with wonton soup, using white dumpling wrappers rather than the yellow wonton wrappers that contain egg, to keep things vegan for a couple of guests. To fill these I minced mock duck (a tinned seitan that I get from the Chinese supermarket) and mixed this with finely chopped Chinese chives and miso; to help bind the filling I sweated some finely chopped onion, added the seasoned braising liquid from the tinned seitan, and thickened this mixture with cornflour. To make the soup, I steeped kombu and dulse (both are types of seaweed; excellent sources of umami) in cold water overnight, then in the strained liquid I boiled chopped carrots, celery, onion, a star anise, and some sliced galangal (a relative of ginger, though with a lighter and more peppery flavour). After about an hour the veg had infused the broth, with the carrots adding a wonderful sweetness. A good pinch of salt rounded things off nicely; the clear, faintly golden soup was light but packed with flavour, and is something I’ll be doing again soon.
(Not the most photogenic dumplings, admittedly!)
The main course featured a version of a dumpling I’ve made quite a few times over the years: chilli peanut dumplings. Usually these would be deep-fried in wonton pastry, but this time they were air-fried in eggless dumpling wrappers (and were none the worse for it – some split open in the air fryer, though whether this was the fryer’ or the chef’s fault I don’t know). The filling was a mix of peanut butter and gochujang (Korean hot pepper paste), with finely chopped spring onion and a little soy sauce. This makes a dense, quite dry filling that behaves itself well when being wrapped in the dumpling pastry. To accompany the dumplings and other dishes we had three dips: the first was cranberry, five spice and pickled ginger, which Cath concocted using the leftovers of a cranberry sauce she made for xmas dinner; a prune, black vinegar and mushroom soy sauce; and sweet and sour mango and garlic.
There are many tutorials on folding dumplings available on the internet.
Other dishes included crispy tofu with a sort-of salt and pepper seasoning – white pepper, Sichuan pepper, Chinese black cardamom, fennel seed, cumin seed, and a little chilli; smacked cucumber with my chilli crisp (see the last post I wrote); and a carrot and Chinese leaf salad with sesame seed, sesame oil, and coriander.
A p.s. from the following weekend, when I made a related dumpling feast with friends in Cambridge: wontons (wrappers not egg-free this time) with mushrooms and Chinese chives in broth; and potstickers with minced seitan, spring onion, Chinese leaf, and almond and sesame butter. The potstickers were accompanied by a special edition low-chilli version of the chilli crisp, a sweet and sour sauce based on the syrup from some home-made preserved figs, a sauce made from the broth from the seitan with hoisin and garlic, and soy eggs.
Spoilt Broth 