thepassionatecook: Waiter, there's something in my... DUMPLING!

The (food)bloggosphere has been rolling dumplings like there's no tomorrow... I am really amazed at the variety of dishes out there, and even more to see that so many people ventured into creating something that is completely (if not alien then) new to them.
I felt that dumplings was a fitting theme for our blog event "Waiter, there's something in my..." after stew, bread, pie, Easter basket, stuffed fruit/vegetable: just as all-encompassing, inviting a host of local and regional varieties, leaving lots of freedom to interpret, experiment and share with the community. It was felt that stricter rules were in order, so you got them... resulting in slightly lower participation, but boy, what contributions we had!
From the unusual to the downright exotic, we had anything from Armenian to Ukrainian dumplings, some were rolled in rather unfamiliar things like amaranth, others were served in a sweet broth... from dumplings to wontons, they came in all shapes and colours and it is a veritable culinary journey you will be undertaking by reading the individual posts.
I have split them into savoury and sweet for ease of browsing and they are sorted by the time the entries were received... So without further ado, here's the roundup!

Savoury dumplings:

A tender sweet sixteen only, Le Petite Boulanger (sic) in Singapore is lined up for admission at the Cordon Bleu. If these perfect gyoza dumplings with pork, leeks and garlic are anything to go by, passing the exams with flying colours will not present a problem at all! Steaming them half-submerged in water, then frying in hot oil is the ultimate secret to perfection!

Green Gourmet Giraffe tried one of the doughs I recommended, but stuffed them with vegetables: beetroot, no less! Despite her baked blushing dumplings looking like "dumplings with a wound" and initial undercooking, she enjoyed her dumpling experiment and is ready to explore more... when she has more time on her hands than her current work-schedule allows!

Potatoes, Jalapeño peppers and cheese are the filling for Other People's Food's pierogies. With some goat's sausages from the farmers market, these make a delightful meal and certainly an impressive contribution to Katie's first ever WTSIM... just keep them coming, will you?

Tezcape - Escape to food learns wonton-rolling skills from a neighbour, but won't for a long time be making her own pastry... I am not surprised. Her "irregularly shaped" dumplings can be made with either bok choi or a meat filling and, perfectly wrapped as they are, they almost look like tortelloni - I never knew there was such a cunning resemblance!

Idli plates (and I thought a lobster fork was extravagant!) are used to create impressive vegetarian dumplings at Tasty Palettes. Wonton wrappers envelop a variety of Asian flavours including tofu, vegetables, lemon grass and egg, are then steamed and served with a tasty sauce and I have no doubt that they taste just as amazing as they look...

Cook (almost) anything at least once convinces me to finally get my hand on some wonton wrappers and try my hand at origami - but with pasta! Her pork dumplings with cabbage, spring onions, water chestnuts and hoisin sauce taste just as good steamed as fried and they're a real sight to behold!

Literally from the far edge of nowhere, Isolated Foodie catches some wild salmon to make gyoza using baby lettuce and spicy Asian greens grown in her own garage... I have to wonder: how is it that she can find gyoza wrappers in Isolationville, when I cannot get my hands on them here in London?

Lemonpi helps herself over the purchase of a rather large TV with comforting dumplings. At least one thing stays the same: the happiness felt at achieving something spectacular by making Hot Yogurt Soup with Chicken and Pistachio Mante, the latter being an Armenian dumpling filled with spiced meat. This certainly is our winner in the Unusual Foods category this time!

An almost eccentric (as in: very different from what I am used to) way of making dumplings comes from Nook & Pantry: Chinese egg dumplings are a tasty filling of pork, leek and mushrooms, embraced by a thin omelette, then cooked/simmered in some chicken broth. What a most comforting thought! This must be the perfect pick-me-up after a night on the town (which I haven't had in a long, long time)!

Jiaozi make SpittoonExtra discover it's a good thing to stretch your imagination a bit - he found his pork and five-spice stuffed dumplings served with sweet chilli sauce were lacking in the aesthetics department, but a keeper taste-wise... what more do you want! Is even my greatest critic convinced now that dumplings needn't be stodgy and wintery?

Trinigourmet also uses wonton "skins" for her vegetarian potstickers made with left-over vegetables, ginger, garlic and chilli. Initially thinking that all that wrapping, steaming and frying was a lot of effort to go through, she is now utterly convinced that it's worth it... and it took just one bite to convince her.

Another batch of beautiful and moreish wontons with a rough recipe for a prawn and pork filling is brought to us by A few of my favourite things. While she complains that her wontons always turn out a tortellini shape, instead of "money-bag" style, I think they're all-the-more precious for it... I couldn't fiddle that much if I tried!

Xochitl Cooks, but not without doing some proper research first. The idea to make Asian-style dumplings was a good enough excuse to visit London's dim sum temple Yauatcha almost daily (glad she took me along on two occasions as well!) - yet she ends up in the Italian quarter with her Cheat's ravioli with ricotta, artichoke and sundried tomato filling... wrapped into Chinese dumpling pasta!

Sweet dumplings:

Just across the channel in Ghent, Belgium, Aarti' Corner introduces us to the traditions surrounding the Ganesh Festival, and this favourite god of all Maharashtrians likes nothing more than Ukadiche Modaks: a parcel of dense white dough made with rice flour, enveloping a centre of coconut, poppy seeds and sugar, they're steamed and certainly food fit for a god...

In New Zealand, Homemades is spoiling us with sticky green dumplings stuffed with coconut, palm sugar and pandanus leaves, served in a thin rice pudding. Apparently, this is called Putri Mandi or Princess' Bath - you might not end up squeaky-clean, but what indulgence!

Batter-Splattered goes all seasonal on us with a delicious concoction of baked rhubarb dumplings made with a buttermilk biscuit batter and a butter-vanilla-sugar sauce. It seems they're the perfect recipe for "haul(ing) a grown man from the bed he crashed into for a nap right after work" - so here it is, if you were looking for one!

Dumplings are a new treading-ground for Food & Family who bravely tries a recipe for plum-stuffed potato dumplings with a mulberry-apple filling, but finding the fruit-potato-ratio in need for improvement. We all know practice makes perfect and luckily, she has a row of testers is on stand-by for further dumpling-rolling experiments...

A visit to Prague inspires The Golden Shrimp to combine Czech Staroceske Trdlo and a tried and trusted tart recipe for heavenly apricot, ginger and almond dumplings. They're yeast-based, but boiled (something I've never come across before) and tripled all their goodness in the water! Given that they're a breeze to put together, I guess Switzerland will see more of those in the future!

Another recipe with stone fruit comes from just across the border from both the Czech Republic and Switzerland... 1x umruehren bitte aka kochtopf bakes apricot dumplings, or rather puff pastry parcels filled with apricot. They're not really dumplings, but fit the rules: some sort of dough, filled with something, then boiled, steamed or baked - can't argue with that!

My new and much revered bread guru, Ulrike of Küchenlatein proves that she can not only tame sourdough, but knows her way with yeast as well. And eccentric Austrian German! Her Germknödel with Powidl and poppyseeds are an Austrian expat's dream, but these steamed yeast dumplings filled with plum preserve, served in vanilla custard sauce, will surely have you drooling just as much as me...

Tartelette and I must be completely on the same wavelength as she proposes Toasted Nutella Ravioli. After going through the lengthy process of making her own pasta dough, she rewards herself by serving the ravioli with a frangelico-caramel sauce and some vanilla icecream - and she even has the kindness to share this delight with her guests!

Fellow Austrian Astrid of Paulchen's FoodBlog?! had to work just as hard as the rest of you as she makes dumplings for the first time in her life. Marillenknödel, no less, the favourite Austrian dumpling, are made with apricots from the Wachau, universally acknowledged as the Ferrari of apricots. With some poppyseed stuffing inside and using spelt flour, she truly impresses with her skills - this can't be beginners' luck?

Blog Quesadillas makes a dough of ricotta, semolina and amaranth and wraps it around some cherries and chocolate... what a wonderful combination. I had never come across amaranth before, despite living in Mexico, but apparently it was used extensively by the Aztecs. Gluten-free, heart-friendly goodness that also tastes great - what's not to like?

A Bavarian living Down Under, Sweet Sins has to make do with pears, as stone fruit are not in season on the other side of the globe. Like myself, she likes to add cinnamon and other spice to the breadcrumb coating, but, rather unusually, she also adds poppyseeds... what a clever addition, and so beautiful to look at!

Cook Sister! does a bit of genealogical research in the false belief that she needs to have a good reason to make delicious dumplings... and traces her family back to a Polish relative working for the Dutch East India company. I am sure that her cherry dumplings or knedle wisniowe using a plain flour dough tasted absolutely delightful, with or without family ties!

Another sweet recipe using curd, or rather the German quark, comes from delicious:days. This girl was quite obviously raised on a diet of dumplings just like myself, otherwise her strawberry dumplings with poppyseeds couldn't be as picture-perfect as they are. Her technique for mastering the sticky dough is different from mine, so I guess we'll have to have a cook-off some time this summer ;-)

An Italian in the US makes dumplings from garbanzo flour and fills them with raisins and rum. Originally inspired by Indian modak dumplings, these are dumplings that truly transcend three continents... but without the usual worries about food miles or global footprint!

Vareniki dumplings hail all the way from the Ukraine by way of Estonia and are filled with sweetened curd cheese. Nami-Nami had a hard time deciding as most local dumplings would be fried or not filled, so she made an effort by venturing further afield. And what a treat they must be, especially served with that gorgeous-looking home-made apricot jam & pistachios!

As for myself, thepassionatecook, I ventured into new fields with chocolate & pecan dumplings rolled in cinnamon-pecan crumbs... as well as offering you a multitude of traditional Austrian dumpling recipes, both savoury and sweet, through a list of links to previous posts. So if this round-up hasn't given you enough dumpling inspiration, go ahead and explore some more!

Thanks to all participants for their mouth-watering and inspiring contributions... and for a sneak preview, let me tell you that the next round of WTSIM that I will be hosting in September, the theme will be savoury preserves... so keep your eyes open for cornichons, sauerkraut, chillies, aromatic oils etc!

Comments

Yum! These all looks amazing. I love dumplings.

I usually buy my gyoza wrappers from New Loon Moon in Gerard Street, mainly because I love that they always have Singapore orchids and I like their fruit selection. The wrappers are available in just about any store in China Town, though.

Posted by: Margie | Jul 05, 2007 at 11:56 AM

Great round-up, Johanna, and such a huge variety of dumplings! I've just bookmarked few of the recipes, so I guess there'll be a lot more dumpling-eating in our house over the next few months :)
Thanks for the roundup!!
So what's Andrew got in store for us??

Posted by: Pille | Jul 05, 2007 at 12:06 PM

Wow!! What a varied and impressive selection! Some of those dumplings sound just too good to resist. Well done to everyone who participated and thanks Johana for another great roundup :)

Posted by: Jeanne | Jul 05, 2007 at 12:38 PM