2015 Cooking Club Week 21: Strawberry Dumplings

For the dumplings:

Fill the biggest pot you have with aprox. 7l of water, bring to boil, add enough salt to make it salty and keep it simmering until your dumpling are ready to cook. This should last you until you have no more dough or filling and there will be no need to top it up, but if you feel there’s not enough water go ahead and top it up from the kettle.

In a big bowl mix cooled mash (it can’t be luke warm, has to be cooled) with one egg and corn/potato flour and start adding plain flour.



At first it the dough will stick to your hand so you want to add more flour until it no longer sticks.



In fact it should turn into a rather firm and dry dough far from being sticky, this will let you work with it - you will feel when its right. The best tip is to add small amount of plain flour until the mix will feel right.



Put some plain flour on the work top and knead the dough for a bit. I



f it starts getting wet and sticky and it will - the more you work the stickier it will get - this will allow you to seal the dumplings in the later stage) add more flour.



It shouldn’t take more than 1-2 min anyway. When the dough is ready split it in two, put one in the bowl and dust it with flour so it won’t dry.



Roll out the half you have into a long piece and cut a piece aprox 1-1.5” long.



The bigger piece, the thicker or bigger the dumplings will be. I prefer them thin as possible, my mother doesn’t care - so its a matter of taste

Bring the big pot of water to boil again and put quickly all 6 dumplings. Easiest way to do it is take each dumpling in your hand and submerge one corner in water - then you can release the dumpling and there should be no splash of water. Or just try not to make splash in any other way. Cook dumplings for 8-9 minutes. Use an alarm clock to keep the track of that time. Once dumplings are in pot, get back to making new batch. If you sealed the dumplings well they should not open during the cooking in the pot.



Reheat the bread crumbs take your dumplings gently out of the water with a straining spoon (they might open and all the nice filling goes out into the pot), serve immediately and top them with a good amount of bread crumbs and butter. If the dumpling opens once on a plate don't worry the sweet juice mixed with bread crumbs and butter is absolutely scrumptious.



I can’t remember now but you should be able to make at least 30 dumplings. You don’t have to eat all of them in one go although I bet there will be hardly any left but if you have an excess they will only last a day.

Don’t pile them altogether on a plate for later, use few plates instead as they will stick to each other and break if you try to separate. You can reheat them in microwave or in boiling water but they will not taste as good. They’re nice to eat cold too. You can also use different fillings and just see what works best. The no-brainer here is an apple - I would suggest to grate it, you can mix it with strawberries. Good luck and enjoy!

There you go.

Method:

For the filling:

Prepare your strawberries first, and keep them on a sieve so that the juice drains to the bowl.
Mix sugar with cinnamon in a separate bowl.
Have a separate spoon for strawberries and sugar and cinnamon mix.

For the topping:

Prepare your bread crumbs - melt loads of butter and add a good amount of bread crumbs onto the pan.
You don’t want the mix to be too dry so add more butter if its turning into big sticky blob.
Fry the bread crumbs in the butter until they will feel hard when you press them with your spoon - you will feel the difference.
From soft and soundless mix they will turn into to harsh and coarse fried bread crumbs. You need to remember that it's easy to burn them so as soon as you feel the change in the texture remove the pan from the heat and stir these crumbs from time to time - if they burn they’re not nice and you’ll need to make new batch.
You can quickly reheat them before serving the dish. Note that you can use these bread crumbs with boiled green beans (it's a very nice side dish or even main dish).

For the dumplings:

Fill the biggest pot you have with aprox. 7l of water, bring to boil, add enough salt to make it salty and keep it simmering until your dumpling are ready to cook. The seasoning of the dumpling itself comes from the salty water. So always give the water a taste to see if it needs more salt or not. This should last you until you have no more dough or filling and there will be no need to top it up, but if you feel there’s not enough water go ahead and top it up from the kettle.

In a big bowl mix cooled mash (it can’t be luke warm, has to be cooled) with one egg and corn/potato flour and start adding plain flour.
At first it the dough will stick to your hand so you want to add more flour until it no longer sticks. In fact it should turn into a rather firm and dry dough far from being sticky, this will let you work with it - you will feel when its right. The best tip is to add small amount of plain flour until the mix will feel right.

Put some plain flour on the work top and knead the dough for a bit.
If it starts getting wet and sticky and it will - the more you work the stickier it will get - this will allow you to seal the dumplings in the later stage) add more flour.
It shouldn’t take more than 1-2 min anyway. When the dough is ready split it in two, put one in the bowl and dust it with flour so it won’t dry.

Roll out the half you have into a long piece and cut a piece aprox 1-1.5” long.
The bigger piece, the thicker or bigger the dumplings will be. I prefer them thin as possible, my mother doesn’t care - so its a matter of taste.

Once you have a little piece start rolling it (or just pressing it with fingers - method I use (I turn it every 90 degrees and press with fingers and eventually as it get's bigger I use the palm of my hand - but again its a matter of practice and whatever way works for you is best way to do it).

Once the dough is rolled into a nice big circle put some sugar and cinnamon mix (a teaspoon is enough) and strawberries (again I put 1-2 tsp or more if you manage to close them). The more filling the better.

Closing the dumplings - you want to seal the two edges using your finger tips almost as if you were trying to pinch someone (the dumplings should be round balls but I found that to do that the dough has to be thick and all you then is loads of dough and small amount of filling - which isn’t fun to eat, therefore my dumplings look more like a savoury dumplings).
The technic to seal the dumpling is literally in your hands, its up to you to find the right way to jiggle it around in your hand and seal the edges. If the dough starts sticking to your finger tips rub them with some flour.
It is a delicate job, because you want the edge sealed but also you want to be careful not to break the dough in any other area of the dumpling. But don't be discouraged if it doesn't work at first - the more you do it the faster you get it right.

If it’s causing you a lot of problems you can wet your finger in water and wet the edges of your dumpling, before you put your filling, they should stick together easier (I’ve never had to do it myself but it should do the trick).

Put the finished dumpling on a chopping board and make another 5 dumplings. You want to work quickly and make batches of 6 dumplings. You also will have to make dumplings without any breaks until you ran out of dough or filling - you can’t make 6 and come back an hour later to finish - the dough will get sticky again and you’ll end up adding more plain flour, at some point that will affect the flavour.

Bring the big pot of water to boil again and put quickly all 6 dumplings. Easiest way to do it is take each dumpling in your hand and submerge one corner in water - then you can release the dumpling and there should be no splash of water. Or just try not to make splash in any other way. Cook dumplings for 8-9 minutes. Use an alarm clock to keep the track of that time. Once dumplings are in pot, get back to making new batch. If you sealed the dumplings well they should not open during the cooking in the pot.

Reheat the bread crumbs take your dumplings gently out of the water with a straining spoon (they might open and all the nice filling goes out into the pot), serve immediately and top them with a good amount of bread crumbs and butter. If the dumpling opens once on a plate don't worry the sweet juice mixed with bread crumbs and butter is absolutely scrumptious.I can’t remember now but you should be able to make at least 30 dumplings. You don’t have to eat all of them in one go although I bet there will be hardly any left but if you have an excess they will only last a day.

Don’t pile them altogether on a plate for later, use few plates instead as they will stick to each other and break if you try to separate. You can reheat them in microwave or in boiling water but they will not taste as good. They’re nice to eat cold too. You can also use different fillings and just see what works best. The no-brainer here is an apple - I would suggest to grate it, you can mix it with strawberries. Good luck and enjoy!