dumpling tutorial

A while back I made a whole lot of dumplings. Something in the 3 digit area. A friend of mine asked me how I formed them by hand. I’ve been meaning to make a tutorial but Fredrik wasn’t home for the last few times I made dumplings and the cats aren’t so good at holding a camera.

First you have the skin. I buy my skins ’cause I don’t know how to roll them out by hand.

Wet the edge of the skin with a bit of water.

Put filling in the middle of the skin. Be careful not to overfill it.

Fold the skin together at the middle and press to seal. Just the middle!

Fold the skin in the back and press to seal it with the front. Think darts if you’re a sewer.

Keep folding till the dumpling is sealed. Repeat on the other side. I usually get about 2-3 “darts” or folds per side.

Now you have a dumpling. Ready to be pan fried, steamed or boiled.

I usually pan fry my dumplings. First put them into a hot and oiled pan. Add a bit of water, enough to coat the bottom of the pan.

Cover with a lid. The dumplings will steam for a bit. I guess 5 minutes or so. I’ve never timed it. Just kinda know they’re done by the way they look. You’ll see the “dumpling juice” bubbling inside the dumplings. That’s a sign that they’re cooked.

Let it cook for a bit without the lid. This will dry out the bottom and crisp the skin. Don’t leave it for too long though. Then you’ll have burnt bottoms.

Serve with sauce of your choice. I like mine with balsamic vinegar and my mom’s chilli oil.

Here’s the video:

clean your plate

I’m sure that many grew up with parents that insisted on eating EVERYTHING on the plate.

My friend Salma used to say, “Think of the starving African children.” as she cleaned off her plate. That lead me to shout, “GO! GO! AFRICA!” one time while dining in a restaurant when she was struggling to finish a plate of fried noodles. She didn’t exactly appreciate it but she saw the humour in it.

I grew up having to eat every grain of rice in my bowl. It lead to a few times where I licked the bowl to get the last grains of rice. My mom didn’t really appreciate that.

I remember my mom telling me that grains of rice left in my bowl would lead me to have a husband with pox marks. My grandmother would tell my cousins that if they didn’t want an ugly wife they would have to leave a clean rice bowl. I remember my twin cousins telling my grandfather that he better clean his bowl or he’ll have an ugly wife.

I’d like to know what other people’s parents told them.

On another note regarding what parents tell their children to get them to behave, my friend Tara told me that her mom used to tell them that she’d sell her and her brother to the gypsies if they didn’t behave or be quiet. My mom never told me that she’d sell me to the gypsies but she did tell me that beggars would take me and chop off my arms and legs if I strayed away from her when we were out (this was when I was REALLY young).

my first risotto

The other night I decided to give risotto a try.

I’ve never made risotto before. I had my first risotto this year at our wedding potluck. Our friends Cesar and Ylva made a shrimp and peas risotto that was just awesome.

Not to toot my own horn but my first risotto was AWESOME.

I used Jamie Oliver’s instructions on making the base risotto. Followed it from his Cook with Jamie book. I used fish stock instead of chicken or vegetable stock. I was low on chicken bouillon and figured that fish aught to work. There’s peas, corn, leek and spinach in it. I didn’t use any cheese ’cause we have none.

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/risotto/basic-risotto-recipe

You can add just about anything and about half a litre of stock to this basic risotto recipe.

I was also surprised by how easy it was.

It’s interesting how in North America, risotto is often thought of as “fancy” Italian. At least that’s the impression that I got. While in Italy, it’s considered as “fast food”.

The shrimp was just pan fried with some butter and loads of chopped garlic. Sometimes the best way to make something already delicious is to just make it as simple as possible.

I’m hoping that the forested area behind our future house will have loads of mushrooms. Fresh chanterelles would make and awesome mushroom risotto. I’m already drooling thinking about that.

mmm fish and chips

There’s a girl living in Nova Scotia that I’ve been “conversing” with on Twitter. She writes about fish and chips at Tasty Fish & Chips.

I too am a big fan of fish and chips. The proper kind. Not the breaded kind you get in many places here in Sweden. Perhaps I can go on a fish and chips tour in Stockholm to find the best fish and chips establishment. I know for sure that I’m gonna try to get myself a helping of it this Sunday in London.

Well I’m gonna start contributing to Tasty Fish & Chips. Hopefully my writing will not disappoint.

fried fish and some sort of mayo covered cauliflower

Yesterday I met up with some forum folks at the Southside Pub in Södermalm. Thursday nights are pub quiz nights. We didn’t win but I won a drink.

I had the Irish style fish and chips. I’m not too sure what the Irish do differently from the rest of the UK. It was however not just covered in bread crumbs like the usual fish and chips one gets in Stockholm. It may not have been a delicious bit of deep fried batter covered halibut but it did satisfy me. Until Sunday that is (I’m heading to London on Sunday.).  ;)

The confusing thing about it was the mayo covered clump next to the salad. I thought it was tartare sauce at first but then I found a cauliflower hidden in it. I wonder what the hell that was supposed to be.

There’s a lovely girl in Halifax that blogs about the fish and chips: Tasty Fish & Chips.

Southside Pub
Hornsgatan 104
117 26 Stockholm
08 669 50 52

well then

This girl I met in SFI came over for mooncake and tea. She asked me what I did when I wasn’t at school or at work. I drew a blank. She seemed a bit surprised when I told her that I spend most of my time at home. I guess she was expecting me to say that I go out with people and what not.

I suppose I should go and make some friends. But I have no desire to do so. Is it really so strange?

For a while I was thinking that I should meet some new people. But I really don’t want to.

another week goes by

The past week has gone by quickly and rather strangely. Can’t say that it’s a nice thing.

I just realized that I didn’t write write that thing I was supposed to hand in on Thursday. Shit.

I’d like to point out that when there’s stuff going on, it tends to clump together.

We went out for dinner with some friends on Wednesday.

Drove up to Öregrund to see Fredrik’s mom on Thursday and spent the night there. Her cat, Nisse, was not happy that we were there. Gave us a few “WTF” mews.

Then on Friday we saw Engel at a club called “The Cave”. Unfortunately it was not actually located in a cave.

Last night we had dinner over at other friends’ place. I had a strange fit of allergies. Not to mention some serious arm pain.

Today we went around checking out houses. Fredrik got his tattoo started and I arranged mine.

The arm still hurts and I’m tired.

Time for bed.

NO EGGS!! NO EGGS!!

Tool had a song called Die Eier Von Satan which is a recipe for a cookie with no eggs.

I just polished off a plate of pancakes with no eggs. We ran out of eggs, I forgot to get some yesterday while I was out and about. I wanted pancakes and I didn’t want to head to the shops just yet.

I looked up substitutes for eggs and to my disappointment, I have no corn flour left either. But I do have Bird’s custard mix and that’s corn flour with colouring and flavouring. So I used that.

They turned out pretty good.

I used 1tbsp of Bird’s, a bit more milk than usual to make up for the liquid the egg would’ve had and flour.

Sorry for the lack of measurements. You should be used to it by now.

Now that I think about it. I’ve made no egg pancakes before. When Karamjit came to visit me, I made her no eggs pancakes because she’s technically not supposed to eat eggs because of her religion. I think I used Bird’s custard also.

dumplings everyday…

The guys at work asked me about dumplings a few weeks ago. “Asked” might be a bit too polite. More like badgered me about dumplings.

So after looking up the Japanese shop that I usually get my dumpling skins and finally finding a day that I could go after work. Most small shops are closed after I’m finished with work.

I went on to making about 80 dumplings.

As it turns out, 80 dumplings get eaten up pretty quickly.

So yesterday I stopped by the Japanese shop again after work. Brought home a big bag of mince pork.

Today I’ve made 60 so far. I had some for lunch and the rest are in the freezer. I need to wait till they’re done freezing before I can begin with the 60+ more I intend to make. Our freezer is rather small and we have quite a bit of stuff in it.

We should have at least enough dumplings to satisfy our craving.

I find that it’s always nice to keep a few in the freezer for those days when I don’t feel like making a lunch. Just pop them in the frying pan and voila! A quick and delicioius lunch in about 10 minutes.

This time, I’ve mixed half of the filling with chopped up pieces of shrimp.

It’s not that I don’t like you.

I just feel indifferent about you.

When one enters a relationship, it involves more than this other person. It will most likely involve the other people of this other person. When one enters a relationship, it comes with a web of other relationships that one is kind of obligated to deal with.

When it comes to “friends of…”, I’ve had my share of moments. From hating them to getting with them to just plain ol’ disliking them. I’m very picky. I’m not the easiest person to get along with and most people find me too strange or weird.

I just want to say that I don’t dislike Fredrik’s friends. I just feel indifferent about them. My feelings towards them are not great enough to qualify calling it as like. They’re all lovely people and I don’t mind seeing them from time to time. We’re just not in a relationship that would have me calling them for a cup of tay or chatting for hours on end.

Luckily for me, Fredrik seems to be ok with that. He probably feels about the same with my friends and frankly that’s like steps up from what I’ve experienced from other guys.