The Dumpling Path

Tonight marked my second dumpling night in exactly a week, but unlike last time (post to come), I had leftover filling this time to "deal with."

I've had this idea in my head to make beef, tomato & egg dumplings for some time now, so after a trip to Flushing for a haircut, I also picked up everything I would need to make an Asian culinary feast.

Since I used store bought dumpling skins, it becomes all about the filling.

It started with some eggs, a hot pan, and oil.

The beginning

And then it took off from there - see below the process in picture collage form:

Starting from the top left, after the eggs were scrambled, I let them sit in the bowl to cool while getting started with the rest of the ingredients.

And by get started, I mean throw the following ingredients into a bowl and mix them all together: ground beef, scallions, raw egg, sesame oil, diced tomatoes, salt & pepper to taste. Add in the scrambled eggs, and we're ready to assemble the dumplings.

Once assembled, steam them in the pan, and voila! Dinner is served - with enough leftover to pack up for tomorrow's lunch! Problem was though (and really, it turned out to be the best kind of problem), I didn't end up using all of the filling with the dumpling skins that I had. Sooooo, I decided to stuff some Asian eggplants that I had also bought.

I chopped up the eggplants into segments so they would be easier to scoop out, rather than struggle trying to keep it all in one piece. Cut those segments in half, and then used a paring knife to take out the meat in the middle. Stuffed the scooped out pieces with the beef filling from the dumplings, and put them in a foil lined pan for baking. Drizzled everything with some sesame oil (my love) and soy sauce. Baked in the oven at 350 degrees for...actually I'm not really sure - maybe about half an hour covered, and then 10 min uncovered.

 

So now one may ask - what did you do with the meat of the eggplant segments??? A simple saute with some of my favorite flavors.

A few of my favorite things

First saute some garlic, scallions & shallots in a mix of vegetable and sesame oils. Your kitchen will smell something amazing. Throw in the eggplant pieces and season with soy sauce and maybe ground pepper to taste. Let everything sizzle for a little bit, then add some water and cover on medium/low heat. Once it starts boiling and most of the water has evaporated, uncover and turn up the heat. Then add some chili oil if you want (I did want), and some green scallions for the finishing touch!

 

To boot, after all of this, I was brought home some awesome grapefruit yogurt bubble tea from Kung Fu Tea! Life is good =)

Dumpling Empire + Early Chinese New Year Dinner

My last dumpling night post was only about the sauces that I mixed and the dumplings that I ate. This time, will discuss the dumplings that I made!

We had an early Chinese New Year get together last night which involved a game if dumplings - hidden in some of the dumplings are some coins, which are each assigned some dollar amount. If you are so lucky as to eat a dumpling with a coin in it, not only are you bound to have good luck for the year, but also you get $$$. Unfortunately, while I was not so luck as to win anything this year, we still had our red envelope tradition which I as an unmarried "kid" can still partake in. Granted, we had to earn it by reciting Chinese New Year sayings (in Chinese), which is actually a rather stressful experience!

After we all got our envelopes, there were games...involving dollar bills...and die. And I'll just leave it at that.

Speaking of last night's dinner, among other delicious dishes, there was also a roast pig - head included, which has minimal relevance to this post other than the fact that it looks really cool/creepy.

Back to the my original focus - dumplings. There were many leftover packs if dumpling skins and containers of the filling, which we for some reason ended up bringing home with us (I'm not complaining!). So in preparation for our dinner tonight ad well as for New Year's Eve dinner tomorrow night, I said I'd be in charge of making the dumplings.

8 packs of dumpling skins, 5 containers of filling, 1 bowl of water, 5 trays, 1 rather achey back and 4 hours later, I, the Dumpling Queen, had my Dumpling Empire, with about 400 "citizens" at my disposal, armed with deliciousness and ready to be made into a meal!

The set-up

Progress...

My little dumpling

My Dumpling Army!

I started running out of room, so I had to consolidate a bit - side & aerial view

Dumpling Night

One of many dumpling nights that I've had lately - I actually didn't do any of the cooking other than prepping the sauces (garlic & soy sauce and garlic & vinegar w/ hot sauce), but thanks to Instagram (how did I live without it before???), I have some photos I wanted to share from the meal.

And now that I've successfully made myself hungry again by looking at these pictures again...I'm off to find some food! Perhaps an Ego Waffle with chocolate chips? I think yes...

love love LOVE garlic

 

 

We also had some fish ball (teehee) soup