We needed something for dinner tonight and I actually felt up for cooking for once, so I consulted my short list. I wasn't up for a lot of cooking, but I felt I could do something small and simple and this cream sauce recipe fit the bill.

Dumplings in Cream Sauce

Adapted from Aaron & Claire

Ingredients

• 1/2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1/2 Tbsp. butter
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 12 white or cremini mushrooms, sliced
• ~100g ham, chopped
• 2 c. milk
• 1/2 c. milk powder¹
• 1 Tbsp. chicken stock powder
• black pepper, to taste
• 1/4 c. grated Parmesan
• 450g frozen dumplings (mini dumplings work especially well)
• 1 c. frozen peas
• 2-3 green onions, chopped

Directions

1. Heat the oil and butter over medium heat.
2. Add the onion and cook for a couple of minutes.
3. Add the garlic and cook for another minute or two.
4. Add the mushrooms, cover, and cook until they begin to release their liquid.
5. Add the ham and cook until heated through.
6. Add the milk, milk powder, and chicken stock and bring to a simmer.
7. Stir in pepper and Parmesan and adjust seasoning to taste.
8. Add the dumplings and peas and bring to a boil.
9. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook until dumplings are heated through and sauce has reached desired consistency.
10. Stir in green onions and serve topped with additional Parmesan.

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¹ The original recipe called for cream. We only had milk. So I decided to try to approximate cream by adding some whole milk powder to skim milk. I'm quite pleased with how this worked and would absolutely do it this way again in the future. ^Back

Dumplings with Steamed Egg and Rice

I picked up a bag of frozen beef and kimchi dumplings on sale at the grocery store earlier this week. So, when I wanted something quick and easy for dinner tonight, that seemed like the way to go. I hit up Aaron & Claire for preparation ideas. They have a whole bunch of frozen dumpling recipes, but this one looked pleasingly straigh-forward and we hadn't made it before, so that helped me with my choice.

I scaled up the sauce to match the number of dumplings, but I think I'd cut it back slightly next time. I also think it really wanted a few mushrooms in. It was okay as-is, but some mushrooms would've really made it. And, since we had a bunch of asparagus on hand, we also added that to the pan. Not strictly necessary, but having something green in does help to balance it out a bit.

Dumplings wiht Steamed Egg and Rice

Slightly adapted from Aaron & Claire

Ingredients

• 1/4 c. sugar
• 1/4 c. dark soy sauce
• 1/4 c. light soy sauce
• 1/4 c. mirin
• 1/2 c. water
• 500g frozen dumplings
• 2 Tbsp. oil
• 2 onions, halved and sliced
• 225g shiitake mushrooms, sliced
• 225g asparagus, broccoli, green beans, or vegetable of your choice, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 6 large eggs, beaten
• 6 green onions, chopped
• cooked rice, to serve
• toasted sesame seeds, to serve

Directions

1. Combine the sugar, dark soy, light soy, mirin, and water in a bowl and mix well.
2. Place the dumplings in a bowl with a little water, cover, and microwave on high for 4 minutes.
3. Heat the oil over medium-high heat.
4. Add the onion and mushrooms.
5. Break up 6 of the dumplings, add them to the pan, and stir-fry for 2-3 minutes.
6. Add the remaining dumplings, asparagus, and sauce and bring to a boil.
7. Reduce heat to medium and pour in the beaten egg.
8. Sprinkle with green onion, cover pan, and steam until eggs are set (~10 minutes).
9. Serve dumplings over rice and sprinkled with sesame seeds.
10. Add the onion

Mandu Jeongol (Dumpling Hotpot)

We've had a bag of pork and leek dumplings sitting in the chest freezer for a while now. I picked them up because they're tasty and convenient, but then kept forgetting that we had them and planning other meals. TF reminded me about them the other day though, so I finally set aside some space in the meal plan for them.

I was initially thinking of doing mandu guk, but my mood had changed by the time I was doing up the grocery list and I decided to try this mandu jeongol recipe instead. I appreciate how easy and flexible it was to make. And the dipping sauce was incredible!

Mandu Jeongol

Slightly adapted from Aaron & Claire

Ingredients

Flavour Paste

• 2 Tbsp. gochugaru
• 1 Tbsp. soy sauce¹
• 1/2 Tbsp. garlic paste
• 1 Tbsp. chicken bouillon powder²
• 1 Tbsp. fish sauce
• filling of 2-4 dumplings (depending on the size of your dumplings)

Dipping Sauce

• 2 Tbsp. light soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp. vinegar³
• 1 Tbsp. sugar
• 1 Tbsp. water
• 1/2 Tbsp. Korean mustard (or wasabi)

Everything Else

• 2-3 c. sliced napa cabbage or black kale
• 100-150g shiitake mushrooms⁴, sliced
• 100g enoki mushrooms
• 100-150g oyster mushrooms, torn into bite-sized pieces
• 1 onion, halved and sliced
• 1 bell pepper, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1 jalapeño, seeded and sliced
• 10-20 dumplings (depending on size of dumplings)
• 2-4 green onions, sliced
• 1 red chili, sliced on bias (optional)
• 4 c. water

Directions

1. Combine all of the flavour paste ingredients, mix well, and set aside.
2. Combine all of the sauce ingredients, mix well, and set aside.
3. Add the cabbage, mushrooms, onion, bell pepper, and jalapeño to a wok or pot (use a hotpot dish if you have one). Try to place each ingredient in its own section and don't place similar colours next to each other.
4. Arrange the dumplings on top.
5. Scoop the flavour paste onto the centre of the arrangement.
6. Decorate with green onions and chili (if using).
7. Take a photo and/or show off the pretty, pretty hotpot to your guests/family at this point.
8. Pour the water into the pot and bring to a boil.
9. Stir the hotpot as it cooks so that everything gets mixed and heated evenly.
10. Serve with the dipping sauce on the side. Dip the dumplings and vegetables into the sauce as you eat, then drink the broth (with a bit of dipping sauce mixed in if you like)!

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¹ I used a 50:50 mix of light and dark soy, but I think that either would've been fine. ^Back
2 I didn't have any chicken bouillon powder, but I did have dasida, so I just used that instead. ^Back
3 I just used plain white vinegar this time, but I think that black vinegar would've been really nice in this sauce. ^Back
4 Aaron mentioned that just about any variety or combination of mushrooms will work for this hotpot. He suggested enoki, shiitake, and oyster, but cremini and/or king oyster would probably also be great. And I think lion's mane or bear's head could also work, although their flavours and textures are obviously a bit different. I don't normally see a lot of other fresh mushrooms on offer here. But feel free to experiment if you have something else available locally! ^Back

Mandu Gangjeong (Dumplings in Sweet Sauce)

Fried dumplings coating in a sweet and mildly spicy sauce. It's extra-good if you deep fry the dumplings, but pan-frying works well too. Aaron calls for 12 dumplings for this amount of sauce, but I felt like that was too much sauce for the amount of dumplings. (Maybe my dumplings are smaller.) I think this amount of sauce would probably be about right for 24 dumplings, but adjust according to your own tastes and the size of your dumplings.

Mandu Gangjeong

Slightly adapted from Aaron & Claire

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp. oil
• 24 frozen dumplings
• 1 Tbsp. gochujang
• 1 Tbsp. gochugaru
• 2 Tbsp. sugar
• 1 Tbsp. oyster sauce
• 6 Tbsp. corn syrup
• 1 Tbsp. light (regular) soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp. garlic paste (or minced fresh garlic)
• 5 Tbsp. ketchup
• 1 green onion, chopped
• 1 tsp. sesame seeds

Directions

1. Heat oil over medium-low heat.
2. Add dumplings in a single layer and cook (slowly) until browned and crispy on the bottom. As each side becomes crispy, turn them to cook another side until as much of the surface as possible has been crisped.
3. Meanwhile, combine gochujang, gochugaru, sugar, oyster sauce, corn syrup, soy sauce, garlic, and ketchup and mix well.
4. Once dumplings are crisped all over, pour in the sauce and stir to coat the dumplings all over.
5. Cook until sauce thickens and clings to the dumplings.
6. Sprinkle with green onions and sesame seeds and serve.

Tari Daar Aloo Kofta (Potato Kofta in Raisin-Tomato Sauce)

Battering and deep frying the koftas makes this recipe a little more labour-intensive than I'd normally want for dinner, but the recipe sounded too good not to try! The chickpea flour batter fries up beautifully and makes for very professional looking dumplings. I feel like the sauce was a little lacking, but a bit on sonth drizzled on top of the dish perked it right up.

Tari Daar Aloo Kofta

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

Koftas

• 450g russet (or other floury) potatoes, diced
• 1/2 c. fresh cilantro¹, minced
• 2-5 fresh green Thai chilies, minced
• 6-7 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 Tbsp. coarse sea salt, divided
• 1/2 tsp. Punjabi garam masala
• 1 c. chickpea flour, sifted
• 1/4 tsp. ground turmeric
• 1/2 c. warm water
• oil for deep frying

Sauce

• 2 Tbsp. ghee
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 Tbsp. ginger paste
• 1/2 c. raw cashews
• 1/4 c. golden raisins
• 400mL tomato sauce²
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

Koftas

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil and add the diced potato. Reduce heat to medium and cook, partially covered, for ~8 minutes.
2. Reserve 1 c. of the potato cooking water. Drain the potatoes and mash them.
3. Add the cilantro, chilies, garlic and 1 tsp. of the salt to the mashed potatoes and mix well.
4. Working with about 2 Tbsp. of the potato mixture at a time, form your dumplings. Shape them into eggs or cylinders as desired.
5. Combine the chickpea flour, turmeric, and remaining 1/2 tsp. of salt.
6. Whisk in the warm water to make a batter. (I ended up adding an extra Tbsp. or two of water because the batter seemed too thick to me.)
7. Pour ~5cm (2") of oil into a wok or similar vessel and heat it to ~180°C (350°F).
8. Coat four of the koftas in chickpea batter and carefully drop them into the hot oil. Cook, turning occasionally, until golden-brown all over.
9. Cook remaining koftas in the same manner.

Sauce

1. Melt the ghee over medium-high heat.
2. Add the onion, ginger, cashews, and raisins and stir-fry for ~5 minutes.
3. Add the tomato sauce and stir to deglaze the pan.
4. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, for an additional 5 minutes.
5. Transfer sauce to blender jar and puree.
6. Return sauce to pan and pour the reserved potato cooking water into the blender jar. Swish it around and pour this into the pan with the sauce.
7. If using tomatoes rather than tomato sauce, stir in some salt.

Assembly

1. Warm sauce over medium-low heat.
2. Carefully add the koftas to the sauce and spoon the sauce over to completely cover them. DO NOT STIR!
3. Cover the pan and simmer for ~5 minutes.
4. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve.

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¹ I ran out of cilantro, so I ended up using a mix of cilantro and flat-leaf parsley. Parsley makes an okay substitute, but cilantro is better if you have it. ^Back
2 We ended up using diced tomatoes rather than tomato sauce. I suspect that commercial tomato sauce would have plenty of salt in it and thus wouldn't need any more added. If using fresh or canned diced tomatoes though, you may find that some additional salt is necessary. We added 1/4 tsp., but I think a 1/2 tsp. would've been better. ^Back

My understanding is that tang su yuk is normally a sweet-and-sour crispy pork dish. It is popular in Korean and, I believe, arose from a sort of fusion of Chinese and Korean cooking. I've never had tang su yuk before, although I have had American Chinese versions of sweet-and-sour pork. This particular version definitely isn't the most traditional, but it is tasty and easy so it's a winner in my book! I like that it gives you a way to turn a bag of dumplings into a meal. It still may not be the most nutritionally balanced, but it adds a few veggies and rounds it out a little bit.

Dumpling Tang Su Yuk

Slightly adapted from Aaron & Claire

Ingredients

• 1 (500g) package frozen dumplings^1,2
• 6 Tbsp. sugar
• 2 Tbsp. vinegar³
• 1/2 Tbsp. light soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp. ketchup
• 150mL + 15mL (1 Tbsp.) water, divided
• 1 onion, coarsely chopped
• 1 medium or large carrot, coarsely chopped
• 2-3 ribs celery, coarsely chopped/sliced
• 1/2 c. fresh or tinned pineapple, coarsely chopped (optional)
• 1 Tbsp. potato, tapioca, or cornstarch (cornflour)

Directions

1. Deep fry your dumplings. When starting with frozen dumplings, add the dumplings to the oil first and then start heating it. This allows the dumplings to heat and cook all the way through. If starting with fresh dumplings, heat up the oil first and then add the dumplings to the hot oil.
2. Meanwhile, make the sauce by combining sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, ketchup, and 150mL water in the pan and stirring to mix everything together.
3. Add the onion, carrot, celery, and pineapple (if using) and bring to a boil.
4. Mix the starch with the remaining 1 Tbsp. of water to make a slurry and stir the slurry into the sauce.
5. Cook until sauce reaches desired thickness.
6. Once dumplings are cooked, add them to the sauce.
7. Serve as is or over rice.

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¹ I know that "dumplings" can be a very broad term with a lot of variation. You could try this with a few different kinds of dumplings and see what works best. Personally, I recommend gyoza, 饺子 (jiao1zi), or "pot stickers" for this recipe, but I'm sure you could get delicious results with other kinds of dumplings as well. ^Back
2 You can easily keep this dish vegetarian by simply using vegetarian dumplings. ^Back
3 White vinegar is fine here, but I think cane vinegar or cider vinegar would be best if you have it. ^Back

Gatte ki Tehri (Rajasthani Pulao with Chickpea Dumplings)

This was part of a dinner of desperation. We ran out of onions and I couldn't make the dinner I'd been planning. We were out of a lot of stuff since I hadn't been grocery shopping in over a week. So I had to find something I could quickly put together with the ingredients I had on hand. I found a simple onion-less tomato curry and picked this biryani to go with it as it seemed like it would provide a little protein a well as act as a substrate. And, even better, I had made a batch of gatte (chickpea flour dumplings) a few months ago and frozen half of them, so I could skip that part of the recipe and just go straight to making the pulao and add my thawed dumplings at the end!

For me, this isn't one of those knock-your-socks-off amazing curries, but it is dead simple to put together if you have the dumplings on hand already and it's tasty enough, especially if you have some other curries and/or a raita to complement it. Overall, I was really pleased with this as one of those something-from-nothing sort of meals.

Gatte ki Tehri topped with Sorshe Tamatar

Gatte ki Tehri

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

Dumplings

• 2 c. chickpea flour
• 2 tsp. coriander seeds, ground
• 1 tsp cumin seeds, ground
• 1 tsp. ground cayenne
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1/2 tsp Rajasthani garam masala
• ~1/4 c. warm water
• ~1 Tbsp. canola (or other neutral) oil

Pulao

• 1 c. long-grain brown rice
• 3 c. water
• 2 Tbsp. ghee
• 1 Tbsp. cumin seeds; 2 tsp. whole, 1 tsp. ground
• 1/2 tsp ground asafetida
• 1 tsp. ground cayenne¹
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. ground turmeric
• 1/2 tsp. Rajathani garam masala
• 1/2 c. boiling water
• 1/4 c. chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

Dumplings

1. Combine chickpea flour, coriander, cumin, cayenne, salt, and garam masala.
2. Drizzle with water and bring together into a ball (preferably with your hand).
3. If it won't come together yet, add an extra Tbsp. or two or warm water. Dough may be quite sticky.
4. Remove as much dough as possible from your fingers and wash your hands.
5. Add oil and knead until smooth.
6. Shape dough into a 30cm (12") long log ~4cm (1.5") in diameter.
7. Cut the log crosswise into four pieces.
8. Bring a pot of water to a boil over medium-high heat.
9. Add the dough pieces to the boiling water and reduce heat to medium.
10. Simmer, uncovered, turning occasionally for 45 minutes.
11. Remove dough pieces from water with a slotted spoon and submerge in cold water for a few seconds.
12. Scrape off the pale outer skin with a butter knife or the edge of a spoon. The dough should be darker and firmer underneath. Discard the pale bits of dough you've trimmed off.
13. Slice each dough piece in half lengthwise.
14. Cut each piece crosswise into 5-10mm thick² nuggets.
15. Set half the nuggets/dumplings aside for this dish. Place the other half in a freezer bag and freeze for future use.

Pulao

1. Rinse the rice and set aside.
2. Heat ghee over medium-high heat.
3. Add cumin seeds and sizzle for 10-15 seconds.
4. Add rice, asafetida, cumin, cayenne, salt, turmeric, and garam masala.
5. Stir in water and bring to a boil.
6. Cook, without stirring, until water has evaporated and craters are starting to appear in the surface of the rice (~20 minutes).
7. Stir in dumplings and boiling water, being sure to mix the rice well.
8. Cover and reduce heat to low.
9. Cook, covered, without stirring, for 10 minutes.
10. Remove from heat and allow to sit, covered and undisturbed, for a further 10 minutes.
11. Remove lid, fluff rice, sprinkle with cilantro, and serve.

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Variations

Vegan

Ingredients

Dumplings

• 2 c. chickpea flour
• 2 tsp. coriander seeds, ground
• 1 tsp cumin seeds, ground
• 1 tsp. ground cayenne
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1/2 tsp Rajasthani garam masala
• ~1/4 c. warm water
• ~1 Tbsp. canola (or other neutral) oil

Pulao

• 1 c. long-grain brown rice
• 3 c. water
• 2 Tbsp. coconut oil
• 1 Tbsp. cumin seeds; 2 tsp. whole, 1 tsp. ground
• 1/2 tsp ground asafetida
• 1 tsp. ground cayenne
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. ground turmeric
• 1/2 tsp. Rajathani garam masala
• 1/2 c. boiling water
• 1/4 c. chopped fresh cilantro

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¹ For a less spicy option, substitute an equal amount of ground Kashmiri chilies. ^Back
2 Iyer says to slice them quite thick. I've found I prefer smaller, thinner dumplings. ^Back