Shanghai Styled Soup Dumplings

My dad, who is originally from the Shanghai region, tells me that dumplings, noodles, and all sorts of bread-oriented foods tend to be more Northern in cuisine since wheat and meat are more readily available. You'll likewise find a plethora of vegetarian dishes the farther south you go within China. While these dumplings are very labor intensive and you'll have the satisfaction that you didn't pay a small ransom to eat at Bellevue's Din Tai Fung restaurant, even though they have a visitor's window that lets you see their prep cooks rolling, filling, and making the very same dumplings.

Think of the last bread recipe you've done then multiply the time you spent waiting for that lazy dough to rise up by two and you get the approximate time it takes for all these ingredients to come together. Good thing gelatin that comes in small neat packages or else we'd be scraping down a length of pig skin for its gelatinous properties.

This recipe ratio comes from Brian Yarvin's A World of Dumplings book. The secret to having soup in a dumpling is to add a small amount of jelled soup to the dumpling before it gets steamed. The heat melts the soup that gently bathes the dumpling in a rich meaty broth, enhancing the elements of the dumpling; or at least that's the idea.

Dumpling making is a group affair, and doing this recipe with others is pleasantly more enjoyable. I should also mention that for this batch, I only made the dough and had the patience to pleat one dumpling. Oh, and I wrote the post and took the pics. :)

Oven Roasted Hamburgers

This method is for those of us who don't own a backyard grill. It's not the best solution and these burgers come out less greasy than if they were to be pan fried. If only I had some brioche buns to go with these. I picked up some lean ground sirloin when it was on sale. Although, with today's meat prices, I'm not sure if "sale" really describes it. These were about $3.50/lb. Try to not knead the meat too much as you mix in the spices. Working the meat too much can make it tough when it cooks.

Ingredients

1 lb lean ground beef
1 tsp sea salt or kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce

Directions

Preheat oven to 475 degrees F.

In a bowl, mix all the ingredients together. Form into 3" diameter patties that are no more than 1" thick. Place patties on a broiler pan. Roast for 14 minutes, or less, depending on how done you want these to be.

An internal temp of 130 to 135 degrees will yield a medium rare burger patty. Once removed from the oven and as the burger cools, it will continue to cook. So, keep that in mind for anyone who enjoys a "medium" or well done burger.

Cornmeal Pound Cake

Last autumn I picked up some stone ground cornmeal from the Grist Mill and thought I'd see if it was still usable. This cake came out pretty heavy and dense. I think it would go well with a fruit or berry compote with a slice of this as its base.

Ingredients

1 1/2 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
1/3 c. finely ground yellow cornmeal
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
3/4 c. organic granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1/4 c. whole milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F

1. In a large bowl, sift together flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

2. In a separate bowl, cream butter and sugar together. Whisk in milk, vanilla extract, and eggs. Gradually stir in flour mixture.

3. Prepare a loaf pan by buttering the insides. Pour in batter.

4. Bake for 1 hour, until the top is golden brown on top. Cool in pan on a rack. Remove cake from pan and let cool completely before serving or storing.

Braised Collard Greens

Collard greens have a lot of nutrients, which would make it an excellent addition to one's weekly vegetable fare if it weren't for this recipe that destroys nearly all the nutrients that this vegetable has to offer by its long cooking time. While collards could be eaten raw, most of what is good about it is unlocked with a bit of heat from say... steaming or stir frying. Braising, on the other hand, is a cooking method takes meats and sometimes vegetables and cooks them over very low heat for a long period of time. An hour of stovetop cooking is an eternity for a vegetable. But, collard greens are pretty tough and full of fiber, even after removing the stems from the leaves. This vegetable dish does taste good, however. I have eaten this once as a side dish at a Podnah's Pit in Portland. I've been trying to replicate their flavors ever since.

A lot of braising recipes call for a cup of vegetable broth, which is silly, considering that these greens will be cooking for an hour in a bacon and garlic flavored broth. Anyhow. I just used water, wine, and vinegar for the liquid part.

Ingredients

1 bunch of collard greens, stems removed and thoroughly washed
2 slices Applewood-smoked bacon
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 c. water + more if needed (do not let the pot dry out when cooking)
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1/4 c. white wine

Directions

1. In a heavy-bottomed pot, fry two (or more, if desired) slices of bacon. Once cooked, remove bacon to a plate and dice; pour out bacon grease to a separate container (for use in other recipes). Add garlic, water, vinegar, wine, and collard greens.

2. Cover pot and simmer over very low heat for 45 minutes to an hour.

3. Transfer vegetables to a serving plate and toss with diced bacon.

Sweet Butter Bread

I suppose if you wanted a very square looking loaf, you could make this in a bread machine. It is a standard bread recipe that is easy to do in a few hours, start to finish. I ended up baking this in the oven in a real loaf pan because I wanted my loaf to look like a loaf. Besides, it is summer and warm enough that the yeast doesn't need a protected container to retain its heat while proofing. Regardless of how this dough comes together (by stand mixer, food prep, bread machine, or by hand), it still needs to double in size for proofing, then baked for an amount of time.

Ingredients

2 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tbsp organic granulated sugar
1 tsp sea salt
2 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1 tbsp dry milk powder
1 large egg
1 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
1/2 c. water

Directions

Mixing the dough. The easiest way to mix these is to take all the wet ingredients and add them to a bread machine, followed by the dry ingredients with the yeast being the last to be added. Setup the bread machine for the 'dough' cycle and press 'start. Pretty lazy huh? After 1.5 hours of mixing/proofing, take the dough out of the bread machine, squish it a few times and let it rise in a prepared (buttered) bread pan. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and bake for 30 minutes. Let cool, slice while it is cooling, or rip it apart while it is still hot (I did the latter). This loaf will not last long in any household with avid bread eaters.

(alternate) Mixing the dough without a bread machine:

1. In a small bowl, add yeast and a pinch of sugar, to warm water (110 degrees F). Set aside for 10 minutes, until yeast foams up a bit.

2. In a food prep, combine flour, sugar, dry milk powder, and salt. Add egg and yeast water. Mix until the ingredients come together. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. Gather up the dough into a ball and place in a lightly oiled mixing bowl. Cover with a kitchen towel (or another bowl) and let rise for an hour.

3. Prepare a bread pan by lightly oiling its insides with butter. Once the dough has doubled in size, punch it down, if necessary, and place it in the prepared bread pan.

4. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. Once the top and sides are lightly browned, the bread should be done.

This bread tastes good slathered with even more butter. Yum!