Dumplings Deluxe

I have often wandered, what did we eat before we had potatoes, pasta and rice?

I get tired of serving these starches and one alternative I fall back on quite often is

dumplings. 

I've tried all sorts of recipes for them, some with just flower and water, others with a range of ingredients, but I come back to this recipe over and over again.  

These can be made with butter or lard, but I must admit I do prefer them with butter. I like to use stock, usually chicken or vegetable stock, but milk or wine could also be used, what ever your preference, depending on the dish they are to be added to. 

These dumplings could also be served as a side dish, cooking them in salted water, but that's a bit boring to my way of thinking. 

Give these a try with chicken soup or stew; they make all the difference to the meal.

Ingredients:
375ml flour
10ml baking powder
2.5ml salt
50g butter
180-190ml chicken stock
30ml chopped parsley

Method:
Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.
Rub in the butter until you achieve a bread crumb constituency.
Stir in the stock and herbs and mix together to form a loose dough.
When your stew is almost ready, drop rounded tablespoons of dough into the simmering stew. Cook uncovered for 10 minutes and a further 10 minutes covered.
Serve immediately straight from the pot!

Spinach and Paneer Koftas in Spiced Tomato Sauce

Ingredients:

For the Koftas:

250g grated paneer

2 large potatoes cooked, peeled and grated 

5cm piece of ginger, finely chopped 

3 small green chillies, finely chopped 

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ajowain or carom seeds

100g spinach leaves finely shredded

Oil for deep frying

For the batter:

100g gram flour (chickpea flour)

1/2 tsp ajowain or carom seeds

75-100ml of water

1/2 tsp salt

For the sauce:

1kg of tomatoes cut into quarters

2 1/2cm piece of ginger, grated 

3 green cardamom pods

5 cloves

1 bay leaf

2 tsp chilli powder

1 heaped tsp dried fenugreek leaves

2 tbsp chilled butter, diced 

100ml single cream

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp garam masala

A pinch of sugar

2 cloves garlic, chopped 

Method:

To make the koftas:

Add all the kofta ingredients except the oil and spinach in a bowl and mix well with a wooden spoon. Shape into little balls the size of golf balls.

To make the batter:

Put the gram flour, ajowain, salt in a separate bowl and make a well in the centre.

Gradually stir in the water until it becomes a smooth thick batter.

Spread the shredded spinach out onto a flat tray.

Dip the koftas into the batter and then roll them in the spinach to form a coating. Keep aside.

To make the sauce:

Put the tomatoes in a large saucepan. Cook and cover over a medium heat until they begin to soften.

Add the garlic, ginger, cardamom, cloves and bay leaf.

Bring to the boil. Simmer until the tomatoes completely disintegrate.

Remove and liquidise in a blender. Strain if necessary, pour into a clean saucepan.

Add the chilli powder and fenugreek leaves and simmer for ten minutes until slightly thickened.

Add the butter a little at a time stirring constantly. When the sauce turns glossy add the cream and simmer for a couple of minutes.

Season with salt, stir in the garam masala and add a pinch of sugar to bring out the flavours.

Heat the oil in a deep fat fryer or a deep saucepan until hot.

Add the koftas and fry for 1 1/2 minutes until crisp and golden. Drain on kitchen paper and serve with the sauce.

Lentil Wari

Wari are a type of dumpling made from lentils, beans or rice. Any one of these staple ingredients is soaked in water till soft, then ground, spiced and formed into little cakes, like scones, cone-shapes or balls. Of course they can be made fresh and used immediately, but more often these are made in large batches and dried for later use. They can then be stored away in airtight containers and used when required. When adding them to a stew or curry it is advisable to add extra water to the dish so that there is sufficient gravy to cook them in.

Ingredients:
1kg yellow split peas (chana dhal), Chinese mung beans (moong dhal), or puy lentils
1 bunch of spring onions
1 head of garlic, peeled
500g green beans
10ml ground turmeric
5ml ground coriander
10ml ground cumin
2 bunches of coriander leaves, roughly chopped
250g green chillies, minced
30ml vegetable oil
salt to taste
5-10ml garam masala

Method:
Preheat the oven to 120-150C.
Soak the lentils over night. In the morning, put them in a blend them to a thick paste. Ad the onions, garlic and green beans to the blender and blend them into the lentil paste. Add the spices, coriander leaves, minced chillies, vegetable oil and salt to taste. Mix well.

Prepare baking trays, lined with baking paper. Shape tablespoonfuls of mixture into flattened balls or cone-shapes and place them on the baking trays with a little space between each. Place the trays in the oven for 1-2 hours to dry. If they begin to brown, your oven is too hot. Once the cakes are dry and hard, remove them from the oven and allow to cool before packing in airtight containers for use in curries or stews as required.

Beef and Grapefruit Curry with Rice Wari

This is a rendition of a northern Indian dish in which they use a fruit called the shatkora, which is a citrus fruit similar to grapefruit. As grapefruit are easier for most people to obtain and gives a pleasant result, I have recommended them in this recipe. When buying your stewing steak, look for meat that has a bit of fat on it as this gives a more sumptuous texture to the resultant dish. I like to serve this with wari, a type of dumpling, as a meal in one dish.

Ingredients:
For the Curry
500g chuck or stewing steak, cut into 1 inch cubes
50-60ml vegetable oil
5ml mustard seeds
4-5 cloves
3 pieces of cassia bark
4-5 green cardamom pods, lightly crushed
1 large onion, halved and thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 inch piece of ginger, peeled and grated
2ml ground turmeric
5ml chilli powder or tandoori spice
7.5ml freshly ground cumin seeds
7.5ml freshly ground coriander seeds
10ml salt
15ml tomato paste
15ml brown sugar
30-50g ghee
200ml boiling water
1 pink grapefruit
2ml freshly ground black pepper
2ml garam masala

For the Wari
250ml cooked and cooled rice (left over rice is preferable)
10ml coriander leaves, finely chopped
15ml vegetable oil
2ml ground cumin
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
30ml melted ghee for braising

Method:
Heat the oil in a large heavy-based pan over medium heat. Add the mustard seeds, cloves, cassia and cardamom pods and allow them to sizzle for a few seconds. Add the onion and cook over low heat for 20-30 minutes, stirring from time to time, until they are soft and lightly browned.

Add the garlic, ginger, turmeric, chilli powder, ground cumin, ground coriander and salt and fry for 1 minute. Add the beef and cook for 10 minutes, stirring now and then to turn the meat n the spices and onion. Add the tomato paste, sugar and ghee and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add the boiling water, cover and simmer for an hour and a half or until the beef is almost tender.

Meanwhile, prepare the grapefruit. Cut it in half and squeeze out the juice. Cut one half into 2 quarters. Remove the residual membranes from one quarter, leaving the zest, which can be cut into thin strips.

To prepare the wari, mic the rice and other ingredients, except the ghee, and put the mixture through a mincer or blend them in a food processor. Form the dough into small balls about the size of a walnut. Melt the ghee in a frying pan and braise about 12 wari balls for 4-5 minutes, browning on all sides.

When the curry has had its hour and a half cooking time, add the prepared grapefruit zest and the squeezed juice, mixing into the curry. If the curry looks a bit dry at this point, add about half a cup of water and mix it in. Add the wari on the top and cook uncovered for a further 20-30 minutes or until the beef is tender, the gravy has reduced and thickened and the wari have cooked through. Add the black pepper, garam masala and salt if required. Serve piping hot with chutney and sliced banana.