Dumpling Update: Several Recipes
May. 12th, 2011 12:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
multipurposegoddessI have been neglecting my beloved dumpling recently, but I am making up for that today.
First, I wanted to have Masa Ball Soup for lunch. I had masa balls in my freezer, and since I had cut down the recipe for the soup part the first time I made this (and that is always dicey, I am apt to cut some ingredients and not others in haphazard fashion), I decided to make the full recipe for the flavorful part of the broth - the onions, tomatoes, spices, etc - and just cut the broth portion down to approx 3 servings (to match my 3 servings of frozen balls). I don't think it'll make the flavor too intense for me, since subtlety is wasted on my tastebuds, and it's an easy way to end up with one serving for lunch and two to freeze (this time I will freeze the dumplings in the soup, see how that works out). In fact, I even made the Chicken Broth with Mexican Flavors as specified in the Appendix, since my reserves of Chicken Broth with Whatever Flavors Were Handy When I Made It are getting low and I have a bit of a surplus of stock chickens and stewing hens.
Came out great! Adding the frozen dumplings the same as I would have the freshly made and simmering a little longer seems to work fine. These masa balls have no binder, they maintain cohesion through being fried before they are simmered, and I think i may have shortchanged them a little bit on the frying as there was some disintegration. OTOH, that may be normal, enough dumplings remained intact to be tasty and enjoyable and the broth is certainly not hurt by thickening with dumpling crumbles. It would probably be a little easier to make tortilla soup out of the same broth, but I like the hint of cheesiness that the dumplings allow, and the chewiness. There are no chunks of meat in this soup, just balls and corn, everything else is pretty much just flavor suspended in broth.
A couple of days ago, I decided that rather than chase all over town looking for pandan (I'm sure I can find it, but that would mean more grocery shopping and I don't want to do my basic grocery shopping much less try to find my way around all new stores), I would order extract. And while I was at it, I got black sesame seeds and mung bean starch. So I'm all set to make Onde-onde with all the correct ingredients (very exciting! They were so tasty even the half-assed way I made them before and I can already see how much easier the palm sugar will make stuffing them), Nine-Layer Coconut Tapioca Cake (Khanom Chan), Salty-sweet Bean Puddings with Coconut Cream Topping (Khanom Thuay), and Black Sesame Cupcakes (Kurogama Mushipan). Soon I will have a lot of sweets. And know if I like pandan - if I do, I will try to find a local source.
Edited after making of onde onde to add: yes, they are better with the real ingredients. Seriously yum. I'm not sure if I can taste the pandan, but the palm sugar is a huge improvement. Also, i think I made them bigger than they are supposed to be/ used more sweet potato because they took, like, 3 times as long as they were supposed to to float while simmering. So, possibly still undercooked, I suppose, but so very tasty. I'm not sure if I will try to address that issue in the future or not - making them smaller would make stuffing them more of a challenge. I'm getting the hang of the coating-with-coconut step, which is nice.
First, I wanted to have Masa Ball Soup for lunch. I had masa balls in my freezer, and since I had cut down the recipe for the soup part the first time I made this (and that is always dicey, I am apt to cut some ingredients and not others in haphazard fashion), I decided to make the full recipe for the flavorful part of the broth - the onions, tomatoes, spices, etc - and just cut the broth portion down to approx 3 servings (to match my 3 servings of frozen balls). I don't think it'll make the flavor too intense for me, since subtlety is wasted on my tastebuds, and it's an easy way to end up with one serving for lunch and two to freeze (this time I will freeze the dumplings in the soup, see how that works out). In fact, I even made the Chicken Broth with Mexican Flavors as specified in the Appendix, since my reserves of Chicken Broth with Whatever Flavors Were Handy When I Made It are getting low and I have a bit of a surplus of stock chickens and stewing hens.
Came out great! Adding the frozen dumplings the same as I would have the freshly made and simmering a little longer seems to work fine. These masa balls have no binder, they maintain cohesion through being fried before they are simmered, and I think i may have shortchanged them a little bit on the frying as there was some disintegration. OTOH, that may be normal, enough dumplings remained intact to be tasty and enjoyable and the broth is certainly not hurt by thickening with dumpling crumbles. It would probably be a little easier to make tortilla soup out of the same broth, but I like the hint of cheesiness that the dumplings allow, and the chewiness. There are no chunks of meat in this soup, just balls and corn, everything else is pretty much just flavor suspended in broth.
A couple of days ago, I decided that rather than chase all over town looking for pandan (I'm sure I can find it, but that would mean more grocery shopping and I don't want to do my basic grocery shopping much less try to find my way around all new stores), I would order extract. And while I was at it, I got black sesame seeds and mung bean starch. So I'm all set to make Onde-onde with all the correct ingredients (very exciting! They were so tasty even the half-assed way I made them before and I can already see how much easier the palm sugar will make stuffing them), Nine-Layer Coconut Tapioca Cake (Khanom Chan), Salty-sweet Bean Puddings with Coconut Cream Topping (Khanom Thuay), and Black Sesame Cupcakes (Kurogama Mushipan). Soon I will have a lot of sweets. And know if I like pandan - if I do, I will try to find a local source.
Edited after making of onde onde to add: yes, they are better with the real ingredients. Seriously yum. I'm not sure if I can taste the pandan, but the palm sugar is a huge improvement. Also, i think I made them bigger than they are supposed to be/ used more sweet potato because they took, like, 3 times as long as they were supposed to to float while simmering. So, possibly still undercooked, I suppose, but so very tasty. I'm not sure if I will try to address that issue in the future or not - making them smaller would make stuffing them more of a challenge. I'm getting the hang of the coating-with-coconut step, which is nice.