Lasagne Bolognese

I made my first ever Lasagne only a few months ago, and it was a great success with those who tasted it, although improvements could be made. For one, I think there was too much pasta in the last one. I had some dried Lasagne in the cupboard this time, so decided to give that a try, even though the Lasagne recipe in The Silver Spoon places it firmly in the Fresh Pasta section. The stuff I had claimed that it did not need any pre-preparation, however, this was not the case, and the top layer which was made with this stuff just didn't work properly at all, which was a shame, because the Bechamel topped with a generous amount of Parmesan on the top tasted great. Just slightly spoilt by the hard pieces of pasta underneath.

When talking with friends about making Lasagne over the last week, it seems that everyone has their way of doing it, but you can divide most of them into two camps: those who pre-cook the pasta, then put a layer on the bottom of the dish, and those who don't pre-cook the pasta, and put a layer of Ragu on the bottom. After the way mine went today, I'm definitely going to stick with using Fresh Pasta, slightly pre-cooked and with a layer at the bottom of the dish.

The Ragu was my pretty much standard recipe, i.e. St Paddy's Bolognese but without the Guinness, although the Silver Spoon suggests uses Passata rather than Chopped Tomatoes. I did this last time, but I forgot to get some in this time, so the Chopped Tomatoes had to do. The length of time I cook the Ragu, I doubt it makes much of a difference.

Recipe for the Ragu Alla Bolognese

• 400g Lean Minced Beef
• 200g Pancetta, cubed (Smoked bacon, normal or streaky, can also be used as long as it's cut into small pieces)
• 1-2 tablespoons Olive Oil
• 1 ½ large onions, chopped
• 3 ribs of celery finely diced
• 3 carrots finely diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 glass of Red Wine
  
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 x 400g can of Chopped Tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon Concentrated Tomato Puree
• 1 teaspoon Fish Sauce
  
• 1 teaspoon Oregano
• 1 teaspoon Thyme
• ½ teaspoon Hot Chili Powder
• 2 Bay Leaves
• Freshly ground Black Pepper (to taste)

The directions for cooking this are exactly the same as the St Paddy's Bolognese. Like usual, I gave it a good 2 hours of simmering, only because I had to go and get some Milk for the Bechamel Sauce, I did this in my great new combination oven. I also added a little additional Beef Stock so that it wouldn't dry out too much while I was out.

Recipe for the Bechamel Sauce

• 3 Tablespoons Butter
• 3 Tablespoons Plain Flour
• 1.5 Pints of Milk
• Half an Onion
• 6 Black Peppercorns
• Pinch of Freshly Grated Nutmeg
• Salt and Pepper to Taste

First simmer the milk for about 20 minutes with the Onion, Peppercorns and Nutmeg, then strain it through a sieve to remove the bits. Next melt the butter in a pan, add the floor and cook briefly before gradually adding the milk, stirring all the time. Using a whisk later on helps keep the lumps out, but you shouldn't stop stirring until the floor is properly cooked. Add a little Salt and Pepper to taste.


Now, in a greased roasting dish, arrange a layer of Pasta on the bottom of the dish, then spread over a layer of Ragu, more Pasta, layer of Bechamel Sauce with a little Fresh Mozzarella if you wish, then Pasta, Ragu, etc. Keep layering until all the ingredients are used, finishing with a layer of Bechamel Sauce on the top. Next add a good covering of Parmesan Cheese and a little Freshly Ground Black Pepper.

The Lasagne should then be cooked in a pre-heated oven at about 200 degree Celsius for about 30-40 minutes. Let it rest for about 10 minutes before cutting and serving.

Chicken, Bacon and Vegetable Soup

This recipe came about because I had bought 10 very cheap chicken drumsticks, plus had promised I'd bring Rich some soup into the office once I had a flask to bring it in. It possibly wasn't the best soup to take to work in a flask, but it did go down well.

I had simply roasted the Drumsticks in my new combination oven for 30 minutes or so, then stripped the best of the meat off them, and put the remains and bones into a large pan of water with some celery leaves, onion, carrot and bay leaves and simmered for a few hours to make a stock. Half the chicken I used a Pasta Bake, saving the other half for this soup.

I pretty much did exactly what I did with my Leek and Potato Soup Recipe, only adding Celery and more Carrot than I would normally use, plus the Home-Made Stock, Chicken and Bacon. The Bacon was a bit of an afterthought as I discovered a few rashers which needed using up, but it definitely added nicely to the flavour.

Recipe for Chicken, Bacon and Vegetable Soup (Serves 4-6)

• 5 Roasted Chicken Drumsticks (Skin and Bone removed, or equivalent amount of Chicken Breast)
• 4 Thick Rashers of Smoked Bacon (Cut into small pieces)
• 2 Leeks (Chopped)
• 2 Stalks of Celery (Cubbed)
• 3-4 Carrots (Cubbed)
• 2 Potatoes (Cubbed)
• 2 Bay Leaves
• Salt and Black Pepper to Taste
• 1 Pint Chicken Stock
• 0.5 Pint Swiss Marigold Vegetable Bouillon

Melt a little butter in a pan and add the vegetables, keeping the heat low so that they soften without burning. After about 15-20 minutes add the Stock, Chicken, Bacon and Bay Leaves and bring to a simmer. Personally, I like quite a bit of Black Pepper, so I add quite a bit at this time so that it gets time to flavour the soup. Cover and let simmer for about 40 minutes. Taste the soup and season with more Salt and Pepper if necessary.

Toad in the Hole with Browned Onion Gravy

This is not a recipe I make very often, but it's one of those meals I loved during childhood. I've never really had a problem making it, except last time, when my oven wasn't great. This weekend, I had some chipolatas to use up and decided I'd give it a try with them. Not the healthiest of meals by any stretch, but for me, definitely comfort food. So as to not be disappointed like last time, I went about things slightly differently.

For one thing, I used a much better oven, and took a lot more care over the batter mix (sifted the flour, and whisked rather than blended it). I also spent longer over making the onion gravy, getting the onions really browned and cooking that bit longer.

The Batter Mix was modified after reading Nigel Slater's recipe as the idea of adding Wholegrain Mustard to it sounded appealing, although peeling the sausages and wrapping them in thinly sliced ham seemed to be taking it a little too far, especially considering the sausages I was using.

All in all, it came out pretty nicely I think. The gravy was especially nice, and definitely worth the additional time I spent on browning the Onions well.

Recipe for the Browned Onion Gravy

• 2 Large Onions, finely sliced
• 2 Tablespoons Butter
• 2 Tablespoons Plain Flour
• 2 Tablespoons Worcester Sauce
• 2 Teaspoons Dijon Mustard
• 1 Pint Swiss Marigold Vegetable Stock
• 1 Glass Red Wine
• Fresh Ground Black Pepper

Browning the Onions nicely takes a while, so I started making the Gravy before making the Toad in the Hole, then reheated when everything was ready. Using a large heavy based pan (with a lid), melt the butter at a fairly low heat and add the sliced Onion. Continue to cook uncovered until they turn golden, then cover and continue to cook at a low heat until they go brown. Covering them keeps in the moisture so that they can caramelize nicely without drying out.

Once they are nicely browned, add the flour and stir into the onions. Then stir in the mustard and start adding the liquid ingredients. Gently bring to the boil, then simmer, stirring occasionally for about another 15-20 minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings as necessary.

Recipe for the Toad in the Hole

• 454g Sausages (preferably nice Lincolnshire or Cumberland)
• 4 Rashers Smoked Bacon, cubed
• 1 Cup Plain Flour
• 2/3 Cup Milk
• 2/3 Cup Cold Water
• 2 Eggs
• 2 Teaspoons Wholegrain Mustard
• Salt and Fresh Ground Black Pepper

Preheat the oven to 230 degrees Celsius, put the sausages and bacon into your roasting tin/dish and cook for 10 minutes. At this point, you can sift the flour and mix together the ingredients for the Batter. Whisk until you have a smooth batter with no lumps except for the grains from the Mustard and there is a layer of fine bubbles on the top.

Remove the sausages from the dish, leaving the fat which has come out from them, add a little more oil so that you have about 4 tablespoons in total, then return to the oven until the oil is smoking. Depending on what you're using to cook it in, you could do this directly on a stove. Once it is really hot, pour in the batter, then add the Sausages and Bacon and put straight in the oven and cook for about 30 minutes, so that the Batter has risen nicely and is golden brown.

Serve immediately, with Mash Potato and some other vegetables, and, of course, the Onion Gravy.

Paella 2.0, on a Barbecue, in Warlingham

Anna and Jose gave a slightly rough review of my last attempt to make Paella. The main problems they highlighted were that I'd used chicken drumsticks rather than wings, the prawns were not in their shells, nor the mussels, that the rice wasn't yellow enough and I had no lemon as garnish. I think the lack of yellowness might just have been my camera performing badly with the colour with the poor lighting, but even so, I got the saffron as ordered, and made Paella 2.0 using that instead of turmeric.

I'm cat-sitting Nutmeg for my parents over the next couple of weeks, and they have pretty decent (although filthy) barbecue with adjustable grill height, so I decided to try and make it on that. I'd brought my Paella with me, knowing that my sister would be a willing taster, that cooking facilities and that better local shops would help with the endeavor. There was also the added bonus of getting my sister to do all the food photography with her decent camera. Although, saying that, she did manage to drain her battery taking pictures of Nutmeg, then have to bolt back home for the spare so that she could take pictures of the finished food.


The recipe was pretty much the same as before, except that I used Dwarf Beans instead of Fine Beans, a good pinch of crushed saffron instead of turmeric, and chicken wings, instead of legs (as per Anna and Joses' instructions), plus prawns and mussels in their shells. Also, I used about 50% more rice this time as I was fairly certain it wasn't enough last time.

Recipe for Paella 2.0

• 5 Whole Chicken Wings, cut in their 2 halves
  2 Pork Ribs, cut into bit size pieces
• 1 clove Garlic
• 4-5 tablespoons Olive Oil
• 1 large Red Pepper, cut into 6 strips
• 1.5 cups Dwarf Beans
• 2 medium Fresh Tomatoes
• 1.5 cups Paella Rice
• 4.5 cups Boiling Water
• A pinch of Saffron (enough, when crushed, to turn the water yellow)
• 1 teaspoon Smoked Spanish Paprika
• 1 can of Chickpeas
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• Lots of Prawns in their Shells (could have been bigger in our case)
• Lots of Mussels in their Shells
• A Lemon
  

The method was exactly as before, only done on a barbecue instead of the stove. The Mussels were cooked briefly in White Wine before adding to the top of the Paella in the last few minutes of cooking. The other difference is that I didn't use any stock as I seemed to end up with a better stock in the pan this time around, so just added the Saffron and Paprika to the boiling water (3 times that of the rice). I also remembered to add the Chickpeas as I had them washed and drained and out with the rest of my ingredients before I started to make sure nothing was forgotten.

My sister's hectic schedule for the day meant that I didn't get started on cooking until there was no real sunlight left in the garden and it was getting dark by the time I'd finished cooking. This was partly caused by the barbecue dying halfway through (luckily at a good moment to pause in the cooking) and us having to get it started again before getting the rice in. So, rather than a nice afternoon meal in the sunshine, it ended up as an evening meal around the dining table.

Although I pretty much followed their instructions to the letter this time, I can still almost hear the comments Jose and Anna are going to make. For one, I'm sure they are going to say that I put too many prawns and mussels on the top so that the chicken and peppers are nearly invisible. The rice was cooked to perfection though, with that slightly caramelised bottom, but without sticking to the pan. Definitely got a lot more confidence after cooking this one. I just need to get the time of day right.

Valencian Paella, made in Willesden Green

This was a recipe which I could not get wrong. Well, I could get it wrong, and probably have got bits of it wrong, but I'm satisfied enough with the results of this, my first ever paella, made from a recipe from Jose and Anna, using the Paella, Rice and Paprika they left me (and no Chorizo!).

Once again, I'm cooking for Caroline and Gabriel, so I figured that Paella would be a good thing to do as it's not really spicy and so would go down well with Gabriel. Plus it was a good one to flex my cooking muscles, as the instructions from Jose and Anna were pretty intricate. To be honest, like all the recipes I put up on this blog, if it had been a failure, it wouldn't be here. Even more so with this one, given that Anna and Jose will no doubt examine this particular blog entry and give thorough feedback on whether this was a success or failure.

Pretty much everything went according to plan with this recipe, although I was having to rush back to the computer to double check the email from Anna and Jose to make sure I was doing everything correctly. I totally forgot about adding the chickpeas, which I think would have been a nice addition. Plus I think I could have got away with a little more rice in the size pan I have. Also, I exchanged one of the mugs of hot water for chicken stock, as I remember them having some in their Paella, so I figured one mug wouldn't be so bad, especially as it was the nice stock cubes they left me.

Recipe for the Paella (Serves 2-3)

This is based on the size dish I have. So you need to adjust the proportions depending on the dish of Paella you have.

• 4 Chicken Drumsticks
• 2 Pork Spare Ribs, cut into chunks
• 250g Cooked Seafood Medley (from Waitrose in my case, with mussels, prawns, squid and cockles)
• 1.5 Red Peppers, cut into about 6 strips per pepper
• 2 Tomatoes, pureed with a little Salt and Olive Oil (Anna used a cheese grater and so did I)
• 1 Clove Garlic, finely sliced
• 1 Cup of Fine Beans
• 1 Cup of Chick Peas (optional, and forgotten in my case)
• 1 large mug Paella Rice
• 1 large mug Chicken Stock
• 2 large mugs Water
• 1 teaspoon Spanish Smoked Paprika
• 0.5 teaspoons Turmerric
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• 5-6 tablespoons Olive Oil

First, prepare all the vegetables and other ingredients so that it's easy to just get everything together as you're cooking. Put a little salt over the meat and heat up the 5 or 6 tablespoons of Olive Oil in the Paella. When it is hot enough, add the meat and cook until it is golden all over. Halfway through this process, add garlic and the Red Pepper and cook until the Red Pepper is easy to peel. The stove should be on a moderate heat. Nothing should burn, and you should just be moving pieces around the dish to make sure nothing sticks and cooks evenly.

Remove the meat as it is cooked and set aside. Once the Red Pepper is easy to peel, remove from the pan and set aside, then add the fine beans.

Once all the meat is cooked and you just have beans remaining in the pan, add the pureed Tomato and fry until cooked. Then add the Paella Rice and fry with the tomato, making sure it is all coated with the tomato and oil. You can now start adding the boiling water and stock if using (3:1 ratio to rice). Also add the Salt, Paprika and Tumeric (or Saffron), and make sure that the rice is boiling all over. Add the chickpeas (if you remember) at this point, then bring the heat down to a simmer. Stir the rice about to ensure that there are no peaks or troughs. It should be totally flat and even all over, as should the heat being applied underneath.

It will cook for about 20 minutes or so, until the rice is aldente. You need to add the cooked seafood in the last 6 minutes or so of cooking, then arrange the Chicken, Pork and Red Pepper pieces on the top. Once the Rice is aldente, switch off the heat and cover the Paella with a newspaper to help the top cook for a few more minutes.

You are now ready to serve. Bring the whole dish to the table and impress your friends!

Caroline and Gabriel both loved it. What little leftovers there are, Gabriel wants for breakfast. Personally, I'm quite pleased with the result for a first attempt.

Red Jambalaya

I've only made Jambalaya a couple of times before. The first time, it was a disaster due to the fact that I didn't have a big enough pot to make it in, didn't have any nice Chorizo and ended up burning it because I couldn't stir properly without it going everywhere. The next time, it came out much better, although I didn't have a charged camera to document it properly. This time, I made every effort to get everything together, although, I didn't get it ready in time to get any decent daylight to get a good shot with my camera.

The original inspiration for my recipe was from Chuck's Jambalaya on the Gumpo Pages website. However, due to not being able to get all the correct ingredients, and not making my own stocks most of the time, I looked around at other variations, including Charita Jones's version (after all, her Jambalaya seems fairly popular, although not a Red Jambalaya like Chuck's), then adapted things a little during the cooking process. I'm going to try one without tomato one day, but there is something about the rich, red sauce during the cooking process which attracts me to Chuck's version.

The traditional recipe calls for Andouille (not easily available in the UK) or Chaurice (which seems to be close to Chorizo) and looking around at recipes on the Internet, it seems that all the recipes written by people based in the UK tend to use Chorizo instead. I'm a big fan of Chorizo, cooked or uncooked, and I definitely find that it's great in Jambalaya. My friends, Anna and Jose, bought me some great stuff from Spain, so I used some of that along with some stuff I bought here. I wanted to save the stuff from them until I make Fabada with the nice Morcilla they also bought me.

Recipe for Red Jambalaya (serves 6-8)

• 600g Chicken breast, cubed
• 600g Chorizo (2-3 rings), skinned and sliced
• 2 medium Onions, chopped
• 4 sticks of Celery, chopped
• 1 Green Pepper, chopped
• 1 Red Pepper, chopped
• 1 Chilli Pepper, chopped
• 6-8 cloves of Garlic, finely chopped
• 2 small cans of Tomato Puree
• 1 can Chopped Tomatoes
• 3 mugs of Basmati Rice
• 2 pints Chicken Stock
• 1 cup Peas
• Half cup of Baby Carrots
• 3 teaspoons Black Pepper
• 2 teaspoons Cayenne Pepper
• 1 teaspoon Oregano
• 1 teaspoon Thyme
• 2 Bay Leaves
• 2 tablespoons Olive Oil

First, season the chicken. In my case, I use a bit of Lawry's Seasoned Salt, but a combination of Salt, Pepper and a little Cayenne Pepper will probably do just as well. Then brown the Chicken slightly in the Olive Oil in a large, heavy pan. Remove the Chicken from the Pan and set aside. Next, do the same with the Chorizo slices, although without additional seasoning, remove from the pan and pour away the excess fat.

There should now just be a thin layer of oil on the bottom of the pan with which to saute the Onion, Garlic, Celery and Peppers until transparent. The moisture from the vegetables should help deglaze the pan of dark matter from the Chorizo. Then, add the tomato puree and cook so until it starts to darken to a mahogany sort of colour.

At this point, add a little of the stock to the sauce to help deglaze the pan again, then add the additional herbs and spices and Chopped Tomatoes. Cook for about another 10-15 minutes and check the flavour so that if you need to add more spices, you can do it before the rice goes in, as it's better to get balance right beforehand so that the rice can soak up all the flavours. Add the Chicken and Chorizo back to the sauce.

Now, add the rice and ensure that it is thoroughly mixed, add the stock, mix and bring to the boil, then put the lid on the pan and put in a 180 degree Celsius oven for about 40-60 minutes until the rice as absorbed all the liquid and is well cooked. You should stir it a few times during cooking, and about halfway through, you can add the peas and carrots and any cooked fish.

I prefer finishing it in the oven as I find it cooks better and doesn't get stuck to the bottom, but you can do it all on the stove by lowering the heat to a simmer after it has started boiling with the stock and rice added, and stirring occasionally.

Serve with a salad and bread.

With this one, I wanted to add some crayfish too, but I didn't get the time to go up to Wing Yip to buy some. Instead, I added a little selection of Crayfish, Prawns and Mussels (should've bought double really) halfway through the rice cooking phase. The problem was that compared to the quantity of food, they were barely noticeable. Another time, I'll have to get some crayfish in their shells so that I can use the shells to improve the stock.

This recipe fed 5 people well (one of whom had about 4 or 5 helpings) and still with leftovers for a good 3 helpings. It was loads, but tasted so good, it didn't seem to matter. Jambalaya can be made with lots of different types of meat. It's certain not Paella, but it is a great, spicy, rice dish, and the fact that it's made all in the same pot makes it easy when you have limited cooking space.

Steamed Dumplings

The photos of the dumplings the other night was so awful, I decided to make some more dough and use up the remaining Chinese dumpling filling from the other night. I'd only made about 40 or so the first time, so had lots of filling leftover and needed to use it. Joel mentioned that a different design was necessary if you were steaming them, so I searched about a bit I found that a lot were something close the above. Anyway, they still tasted great and in daylight I had a much better chance of getting a better shot. All I needed was some kind of little bowl for the dipping sauce. I'm wondering if I should try making them with self-raising flour and see if I get them more like buns.

Chinese Dumplings

A few years ago, I was hired to do some 4D localisation work in Beijing, and over the few trips I had there, some of the best memories are of the food. I never got a chance to do much sightseeing, but I did have to eat, and made sure I ate well. On the last two trips, I was working with Imre, who complained that each time he spent any time in China with me, he put on weight. I know I must have too as we always seemed to eat very well, and with the food so good most of the time, it was necessary to make the most of it as I didn't know when next I'd have food as good.

One of the things which Imre introduced me to was dumplings. We often went to one particular dumpling restaurant for lunch, as it was on the same road as the National Library of China, where we were working, and their dumplings were great, except one batch when Imre forgot that I couldn't eat mushrooms. Yeah, right, I'm sure he was seeing if I'd eat them if I didn't know they were in there.

Since then, the only time I've eaten similar Dumplings was when my Mongolian friend, Bata and his wife cooked them for me. Although, Mongolian dumplings tend to be a bit scarce on the vegetables, although still very tasty and very filling. Although I observed some of the cooking process for Bata's dumplings, I never got the recipe from him before he left to go back to Mongolia.

So, when Joel emailed me with a link to a recent video he made of him Making Dumplings, I sat through a lot of the 25 minutes (flicking forward a bit every now and then) to figure out the technique, and this weekend, I finally took the plunge and tried out his recipe. The only thing I haven't tried yet is frying them after boiling them, but I wanted to remember what they were like in Beijing, and according to Joel, frying them after boiling is a Shanghai thing, so I stuck to how I remembered them and just boiled them

Recipe for the Dumpling Dough (makes 80-90 dumplings)

• 6 cups of Plain Flour
• 2 cups of Water

Mix the flour and water together and knead to make a smooth dough. Then cover and leave for about an hour (i.e. the time it takes to get the filling ready if you're me).

Recipe for the Dumpling Filling (makes 80-90 dumplings)

• 400g Lean Minced Beef
• 400g Lean Minced Pork
• 4 Large Carrots, finely chopped
• 8-10 Spring Onions, finely chopped
• 1.5 bulbs of Garlic, finely chopped
• 1 bunch of Fresh Coriander, finely chopped

Mix the ingredients for the filling together so that they're completely mixed together. The vegetables should be finely chopped, but not done in a food processor. And if you're like Joel, you might mix them together using chopsticks, but in my case, I just used a fork to mix everything together (saving the chopsticks for the eating).

Now that the filling has been prepared, and the dough has been sitting, covered, for an hour at least, you can take it back out again and knead it a little more to knock it back and make it a smooth dough again. Then start trying to turn it into a cylinder of dough about an inch across. This will make a very long piece of dough, so, make one piece about 30cm x 2.5cm and cover the rest so that it doesn't dry out while you're preparing the first batch.

You then want to cut off a piece to give you a sphere of dough which is about 2.5cm diameter, then using the handle of a wooden spoon, roll this out on a well floured board to make it about 10cm in diameter, leaving the middle of the piece slightly thicker. See the video to see how Joel does it. Then, once the correct size, add a teaspoon of the filling onto the piece of dough, then fold in half and seal by folding over the edges to make a typical looking Chinese Dumpling. The store these dumplings on a well-floured board, plate or tray.

Once you have 20-30 dumplings made, bring a large sauce pan of water to the boil, allowing enough space to add another few cups of water to it. When the water is fully bubbling, add 20 or so dumplings to the water, stirring very gently to ensure non stick to the bottom. Just let them move about, rather than actually stirring them.

When the water comes to a proper boil again, add a cut of water to cool it down. By not letting it boil aggressively throughout the cooking, it helps stop the dumplings from breaking up. You need to repeat this process another 2 times (3 cups of cold water in total) during cooking, then the dumplings should be ready. They should all be floating also, but taste one just to make sure.

Recipe for the Dipping Sauce

• 0.5 cup Malt Vinegar
• 0.5 cup Soy Sauce
• 0.5 cup Sweet Chilli Sauce
• 8-10 cloves of Garlic, finely chopped
• 10 dried Red Chillies, finely chopped

Actually, this probably wasn't as authentic as it should be. Really, I should have got some proper dumpling dipping vinegar and Chinese hot sauce, but I didn't have these, and so I improvised. The amounts here are definitely not accurate to the sauce I made as the chilli sauce went in a little quicker than I'd expected, so ended up watering it down with some balsamic vinegar when I had them for the lunch the next day. But when Ejaz had them the following evening, he had it non-watered down as he had man-flu, and needed the additional spice.

Ejaz gave the dumplings and dipping sauce 8 out of 10. He'd never had anything like them before, so didn't have anything to score them against, but still really enjoyed them, and it's the higest mark he's ever given any of my food. Previous scores haven't been higher than a seven. I haven't tried any fried yet, but steamed they're pretty good too, but Joel said that steaming them was southern thing, and really required a slightly different design of dumpling. The thing is, the night I made them, I was starving by the time I'd made a few, so I put on milk pan with some water, stuck on a small bamboo steamer I had, and put them in so that I could taste a couple before preparing the rest.

Joel says that you can freeze them before boiling them so that you can finish them at a later stage. But they also seem to keep in the fridge overnight, covered, and preferably separated so that they don't stick together.

The photography is awful, I know. With a better camera at my disposal, I might have got a better shot. I think it might be replacing this photo with a daytime one off the next batch of dumplings, taken during daylight.