Chinese New Year has just gone, so it’s a great time to add these to your repertoire (if I had been more organised I would have put this up sooner). I don’t typically like dumplings. I find them smooshy, gooey and watery…plus I can never be to sure what’s in them when I buy them, just like when I buy a meatpie…what’s in there?! When I make them myself I know what’s going in them! They are the best dumplings I have ever had, if I do say so myself! They can be steamed or cooked pot-sticker style. I prefer to pot-sticker them as I like the texture of the crunch on one side and softness on the other side.
Although this recipe is for chicken dumplings you can substitute the chicken for other meats. Pork or chicken & prawn or pork & prawn all work very well.
I planted some Wombok this year especially for dumplings. I was surprised that it came up so well. However, it had to be picked pretty quickly once it was ready and I’m sad so say it once made it into one batch of dumplings and the rest went to seed in the veggie patch…there are just not enough hours in the day!

Makes 24

Ingredients
2 cups flour
3/4 cup boiling water
1 chicken breast, minced
2cm cube piece of ginger, finely grated
1 Wombok (chinese cabbage), shredded
4 spring onions, finely sliced
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp chinese rice wine
1 tbsp vegetable oil
Dipping sauce
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 red birdseye chilli, finely sliced

Method
Make the dough first as it will need to rest (if you don’t want to make the dough you can always buy gow gee wrappers from the supermarket). Combine the flour and water (make sure it is just boiled) in a food processor until just combined. Remove the dough and knead by hand for a couple of minutes. Wrap in cling wrap and set aside while you make the dumpling mixture.
For the dumpling mixture all that needs to be done is combine all the ingredients. Make sure the ingredients are all covered in the sauces. Be careful the mixture isn’t too sloppy as this will make the dumplings very difficult to handle – plus they’ll taste a little sloppy.
Now the dough needs to be rolled out, make sure you flour the bench sufficiently along the way. I find it’s easiest to divide the dough into two and roll it into a log with a diameter of about an inch. Then chop into rounds that about about 10g each. One by one roll the dough into thin rounds. Place a round of dough in the palm of one hand and scoop 1 tbsp of dumpling mixture into the middle. Enclose the mixture by folding over the dough and pinching the edges together. You can also make pretty patterns! Place the dumplings on a floured tray (the sloppier the dumpling mixture the more likely they are to stick to the tray).
If you want potstickers heat the vegetable oil in a  frypan that has a lid. Arrange the dumplings in the pan on their sides and cook on a medium heat for about 4 minutes, or until they start to brown on the underside. Pour in 1/2 cup of water and cover with the lid. Once the water has evaporated remove the lid and continue to cook for a couple of minutes. Remove from the pan to a platter. Combine the soy and chilli and serve with the potstickers (the earlier you do this more the soy will take on the chilli flavour – we like to do this early!).

If you don’t want to eat all the dumplings at once place the dumplings in the freezer on a tray. Make sure the dumplings aren’t touching each other. Once they are frozen you can put them in a container or plastic bag. Defrost before cooking according to the above method.

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When my parents were travelling in Canada they were taken to a very popular Indian restaurant in Vancouver called VJ’s. As a gift from their hosts they were also given a cookbook produced by the restaurant. This is the only recipe I have cooked from the book. It’s so good that I haven’t managed to cook anything else from it yet! Over time we’ve tweaked a couple of the ingredients and added capsicum and we think it’s perfect.

This curry is stunning. Delicious the night that it’s made and freezes really well too. We usually make a double batch and freeze half for a quick and easy mid-week meal. Serve with steamed rice and pappadams – delicious!

Serves 4

Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, finely diced
3 cloves garlic, finely diced
2 tbsp ginger, grated
1 tbsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp turmeric
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp ground coriander
1 tbsp garam masala
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (more or less to suit your palate)
1 can chopped tomatoes
1 kg chicken thigh fillets, skinless
1 red capsicum, sliced
1 cup light sour cream
1 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup chopped coriander

Method
Heat oil in a casserole dish over low-medium heat. Add onion and saute until golden, add garlic and saute for another couple for minutes. Add all spices and tomatoes and cook for about 5 minutes until the oil starts to separate and is very fragrant.

Add chicken and cook for 10 minutes until all white. Add capsicum, chicken stock and sour cream. Simmer for a further 15 minutes until chicken is cooked through. Let chicken cool slightly and pull apart to bite sized pieces. Stir through chopped coriander and serve with rice and pappadams.
Or, if you’re feeling up to it make sure you get some naan on the go to mop up all the sauce…yummo!

I originally came across this ravioli on My Kitchen Rules. I must say, I’m glad I could see what they’re doing, but it is fairly straight forward, just a little fiddly.

This little entrée certainly has the wow factor, but it’s also fairly high maintenance. The trick is to cook it to perfection so that when the ravioli is cut open, the yolk oozes out, just like a perfectly poached egg. It is very important that the yolk remains intact throughout preparation. There are two points when this can go wrong…when the egg is separated and when the yolk is lowered onto it’s bed of ricotta and spinach. Make sure you have a few extra eggs on hand just in case!

Unfortunately, there’s not a lot that can be prepared ahead of time. If the spinach is left to sit around for a while it will probably start to leech more water – even if you’ve already squeezed it out – and make the mixture too sloppy. The pasta dough can be made in advance (it should have about half an hour to rest) but should be rolled out close to cooking time. If the dough it dry it will be hard to stick the two sheets together to seal the ravioli – which is very important.

With all of this in mind, you’ll do great!

Serves 4

Ingredients
1/2 quantity fresh pasta
Ravioli filling
3/4 cup fresh ricotta
1 bunch spinach (about 200g)
1/3 cup parmesan (preferably grana padana), finely grated
pinch of finely grated nutmeg
finely grated zest of 1/2 a lemon
4 egg yolks
Burnt Butter Sauce
100g butter
8 sage leaves

Method

Prepare the fresh pasta dough and rest in the fridge for half an hour.

For the filling, start by wilting the spinach in a dry frypan, if the spinach doesn’t already have a bit of moisture on it put a few drops of water in the pan. Remove from the heat and set aside in a strainer. After it has cooled for a few minutes push out as much liquid as possible and roughly chop.

In a bowl, combine ricotta, parmesan, lemon rind, nutmeg and spinach. Season with salt and pepper. Don’t over-season with salt as some saltiness will come from the butter sauce.

For the butter sauce, over a medium-high heat melt the butter. Once melted add the sage leaves. The butter will start to foam and once brown flecks start to appear remove from the heat. Set aside. The sauce can be quickly reheated while the ravioli are cooking.

Divide the pasta dough in two and working with one at a time roll out to 6 on the dial, they will be quite thin. You will need 2 long sheets of pasta, at least 15 cm wide. Flour the bench well, there’s nothing worse than assembling the ravioli and then not being able to get them off the bench! At this point it would be good to get the water boiling so that once the ravioli are ready you can cook them immediately.  Be sure to salt and oil the water.

Starting at one end, about 5 cm from the end, dollop about 1½ tbsp of ricotta mixture in the middle of the pasta sheet. Make it into a nice round blob and create a small well in the centre for the yolk to sit in. Repeat 3 more times along the length of the pasta sheet, with at least 5 cm in between each.

One at a time, separate the eggs. As you separate, drop the egg white into a glass and once free of the white gently roll the yolk into the well that you have created in the ricotta mixture. If the yolk breaks in any way, discard and try again. Once all egg yolks are in place cover with the second pasta sheet. Working your way along the pasta sheet from left to right, gently press the pasta onto the filling to eradicate any air bubbles. At the edge of the filling seal the two pasta strips together. Tip: don’t press too hard as you don’t want to stick the pasta to the bench top! Once all are sealed, divide them into individual ravioli using a pizza cutter or knife.

Cook the ravioli 2 at a time in the boiling water for 4 minutes. It is best that the water is on a slow boil so it doesn’t destroy the ravioli as they enter the water. If possible, have 2 pots of water on the go so that all ravioli are ready at the same time. Once cooked, the yolk should still be bouncy to touch, remove with a slotted spoon. Once all ravioli are on their plates, pour over the burnt butter sauce, it should just be a drizzle, ensuring all plates have a couple of sage leaves. Top with a little more grated parmesan as desired.

When your guests ask for seconds it would be wise to show them how long the recipe is and tell them they were lucky to even get one! It might seem like hard work but it’s worth while.

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