Lessons Learned From Sumplings Round Two

1. If you've posted the recipe before, have a look at the post because you probably made notes about what you would change. I was making the Satay sauce out of the Epicure Asian Kitchen cookbook and thought to myself, "You know, this makes a lot of sauce, I should only do a half recipe next time." So, guess what I said the first time I posted about it. Yep. *Sigh*.

2. Steam one tray at a time. The eating and the refilling of the tray are about the time it takes for the one in the wok to finish cooking. Don't put in two trays at once because it leaves you to just sit and fiddle with your chopsticks.

3. When you have to take a tray out of the wok, watch out for the steam. I have tender fingertips now because of that damn steam. If you refill the wok with water the steam goes down for a minute and that's the best time, it's certainly long enough to exchange trays. This as sort of the anti-FGF moment for me because, of course, I figured it out on the last tray.

We made three kinds of fillings: Pork/Beef and Vegetable, Spicy Crab, and Spinach with Shrimp. We also had three different sauces: Satay, Asian Sweet & Spicy (from the cruet), and Sesame Orange Dipping Sauce (see below).

1/2 c mayo
2 T rice wine vinegar
1 T frozen OJ concentrate
2 t VE Oriental Stir-fry Seasoning
1 t sesame oil
1 t soy sauce
1/2 t sesame seeds

Whisk first six and then sprinkle with sesame seeds. Or, if you're me: whisk everything together, throw it in an empty Epicure jar and put it in the fridge until you need it.

Steamed Sumplings

I meant to type dumplings but I liked this better. I started the day planning a stir fry using tofu that I had marinated in homemade Teriyaki sauce. I was going to steam some dumplings as an appetizer. I got bored in the afternoon and put together some Yakitori Sauce for the stir fry, figuring that I could save a little bit of it to dip the dumplings in. After that I made some Indonesian Satay Sauce because I still felt like cooking.

A quick run to the store and I had put together a pork/vegetable filling and a crabmeat filling for the little guys. Meag and I stood at the kitchen counter and stuffed wonton wrappers in between dumpling breaks. Maybe not the most traditional meal in the world, standing at the kitchen counter with a wokful of boiling water between us, getting cornstarch all over the place (both of us wearing black, to boot), and eating a bamboo tray at a time so that we could refill them but it was good.

I would definitely make the Satay sauce again but I would probably just make a 1/2 recipe as this made WAY too much for just the two of us. The Yakatori sauce was the big hit and went really well with the crab. Steamed dumplings were on my 100 list so this was cool.