Chinese-style Tofu Vegetable Dumplings

These are a quick and wonderful meal! I know there are many kinds of Chinese dumplings, but I couldn't really tell you what these would be classified as, since they're our own bastardized version.

We bought dumpling/wonton wrappers from our local Asian market, which made it super easy, but you could also make your own if you can't find any, or can't find any that are vegan.

Filling:
1/2 lb tofu cut into large cubes
6-8 large brown mushrooms, quartered
1 inch piece of ginger, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
2 green onions, chopped into pieces
1 or 2 carrots, peeled and chopped (optional)

Mix all ingredients in a big bowl. Then, pulverize in a food processor in batches, emptying the food processor out into another large bowl. When all the batches are done, mix all off the mashed up vegetables and tofu together to get an even consistency to your filling. If you have a big food processor you might just be able to skip that step and put all of the ingredients in at once and blend them.

To make the dumplings, wet around the edges of your wrapper with a finger dipped in water. Put 1 tsp of filling in the centre of each wrapper. Fold the wrapper in half and then pinch the sides of the wrapper together all the way around to make a semi-circle shape, or pinch each side together in the middle, and then the other opposite sides together in the middle to make little four-pointed dumpling "purses" (pictured above). When they're done, you can freeze them on parchment paper on a flat surface in your freezer, putting them in a ziplock once they're solid (pictured below). Fresh dumplings should be steamed about 15 minutes. Frozen dumplings can be steamed for an extra 3-5 minutes. I use a metal steamer lined with parchment paper. Be sure to space dumplings out because they will stick to each other. You can eat them steamed, or you can fry them until golden in vegetable oil, turning once so each side gets cooked.

I love having these on hand in the freezer when I don't know what to cook! I like to just put soy sauce on them, but you can also use chili sauce, plum sauce or a mixture of sauces for dipping.

This filling recipe made about 20 dumplings.

Vodka Apple Pie

 

I haven't liked many of the pie crust recipes I've tried. For years I made an oil-based crust because I couldn't get any non-hydrogenated shortening where I lived. It tasted good, but it wasn't as flaky as pastry made with solid fat, and it tended to fall apart when it was being rolled out. When I made this apple pie for Easter (yes, this post, like most, is terribly belated) I decided to try to find a flaky pie crust recipe. I ended up using this one because the science behind putting alcohol in the crust seemed sound to me.

And I have to say, I was the richest, flakiest crust I've had. The recipe made way too much dough for my pie pan, though, so I ended up using the rest to make turnovers filled with leftover apple chickpea curry (yum!) and some filled with strawberry rhubarb jam. So good.

Filling is mixed apples, cinnamon, ginger cloves, garum masala (my mum's secret ingredient in pie) a a tablespoons or two of flour and raw cane sugar.