Pages, Pucks and Pantry

Cheesy Peas

I don't think I've ever seen fresh peas at any of my local farmers markets. So when I saw them (the same trip that I found the fresh eggs), I bought a container to give them a try. Since I had an abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables that needed to be cooked  (I did kind of overdo the buying that day), I needed to find a simple and quick dish to get these little goodies into my mouth.

What I bought were labeled as "English Peas". I have no idea how they were supposed to look before they were cooked. I did notice what looked like two different peas in the container...there were big green peas and then a smaller less vibrant green pea.

I picked the recipe from the Cook With Jamie cookbook because a) it did say one could use fresh peas and b) it said cheesy so it had me.

The problem I had with this recipe is that it starts with "boil the peas until perfect". Okay. So, I've never had fresh peas. What is perfect??? How long? Where do I begin???? Oh no, what the hell do I do now!!!???? After I stopped my little panic attack, I went back and looked at some of his other pea recipes thinking that might give me a clue. One recipe said "simmer for 5 minutes until tender". Another said "place in boiling water for 3 to 4 minutes until tender". Another talked about "putting peas in a cold pan and pour boiling water over them" until they were perfect and tender of course. Feeling another panic attack again I decided to just throw them in boiling water and started picking a pea out every minute until I thought they were tender (this took about 4 minutes and burned the flesh off parts of my mouth).

Once I opened the lid and drained the peas I had another panic attack. The larger green peas were still large and beautifully green. But the smaller peas that had been in the batch? Those of you who are older might remember canned peas. And you might remember when it was said that a can of cheaper "generic" brand peas were just as good as say a can of Green Giant peas? And you might remember boiling these generic peas on the top of the stove. And that what you ended up with were these horribly pathetic gray mush peas? Yeah, the little peas looked just like that. Did I mention panic attack?

Jamie's directions on this recipe were a bit...lacking. Like a handful of this and a "knob" of that. Sigh. Another panic attack. But, I figured if I just threw in some extra butter and cheese it would be okay.

Now, the food blogger in me said "unacceptable for photographing for the blog". So I seriously considered taking a pair of tweezers and removing all the "good green" peas to a separate bowl to take a photo. But the "I'm hungry I want to eat" side of this blogger won out.

I have no idea how fresh peas are supposed to taste  (just how bad is that?). These didn't taste so bad. Even the gray peas didn't taste that bad and still had a bit of crunch to them. They had more "juice" than the peas in Jamie's picture so I probably added more butter than I should have.

Would I make these again? You know, probably not with fresh peas (I don't need the panic attacks) but I can see myself actually doing this to a nice frozen bag of Green Giant petite early peas!

CHEESY PEAS

4 big handfuls of fresh or frozen peas
a knob of butter
a big handful of freshly grated Parmesan Cheese
1 lemon
Ground white pepper

Boil the peas until perfect, then remove from the heat and drain in a colander, saving a small cup of the cooking water. Put the peas back in the pan with some of the reserved water and add a knob of butter. Stir around, then sprinkle in the Parmesan cheese and stir again until every single pea is lightly coated in the sweet, delicately melted cheese. You may need to add a bit more water to loosen the peas - you want them to be oozy (almost like a risotto consistency). A small squeeze of lemon juice always lifts the peas and cuts through the cheese, and a sprinkle of white pepper is nice too.

This dish is best made quickly at the very last minute as, like a risotto, the moment those peas begin to cool down things start getting a little claggy and rubbery and you definitely don't' want that. Serves 4.

Note: I put quite a bit of butter and cheese in the dish, but didn't measure.

Note: I have no idea what "claggy" means so I have no idea if my peas got that way.

Trixie Belle's Breakfast Potatoes

Back in the day when I was single and (much) younger, there were two things that ruled my eating habits. A) I didn't have a ton of money to spend on food and B) I could eat like a pig and not gain an ounce. That meant potatoes. Lots of potatoes. Morning, noon and night potatoes. They were cheap and eating a lot of them did nothing to my thighs or waistline. Now, the spuds are still pretty cheap but if I so much as look at them, my thighs seem to get an inch bigger and my stomach balloons. Ah yes, I remember the unlimited amounts of potato days with fondness.

My 'go to' potato dish back then were these "Breakfast Potatoes" though I tended to fix them anytime I was hungry (and they were usually eaten alone with no eggs or other accompaniments). I usually had potatoes on hand and this recipe was quick and easy to make. Though potatoes, chili powder and Tabasco sauce were the main ingredients, at times I would throw in onions, bell peppers, heck even some bacon. And it doesn't matter what kind of potatoes either as this works with russets, yukon gold or any other form of the spuds (though I admit I usually bought the cheap ten pound bag of russets for my potato addiction-this was also back when most grocery's only carried the russet kind). Over the years, I have refined my process of this recipe and though I might have had some interesting setbacks when I first made this I now have the recipe down pat and the potatoes tend to turn out perfectly for me every time.

When Noble Pig admitted she was obsessed with potatoes and was starting a monthly potato blogging event, I knew that I couldn't pass up the challenge. This event gives me the chance to cook potatoes at least once a month without feeling guilty. While going through all my cookbooks trying to find a dish to make for the first months event I kept remembering my old potato standby the Breakfast Potatoes and thought that's what I should make.

I used baby new potatoes for this dish but you can use any variety that you like. I made this as a mid afternoon snack (after a late breakfast of quail eggs and beef prime short ribs karubi-more on that later). Mr. L seemed to like them as he kept asking for more.

The round up will be on Noble Pigs blog on the 16th, I'll post a link to it when it's up. As for who the heck Trixie Belle is? She's just my inner potato-ho!

TRIXIE BELLE'S BREAKFAST POTATOES

Potatoes (any kind)
Oil (Veggie or Olive, or whatever)
Chili Pepper
Tabasco
Butter
Salt

Nuke the potatoes until a fork can barely go through them (or you can boil them to almost done). Cut them into cubes, squares, half moons or any shape you would like (the smaller they are the quicker they brown and cook). If you want to stand at the stove all afternoon, forget this step and just cube the potatoes and throw them in the hot pan raw...they will take until next Tuesday to cook (can yah tell that's how I first tried to cook them??).

Heat a pan (medium to medium hot), pour some oil in and when it's hot, put the nuked potatoes in. Let them sit for a bit to get a nice crust. Turn them periodically to get that nice crust on as many sides as possible. Add a couple dashes of Tabasco and chili pepper to taste about two minutes before you think they are done. Add some butter (a little or a lot depending on if you like your potatoes a bit dry or a bit moist). Plate and salt. Normally serves one, but if pressed I do share.

Please note: If you forget that the potatoes are on the stove and do something stupid like spend half an hour dancing in your living room to the latest Duran Duran or a-ha song, the potatoes will probably get more crust than you would like...you will have to start all over or make a run to McDonald's for fries, call out for pizza or possibly starve. Also note that if you get a little carried away and add a little to much chili powder and Tabasco sauce the potatoes might just be a little too spicy hot to eat and you'll burn your lips and have to explain to your date why your lips are all puffy and since this was before big lips were sexy, you would just come off looking like Bozo The Clown because all that heat would have made your whole face turn red to go with the big lips.

Note: I used baby new potatoes. I left out the Tabasco because Mr. L values his lips and he made me share. I used Maldon salt. I also added some paprika to make them look more dangerously hot than they really were.

Note: There were no leftovers (sorry Mom!)

Waimea Grass Skirt Cooler

This recipe was actually very good (add rum) and was perfect on a hot summer day (add rum). It was a little tart (add rum) for Mr. L and he suggested (add rum) that we use less lemon next time (add rum) but he liked it enough as is (add rum) to polish off his glass. It tasted very tropical (add rum) which is probably where it got it's name (add rum).

After making the batch (add rum) and drinking half a glass I decided to add some rum to see how it would taste (gee, who woulda thunk?). Made a great rum drink. It didn't take much rum to add some nice flavor so be gentle with the rum at first. Too much rum would probably overpower the taste of the drink.

Since we only drank half the batch that first day I poured what was left into a container and put it in the freezer. The next day we had some great tasting ice cream, or maybe closer to granita. But then (add rum) we added a bit of rum to this really slushy granita type mixture and Yowza, we had an awesome rum drink. Perfect for these hot summer days of over a hundred degrees!

Needless to say Mr. L and I enjoyed our drink (with and without the rum) and would make this again in a heartbeat. I think it would make a great party drink for both kids and adults (adding rum for those of legal age of course).

WAIMEA GRASS SKIRT COOLER

(All juices should be chilled to almost freezing)
1 cup pineapple juice
1 cup orange juice
1/2 cup lime juice
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar (or to taste)
1 pint (2 cups) vanilla ice cream

Blend juices with sugar in a blender or mix well with a whip.

Add ice cream and beat until smooth. Garnish each glass with a thin slice of lemon, lime, or orange.

Makes 4 servings.

Note: I used canned pineapple juice and a box of Tropicana Orange Juice. The fresh lemons (I think I used three) were a mixture of Myer lemons and regular. I used fresh limes (about seven). Hagen Daz Vanilla Ice Cream.Rum was Trader Vic's Authentic Dark.

Note: I put the cans of pineapple juice and the orange juice in the freezer for about two hours to make them cold. I used a blender instead of a whisk. I used the entire 1/2 cup of sugar.

Note: The amount of mixture wouldn't fit into my blender all at once so I had to make two batches.

Did I mention add rum?

Rib Steak with Bing Cherry-Pinot Noir Reduction

Figuring out which steak dish to cook from The New Steak took some time. They all sounded good. I narrowed it down to three and asked Mr. L to choose. I knew he'd pick this recipe since he is such a big fan of cherries. It worked out that I was able to go to the local farmers market and get some fresh cherries from one of the stands (I had to try each and every stand that sold cherries before hand of course).

The recipe called for rib eye steaks. Though that's a favorite of ours, Mr. L was in the mood for some skirt steak so what the heck, we used that instead. The recipe said rib steaks were great to use in this recipe because of their "robust flavor", but we thought the skirt steak worked fine.

I wish it had said the amount of shallots or how much beef to be used. When I find shallots they are either really small or really large, so I would prefer them saying "a fourth of a cup" or something. And since we switched steaks I wasn't sure how much skirt steak was comparable to 4 rib steaks. That concerned me at first, and I tried to remember not to worry about measuring. I realize it probably didn't matter but I would have been more comfortable knowing rough sizes...I know, I know, just get over it.

It also didn't tell me what temp to cook the sauce at. Though I used the chicken juices as requested, it still took me an extra twenty minutes to reduce the sauce and I probably didn't get it as thick and "jammy" as they wanted...hey, we were hungry, our brains said dinner was ready in 15 minutes and we'd already made it 20 minutes late....

We put this on Cauliflower Mash (recipe included in the book but you can find similar online or in South Beach). The book says to put the mash in the food processor to make it a smooth mash, but did I mention we were hungry? I just mashed it with a potato masher and it came out fine for the dish.

We also didn't grill or pan fry the steak as suggested. We put it under the broiler til it was medium rare.

This turned out really good. The cherry sauce reduction worked really well with the skirt steak and I assume it would taste just as good with a rib eye. Lots of flavor in the cherry sauce. It all went great with the cauliflower mash and I can see it over potatoes too.

RIB STEAK WITH BING CHERRY-PINOT NOIR REDUCTION

4 rib steaks, bone-in or boneless
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Olive oil for rubbing

For Sauce:

2 shallots, minced
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 cups pinot noir, or Shiraz or Merlot
2 dozen fresh Bing cherries, pitted
3 tablespoons chicken juices or 1/2 cup chicken stock

Prepare the steaks by salting them, and then let them come to room temperature. Rub with a bit of olive oil just before cooking.

To make the sauce, quickly saute the shallots in 2 tablespoons of the butter to soften, about 2 minutes. Add the wine, cherries, and chicken juices before the butter browns. Cook the sauce 10 to 15 minutes, to reduce to about 1/2 cup, stirring frequently. When it's done, the sauce should be thick and rich-the consistency of heated jam. If you're working with chicken stock, not chicken juices, reduce the sauce a little longer-as long as twenty minutes. Set the sauce aside until the steaks are resting.

(The book gives directions on how to grill rib eyes or pan fry them. We just put our skirt steaks under the broiler about 3-4 minutes a side to get them medium rare.)

However you cook your steaks, check for doneness often (an instant-read thermometer 130 degrees F for medium rare).  After cooking, rest the steaks for 5 minutes in a warming oven (170 degrees F) or on a warm plate under a loose tent of foil.

While the steaks are resting, finish the sauce by gently reheating and adding that final 1 tablespoon of butter. Next, get your plates ready with the steak and a neat scoop of Cauliflower Mash. The sauce should go over the steak last. Serves 4

Note: I used the chicken cooking juices which is a recipe found in the book. I assume that the chicken stock would work just as well. I used Merlot.

Note: The sauce was very tasty and I think it would also go well with chicken.

Note: Husbands make very good cherry pitters.

Egg Salad With Dill

This egg salad comes from The Silver Palate Cookbook. I made it first probably 20 or so years ago and it's been my favorite egg salad ever since. Please note...this is probably only the third time I've ever made it!

Since this is the only egg salad recipe I've ever made I can't really tell you if it's the best. I only know I like it much better than most of the egg salad I've ever ordered in a deli or restaurant. Most of the egg salad I get is a bit on the 'dry' side, where I would call this a more 'wet' version.

I used the Cut-N-Seal from Pampered Chef to make these cute little sandwiches. You really need some soft bread for this to work so I usually try to find a loaf of fresh white Wonder Bread. This time I used some "whole grain white" bread and I wish I had gone back to the Wonder Bread. You waste a LOT of bread doing this but I think it's so worth it as the presentation is pretty cool (I made these for a friends baby shower many years ago).  I filled these up a bit to much and the first two or three I made had egg salad squirting out the top. Even the photographed ones have more than is really needed. The actual sandwich comes out to be about 2 1/2 inches across. Of course the egg salad can just be put between two layers of regular bread. The cookbook says it works really well on black bread. It also tastes pretty good just spooned from the mixing bowl...not that I would ever do that of course.

I'm going to use this as my entry for The Weekend Cookbook Challenge which this month is being held by Mel's Diner. You are supposed to use a salad recipe from one of your cookbooks. This is my first foray into the Weekend Cookbook Challenge and I'm excited to see what other salads folks come up with. I'll post about the roundup which should be around the end of June.

Do be aware if your husband is anything like Mr. L, they will try to see if they can put a whole sandwich in their mouth at one time. I can't tell you exactly how many of the sandwiches this recipe makes as we were eating them as we made them and I barely had enough egg salad left to give to my mom!

EGG SALAD WITH DILL

8 hard-cooked eggs
1/2 cup finely chopped purple onion
1/3 cup chopped fresh dill
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup dairy sour cream
1/4 cup prepared Dijon-style mustard
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Peel the eggs and quarter them. Place in a mixing bowl with the onion and dill.

In another bowl whisk together the mayonnaise, sour cream and mustard and pour over the eggs, onion and dill.

Toss gently, season to taste with salt and pepper, and toss again. Cover and refrigerate if you must, but the salad is at its best eaten immediately. Makes six portions.

Note: I used less than a third a cup of dill. A third a cup is a lot of chopped dill! I also used Grey Poupon mustard.

Note: I did more than quarter the eggs, I pretty much cut them into pieces as it made it easier to put in the Cut-N-Seal sandwich.

Baked Eggs in Ham Shells

Back in January, while checking out one of my favorite websites, Yumsugar, I came across this recipe. It had everything I was looking for...the recipe looked quick, it called for ingredients I had on hand and did I mention quick? Not being a morning person breakfasts on weekends tend to happen about noon...and they are mostly cooked by Mr. L. So having something that I could make in a half asleep stupor seemed like a bonus to me.

You can go to Yumsugar to get a detailed recipe, but honestly, I don't think you need one. The concept is simple, the ingredients can change for what you have on hand and if you like your eggs more well done like I do, you can cook it longer to get that hard cooked yolk.

To make these fancy, cook them in individual ramekins...makes a quick brunch idea for quests. I just made mine in a muffin tin. These were so quick and easy to throw together that they make a perfect fast and fairly healthy breakfast. Using sliced turkey would probably make it South Beach friendly too.

BAKED EGGS IN HAM SHELLS

You'll need the following

Sliced deli meat (I used Black Forest Ham)
Eggs
Cheese (I used some pre-shredded Jack I had on hand)
Milk
Salt and Pepper
Optional - Veggies (tomatoes, garlic, green onions etc).

Heat your oven to 375 degrees. Put a couple of pieces of deli meat in the muffin tin (overlap them to make a nest). If you are using some veggies (I added a bit of diced tomato) put a spoonful in the bottom of the tin. Add some cheese and a splash of milk. Crack an egg in the center. Salt and pepper to taste. Cook until egg is cooked to your liking. The original recipe said 20 minutes which made the eggs well done in my oven. Since Mr. L likes his eggs runny, I cut the time way down and just eyeballed it until they were to his preference.

Note: I used very good sliced ham from my local deli for the above photo. I've also used Oscar Meyer prepackaged ham slices in a pinch. Both versions worked for me.

Note: Depending on the size of your muffin tins, the size of your eggs, and if you add veggies, the entire mixture may not fit. I had to adjust things a bit after I cracked in the first egg and had it running over.

Note: I also spray my muffin tin with a light spray of veggie oil so the nests come out easy and if any egg runs over the top it doesn't stick to the tin.

Thai Shrimp Soup with Lime and Cilantro

This is a South Beach recipe that came from the Quick & Easy cookbook. It says it's supposed to take 15 minutes to prep and 12 minutes to cook. I was able to get this on the table in less than an hour (go me).

Tasty, quick and it has shrimp, which is my favorite fast food. This is a Phase 1 dish on the South Beach diet. You can add soba noodles to the recipe for later phases.

This says it serves four. Again, these people with their servings size...we polished off the whole thing.

THAI SHRIMP SOUP WITH LIME AND CILANTRO

1 tablespoon canola oil
3 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
1 small onion, thinly sliced
5 cups lower-sodium chicken broth
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 (1/2 pound) head napa cabbage, thinly sliced (about 3 cups)
1 1/2 pounds fresh or thawed frozen shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 tablespoons Asian fish sauce
2 teaspoons grated lime zest
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro (optional)

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add ginger and onion; cook, stirring often, until fragrant, about 3 minutes. Add broth and red pepper flakes; increase heat and bring soup to a low boil.

Add cabbage and cook 2 minutes. Add shrimp, fish sauce, lime zest, and lime juice; cook just until shrimp turn pink, about 1 minute. Serve hot, sprinkled with cilantro if using.

Serves 4 (2 1/4 cup servings). 270 calories a serving.

Notes: I left off the cilantro except for the garnish for the photo. I used just a bit over a pound of shrimp. I didn't use low salt chicken broth (it didn't taste salty to me). I used frozen shrimp from Costco.

Note: I might add a bit more spice next time so maybe throw in more of the pepper flakes or a bit of thai red chili.

Roasted Asparagus

I'm still trying to figure out this new Typepad stuff so please be patient.

Sometimes it's just so simple. Usually I steam my asparagus and then smother it in mayonnaise. I LOVE asparagus dipped in mayonnaise. Almost as much as I love most of my veggies smothered in butter. So even though this dish was something very simple, neither Mr. L nor I had ever thought to do asparagus this way.

When fresh spring asparagus hit the stores (here, in early February) I had to buy them. They were on sale and they were so cute because they were such little thin stalks. I'd like to say that I looked specifically for this recipe or hunted through tons of cookbooks but honestly? The Ferry Building Farmers' Market cookbook had fallen to the floor so I picked it up and went "hmmm...fresh vegetables, maybe I'll find something for asparagus here".

Amazing how something this simple tasted so good. Just the simple act of roasting the asparagus instead of steaming gave this such a great flavor. Mr. L mentioned that he usually doesn't like shaved Parmesan on things but that it worked perfectly with this dish. Frankly I think I'll probably be roasting my asparagus from now on.

This was super simple to make. It isn't the best photo though. It was another case of digging into the dish and then realizing I hadn't taken a photo yet. I didn't want to take up valuable "still warm from the oven" time by fussing with this to make it look better. I just dumped the Parmesan on and took the photo.

ROASTED ASPARAGUS

1 pound asparagus spears, tough ends snapped off and spears peeled
Extra virgin Olive Oil for drizzling
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese for serving

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Arrange the spears in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. If your asparagus spears vary in size, separate them into piles of thick spears and skinny spears and keep them divided on the baking sheet. This makes it easy to remove the skinny ones first, as soon as they are ready. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
Roast until the ends are easily pierced with a knife, about 7 minutes for skinny spears and 10 minutes for thick ones. Transfer to a serving platter, drizzle with a little more olive oil, and, using a vegetable peeler, shave some cheese over the tips. Serve hot. Serves 4.

Note: I didn't bother peeling the spears as they were pretty tender. I also didn't separate into "thick and thin" and even though the spears were various sizes they all still came out good.

Chicken Chili Verde

I can't tell you how this tastes with the dish fully completed as I forgot the garnish. Yes, I had the sour cream, cilantro and the cheese all ready but just forgot to put it on the finished dish. Mr. L and I got home to the most wonderful smells coming from the slow cooker. I never bothered to look at the recipe before plating, I just opened up  that slow cooker and dished out dinner (did I mention we didn't even bother to cook veggies or a side dish to eat with this?).

The smell was so good that I also almost forgot to shred the chicken into the sauce once I'd served it, something you really want to do. As you can see, I even photographed the chicken before I shredded it. Did I mention it smelled so good we just wanted to dig in? Okay, I'll even admit we had started eating it before I remembered the shredding. If you just eat the chicken whole, it's kinda dry, but once you shred it and mix it with the sauce it's pretty good. And I'm sure adding the sour cream and cheese will help. If you use hot green salsa (which I did) the dish can get pretty spicy. For those that don't want the spice, use mild salsa but do add the jalapenos for a bit of  bite.

I did have a problem with the "chicken bouillon" as I put the two teaspoons on the top as directed but when I went to take the dish out of the slow cooker they hadn't dissolved. It was just kind  of a blob on top of the chicken. I scraped the bouillon stuff off and mixed it with the salsa sauce before serving.

I'd definitely make this again, just for the wonderful smell alone! Of course I'm curious as to how it tastes with the garnishes.

This was supposed to be low carb, but I can totally see putting this in taco shells or tortillas or serving over noodles!

The recipe came from the 200 Low-Carb Slow Cooker Recipe book.

CHICKEN CHILI VERDE

1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 1/2 cups prepared salsa verde
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon minced garlic or 2 cloves garlic crushed
1-2 tablespoons jarred, sliced jalapeno (2 can make it hot)
2 teaspoons chicken bouillon concentrate
Guar or xanthan (optional)
Sour Cream
Shredded Monterey Jack cheese
Chopped fresh cilantro (2 tablespoons makes the chili hot)

Place the chicken in your slow cooker and add the salsa verde, onion, bay leaf, pepper, cumin, garlic, jalapenos, and bouillon on top. Cover the slow cooker, set it to low, and let it cook for 9 to 10 hours.

When the time's up, shred the chicken with a fork. Stir it up, thicken the chili a little with the guar or xanthan if you think it needs it, and serve with sour cream, cheese, and cilantro on top.

Serves 5; 190 calories each (analysis does not include garnishes)

Note: I used organic chicken, hot salsa verde, crushed garlic. I did not use the guar or xanthan. I completely forgot the garnishes.

Note: I used the two jalapenos and the hot salsa and even though it was spicy, it was a good spicy. Mr. L doesn't like things as hot as I do but he didn't find it too hot. I'm sure the sour cream and cheese would cut the spice if needed.

Crispy Pork Dumplings

Once I got comfortable with deep frying (Nutella Ravioli, Orange Drop Doughnuts) I pretty much started looking for any recipe that required frying. I even pulled out the frozen lumpia my mother had given me from her last visit to a Filipino food store and fried some of them up periodically. When I picked up the Thai cookbook at the bookstore, the first page I turned to was for these Crispy Pork Dumplings. Sold.

I can tell you up front that I am not the best dumpling shaper. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't shape these dumplings to in any way shape or form resemble any known dumpling to man.

Though I am getting very comfortable with deep frying in my cast iron skillet, I still have a problem with  figuring out just when things are done.  It said to fry these dumplings for 45 seconds to 1 minute, but I think as with all the other things I've fried, my oil might be hotter so I probably should have cut the time down.

Next time I would make these a bit spicier. I couldn't find red chilies so maybe using them would have made this have more kick. Figuring out exactly how much filling to put in the dumplings kind of threw me at first. Though some had more filling than others, I did come out with exactly 20 dumplings. The finished photo in the book looked like round won ton wrappers had been used, but it mentioned in the recipe to put the won ton wrapper "like a diamond" which led me to believe I needed to use the square wrappers. Maybe using the round wrappers  would have made better looking dumplings. No matter, these tasted really good and we could have cared less what they looked like. We never even sat down to eat them, we just kept finishing off the batches as they came out of the fryer.

I can see playing with the ingredients a bit might lead to different flavors. If I can figure out how to make decent looking dumplings, I would make these wonderful bites for a party. Or maybe not. If they don't look good they wouldn't be good enough to take to a party and then I could make them all for myself and I wouldn't have to share.

CRISPY PORK DUMPLINGS
Kanom Jeeb Moo Grab

1 small fresh red chili
3 scallions, coarsely chopped
1 garlic clove, coarsely chopped
Generous 1 cup fresh ground pork
1 tsp salt
20 won ton skins
Peanut or vegetable oil for deep frying

Seed and coarsely chop the chili, then put it into a food processor with the scallions, garlic, pork, and salt and process to a smooth paste.

Remove the won ton skins from the package, but keep them in a pile and covered with plastic wrap to prevent them drying out. Lay one skin on a counter in front of you in a diamond shape and brush the edges with water. Put a small amount of filling near one edge and fold the skin over the filling. Press the edges together to seal the pocket and shape into a semicircle. Repeat with the remaining skins and filling.

Heat the oil in a wok or a deep pan or deep-fat fryer to 350-375 degrees F or until a cube of bread browns in 30 seconds. Add the dumplings, in batches, and cook for 45 seconds-1 minute, or until crisp and golden all over. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels, then keep warm while you cook the remaining dumplings. Serve immediately once they are all cooked. Serves 4

Cooks Tip: Always check the temperature of the oil before deep-frying. if the oil is smoking, it is too hot. Remove fro the heat and let cool a little. Do not add too many dumplings at a time, otherwise the temperature of the oil will drop and this will make the dumplings soggy.

Note: I couldn't find any small red chilies so I used a serrano. The green onions were fresh but had been in a section of the fridge where they had frozen so they weren't in the best condition but they still seemed to work.

Note: I used a cast iron skillet.

Note: Serves for very small not hungry people.