Delicious & Dragons

‘Tis the season to bake jolly, tralalalala. A combination of previous experiments, this cookie’s a wild mix of flavors and elements.

Not Speckknödel, but dumplings made by combining some flour, baking powder, melted butter and milk and spooning it directly into the soup to cook. When it comes to comforting and warming food on a cold winter day, this one’s hard to beat.

Kind of? The dough and shape is technically a lot closer to gyoza, just a bit more fat to make it tender. The filling is made from potatoes, onions, leftover soup vegetables and a touch of parmesan and créme fraiche. Boiled and fried with butter, and, to cause maximum cultural confusion, served on some kimchi (which is just hitting the right degree of fermentation right now, yum).

I had some leftover gyoza dough, so I decided to switch it up a bit and make some noodles. Briefly boiled, dressed with scallions, toasted sesame, a bit of chopped kimchi (hasn’t fermented much yet), miso, chili and soy sauce, then poured some hot chicken fat over it to meld everything together into a fragrant and spicy dish.

Is it pasta? Is it dumplings? Both? Who knows, but there are too many crossover points to not try this. Special technique: usually the trick to get a crispy gyoza skirt is too add some cornstarch to the water. This time I threw in parmesan as well, so you get a nice layer of cheese crisp to go along with your Bolognese filled dumplings.

Kinda anyway. Didn’t put garlic in and went light on the chili, but hopefully will turn out delightful anyway once we get some fermentation going. I have ideas what to do with it.

Sure to anger traditionalists, but cut the leftover lasagna into batons and fry sideways for some extra crunchy and caramelized bits. Served with some lemon pepper créme fraiche.

Ragù application number one, carefully layered between sheets of pasta with some spinach and some Béchamel.

Now, it don’t look like much just yet, but this sauce has been slowly simmering in an oven for 4 hours to make sure all the bits and flavors really get to know each other. There really is no substitute for low and slow with something like this. Next up, some pasta to throw this at.

The benefits of having a big, heavy cast iron pan. You can whack some baddies over the head with it in a pinch, or use it to cook a simple one pan dish. Win win.