Comfort Food for Sickies: Ground Sausage Dumplings
A year and a half ago, one evening, we were out for a family date night and ate dinner at Ben's Tune Up, a delightful Asian-inspired, casual restaurant on the South Slope of Asheville. I had never had dumplings before, but David ordered some for an appetizer. Out of an entire plateful, David and I each had one, and Calla devoured the remaining ones.
Even then, I never thought to make them myself. Their slippery, sticky texture confounded me, and I thought they must be as complex to make as they look. So when Calla asked to make Dumplings this morning after seeing a character eating them in Masha and the Bear, I googled "How to Make Dumplings." It definitely wasn't as complicated as I thought, and Calla could help me with the mixing of the dough, which she loves to do.
I had to find a separate recipe for the dough and cooking method as the dough recipe I found was for drop Dumplings for soup or stew, not freestanding ones. One of my favorite things to do when I am researching what to make for dinner is to find several different recipes I like and cobble together what I like, and leave out the rest. I have a gift of being able to read the ingredients and taste in my mind how they would go together. I love developing my own recipes this way, and hardly ever use a recipe straight the way it is without some form of doctoring.
I didn't have any kind of circular cookie cutter, so I improvised and used a wide-mouth mason jar ring to cut the circles. I loved every bit of the intricacy and simpleness of this recipe and will surely use it again, experimenting with different filling types in the future.
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Do you have your own favorite recipe, or filling for dumplings? Leave a comment below and let me know if there's something I should try next!
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