Pan fried carrot dumplings

This weekend I had a little creative spark on one evening. 

This weekend I did something earth-shattering and bold (ok maybe not so earth shattering). I made stuffed dumplings by creating my own filling mix! Trying to be creative is fun but risky, and you can end up with not-so-great tasting things that make you question why you just wasted a good hour on Saturday. But fear not my friends, as this is a story of triumph - in the form of pan fried carrot dumplings.

I have a bag of 5 lbs of carrots from our recent grocery haul. It's a bit excessive, but carrots are good for you and crunchy, 2 most important factors of food really, so why not. Aside from making copious amounts of carrot sticks, which beats store bought baby carrots any day. I also wanted to do something different with it. Fro years I watched my parents and grandparents make dumplings - easy they tell me. Recently I fortunately have also gained the skill of dough-y food making (10 experience points gained) during the covid months. Whether it's a pancake, a tray of cookies, or a focaccia - this is all very simple now. So, I'm just going make my own dumplings this time. If it's great I can even patent it, you see?

Carrots are not a common thing to put in dumplings. Usually it's chive, cabbage, meats, and other crunchier vegetables. I had none of the traditional filling ingredients, and really trying to eat less meat. So we're making what I call a "filling of compromise", or "filling of creativity" depends on which ever school of thought you come from. I also had a lot of ginger, a full head of cauliflower - I will combine these things to make my filling!

What you need: 

- 2 large carrots, de-skinned, and shredded (de-skinned? skinned? Just take your potato peeler and do your thing. Not a big deal actually, carrot skins are not gritty or super fiber-y - it actually is the same consistency of the actual carrot. skip this if you like.)

- 2-3 florets of cauliflower, chopped

- 1" ginger root, chopped finely

- 2 cloves of garlic

- 2 eggs

- 2 tsp of salt

- 1 tsp of coriander

- 1 tbsp of vegetable oil

- 2 cups of flour

- 1 cup of warm water

- 1 tsp of yeast

Recipe:

- mix flour, yeast and warm water together to form a dough ball. Leave it alone for 30 min while you making the filling. This as my mother call it "let it the dough rest". I'm not sure why the dough is tired but we're letting it rest so no questions asked. 

- mix the carrots, chopped cauliflower, ginger root, garlic, eggs, salt, coriander, oil, and a dash of pepper in another bowl - so it's evenly mixed through.

- cut the dough in 2, then divide each in 4. So in the end you get 8 smaller pieces of dough. 

- roll each small piece of dough in loose flour, and use a rolling pin to roll it out like a pancake

- scoop a spoon-ful of filling onto the middle of the pancake and pinch all the sides together. This is how to make a dumpling - the side pinching does not need to look perfect. I simply made sure they were shut so the insides don't fallout. This is not an art project - don't sweat it. If you like, read note on dumpling making at the end. Roll the dumplings again in loose flour, this is to prevent sticking to surfaces, set aside.

- meantime, have your pan ready and add some oil in it. put 3-4 little dumplings, med to med-low heat, cover the lid. Let it cook for about 5 min.

- flip the dumplings, add a bit more oil if you need, cover and cook for another 5 min or so.

- tada! Serve hot! I ate mine with some vinegar, soysauce, and wasabi paste.

Notes:

- Like I said, creating new inventions can be awesome or can be a complete flop. This was.. kind of awesome with a few things I might do differently. Here's what I learned:

- dough was a bit soft and sticky. If you want to use a bit less water that's ok too. The 2:1 flour:water ratio was a bit on the wet side. I actually liked it cuz it made my rolling pin process easier. What i do remember is mom's dumpling dough is a lot harder which required a lot more effort to roll them out. The only down side is the dough is quite sticky - make sure you use lots of loose flour or some oil when working with the dough - so it would stick less to things like counters, knives, cutting boards, pans, hands, you get the picture.

- carrots as a filling. This was a fun experiment. when carrots cooks down it's actually really quite soft. because the dough is also soft, I guess there isn't a crunch to it. It's still very good with bright orange colors on the inside. and after eating 2 of them, i'm quite filled up. I might experiment using other things as the filling - the world really is my oyster so to speak. 

- dumpling making. There are actually so many rules and regulations in all the different shapes of folding the edges. Whether if you folded it to the side or all centrally, and what kind of fancy folds are you doing - we have a name for it. Technically the way I did it here was more like a "bao-zi". The variations, like the different type of Italian pasta names, are not true differences in cuisine but more or less of tiny variations that wont make it or break it. All "dumplings", or if you want to call it "pierogi", or "stuffed pancakes" or "parathas" come from all different cultures that describes filling in a dough exterior. Therefore, the more practical way is to have your goal in mind: filling inside of dough with no spillage. Forget about the technicalities - cuz it's all unique and beautiful and going into your belly.

- Panfry dumplings. I made a different filling of this stuff a while ago, see previous post: https://www.eatwithjia.com/2020/04/pan-fried-dill-dumplings.html. Pan fried dumplings are honestly my favorite. Traditional dumplings I grew up with are often steamed or boiled. Yes much healthier. But I really like the pan fried dough - crispy, crunchy, with the soft center... much additional yum factor in there. Give it a try - you won't be disappointed.