Daring Cooks' June Challenge - Chinese Dumplings / Potstickers

Last minute cooking for the win! These were a little rushed. Quite fun, though, haven't ever made chinese food that isn't a stir-fry before.

I made a pork filling with the following added: ginger, rhubarb, beansprouts, spring onions and garlic. The rhubarb was rather experimental. I didn't add much and couldn't taste it in the finished dish. Actually, it needed more flavour overall... Note-to-self: more ginger next time, less beansprouts.



As you can see, I was a bit haphazard with my wrapper-rolling. All different sizes and shapes! :P Still, managed to get lots of dumpling-shaped things in the end:

Made potstickers, but didn't fry them very much (was getting impatient!).

Conclusion: a bit bland due to vegetable proportions, but nice dipped in a mix of soy sauce and tabasco.

First Daring Cooks' Challenge - Ricotta Gnocchi

Woohoo, Daring Cooks is off and away!

I have a confession to make - I didn't even know what gnocchi were before this challenge! Neither had I used ricotta before. Interesting stuff!

I found a 250g tub of ricotta at the supermarket, which was just about the right amount to make half the recipe. I drained it overnight and then some, using an awful lot of kitchen roll.

Here's the gnocchi-ready ricotta:


Mixed up with eggs and other goodness (I added both lemon rind and nutmeg to the dough):


Formed into dumplings:


Lemon-thyme-butter-sauce'd:


Voila!


Thoughts: They were quite pleasant to eat, with a nice light texture, but I don't think I'd make them again. I don't know, perhaps it was because I tried to eat it all... halfway through, the realisation set in that I was pretty much eating cheese drenched in butter. :P