Day: October 22, 2024

I’ve been delighted to get a dumpling steaming situation figured out, so now I can have dumplings fresh from my freezer any time I feel my house is too dry or cold. Or just wherever.

I used to have line 6″ streaming baskets and would put them in a 5qt soup pot up on canning rings. But I was always terrified I’d run out of water, and would keep the water high enough that I couldn’t use the bottom basket. And still ruined a pot once!

But now I’ve learned about the adapter ring that lets you bridge the diameter of a pot and your baskets. So now I have a 3-4qt pot that I fill like 2/3 full of water and never have to worry about it running dry or boiling over out teaching my dumplings!

I like lining the baskets with cabbage leaves, instead of paper, because you can then eat the leaves at the end! And here’s the two baskets with soup dumplings and fluffy bao with greens and mushroom filling

I make my own dippng sauce with sliced ginger, soy sauce, black vinegar, and then maybe a tiny splash of sesame oil, some sugar or mirin, some chili crisp (not in this one because I was thinking I’d have them separately and then I just forgot to grab it), and some scallion greens (didn’t put in this one).

this is a glamour shot of the vegetable bun because I am planning to write a (positive) review on @sayweee_official (where I bought them).

And then I thought I’d give steamed eggs a shot, but I forgot to cover them to keep condensation from the lid getting in then, and they turned out more fluffy than custardy. Next time I’ll review directions right before instead of assuming I’ve watched enough videos that I can remember what to do.

Tonight’s dinner was steak and potatoes.

The potatoes are small yellow ones from Aldi’s that I cut in half. I start off boiling/poaching them because otherwise I always get the outside too cooked before the inside is cooked, and this both slows me down to give them more time and provides more even heat.

Once the water cooks off (or I get impatient and pour the water out), I add fat. This time I added a chunk (1tsp?) of bacon grease from my freezer. Then I let the potatoes cook and color for about five minutes before adding diced onions and peppers (a poblano from my garden ). Stir it enough that nothing burns and sticks to the skillet. Once the onion is soft, I can add minced garlic. I also added dried thyme (from my garden) and paprika, black pepper, salt, and Penzey’s Spices’s Turkish Seasoning.

The steak was cooked in a hot cast iron skillet starting about when the garlic went into the potatoes.

It’s actually half a steak. I cut off some strips with ambitions toward making a stir fry later in the week