Hey Dumplin'

I have tried another Gwyneth Paltrow recipe again. This one is the Veggie Dumplings. The recipe call for (imho) alot of equipment and ingredients.  This is not one that you want to try "on the fly".  It takes time and organization.

 However, the recipe does say you can freeze them for the future and it does seem to make many at one time.

Ingredients: garlic, onions, cabbage, cooked quinoa, tofu,frozen peas, egg roll wrappers, soy sauce,

It is important to have the quinoa cooked first. Hopefully, you have some leftover. I didn't so it took about 18 minutes for the quinoa to get done.

First you have to chop up garlic, onions and napa cabbage.  Since I didn't have any Napa cabbage handy I did you a cabbage that my neighbor gave me. WooHoo!

 

You put the garlic, onion and cabbage in a food processor and blitz.  The onion seemed to get a little "pasty" before the cabbage was fully chopped so I chopped in smaller batches.

 

After mixing this together, you place it in a frying pan with neutral oil in it. They saute until the onion and cabbage are almost brown.

 

Add the tofu, quinoa, and frozen peas to the pan and cook until the peas are softened.

 

 

 

*Then remove the pan from the heat and add soy sause and toasted sesame oil. Mash it all together.

 

 

Get out the egg roll wrapper and place them somewhere flat. I used a baking sheet with a silicon mat on it for ease.

Wet all for sides of the wrapper so it will stick together when forming the dumpling. Some people use a pastry brush, I just used my finger. Add about 1 tablespoon of the filling to the middle.

 



 

Then, bring up all for sides to meet in the middle to form a dumpling.

 

The top of mine looked too large for the bottom and was very flacid.  So I decided to cut the original wappers into fourths and make the dumplings much smaller.

 

 

You then need to steam them for about 4 minutes. They suggest you use a bamboo steamer. I just use the steamer pot that came with my pans. They turned out pretty well. 

 



If I make them again I would make sure to:

1. Not make them when I am hungry
2. Get everything set up beforehand and have plenty of time to create them
3. Use one big batch and freeze some, so you don't have to go through this process everytime you want dumplings.
    

 

 

*This is the step I forgot to do and maybe why my dumplings did not look nearly as good as Julie's and Gwyneth's





 

Blueberry Bounty

This is the latest recipe from It's All Good by Gwyneth Paltrow that I have tried. The recipe called "flourless any fruit crumble" was chosen because the Fresh Market had a sale for the 4th of July on blueberries. It was good. On a scale of 1 to 10 it was about a 7 overall. Of course my friend who came over for dinner had three helpings so, opinions may vary.



This is the book picture

You start with 4 cups of any kind of fruit. The picture in the book looks like there are apples and blueberries. Due to the sale, I got 4 POUNDS for $10 so I had plenty. I did make sure to take the stems off before I washed them.



4 cups of blueberries

The author's said to use a shallow baking dish but I decided I wanted to use a different type and it may have alter the recipe.The next ingredient to add to the blueberries is maple syrup. It says you need 4 tablespoons but you only use 2 tablespoons with the blueberries. You use the rest of the syrup later so if you want to divide it to make it easier you might want to.




Maple Syrup

For the one tablespoon of lemon juice, I had some frozen that I was going to use. The recipe calls for fresh though. Unfortunately, the frozen didn't thaw in time. I did have a lemon and wound up using the whole lemon to get the one tablespoon of juice. I put it in with the blueberries.

Lemons Lemons

Julia and Gwyenth said that you could substitute groun up almonds for the almond flour in the recipe.  It was easy as pie to do. I had previously gotten a bag of almonds at Big Sam's and just put those in the food processor and ZAPP!

You need 1/2 cup of almond flour and 1/2 cup of Quinoa. The cookbook lists Quinoa flakes and the ingredient. I am not sure if these a the flakes or not. Fortunately, the rosemary and olive oil seasoning is in a separate bag. So the quinoa was just plain.  These go into a separate bowel for the topping. Then add the leftover maple syrup and some salt. This gets mixed well together and becomes the topping for the crumble.


When everything is put togeth you place this dish into a preheated 400 degree oven for 20-25 minutes. 

Before
 

 

 

 

 

 

Here fishy, fishy, fishy

Tonight I made the Mustard + Old Bay Fish Fingers from Gwyenth Paltrow's book It's All Good.
They were much better than I expected them to be. I even had to stop myself from going back for second helpings.

Of course,as usual, I didn't exactly follow her recipe to the letter. The reasons are:

1. I had so much at home that I need to use up
2. Too lazy to make a major shopping trip

Instead of Vegenaise, I used 7 packages of mayonaise that I had left over from some chicken sandwiches.  It also calls for coarse seeded mustard.  I am not sure what I is so I had some Coleman's dry mustard and used that. The breadcrumbs I used were what I had stored in the freezer. It was a little bit of this and that. There was even some Ritz cracker and challah bread crumbs in there. At my grocery store the only kind of white fish they had was catfish.

So even though, most of the ingredients are different, the fingers were delicious.  They were crunchy but the fish was still soft. The added squeeze of lemon also helped brighten up the flavors.

Since the fish was over 1 pound, I had alot of fingers leftover. They were put on a cookie sheet before baking and put in the freezer. They only take about 10 minutes to back which will make for a great quick lunch or dinner. I am sure they will come in handy soon.

Price of ingredients:
Vegenaise (mayonaise)- had at home
coarse seeded mustard (Colemans)-had at home
Dijon mustard- had at home
Gluten-free bread crumbs (used what I had)- had a home
Old Bay Seasoning- had at home
sea salt (kosher)-had at home
4 flounder, fluke, or sole fillets (catfish 1 pound)- $5.39
olive oil spray (Pam)- had at home
lemon wedges- had at home

 

The saga continues...

I have made the first recipe out of Gwyneth Paltrow's It's All Good cookbook this evening. The recipe was "Brown Rice Pasta with Fried Capers and Tuna."Overall, it was a pretty good meal. It didn't seem like something "healthy" or "good for you".

My kitchen, I must admit is not gourmet by any stretch of the imagination. The hardest part of the recipe was finding where my can opener was :-) However, it was easy to make and didn't take long at all. The total time seemed to be about 20 minutes. In fact, I was debating about making something to take to school because it was the end of an enjoyable day and I was tired.

It tasted really good and in my mind if you add parsley to anything, it will be scrumptious.  The pasta was light and the "topping" was satisfying and comforting. The fried capers were a new taste sensation and added a little crunch to keep in from being too mushy.

Does my food look anything like the anything like the food in the book? Nope. Absolutely not. Mine looks like brown sludge with green leaves. As with anything though, I have learned from my mistakes (when they say a large skillet, use a large skillet) and it will be better next time.

The book has been criticized for being too expensive for the average family. As for Ms. Paltrow mu thoughts are: as one person on tv said " They ain't never bought me lunch, so I don't really care." I will just tell you what the ingredients were and how much they cost me.

Olive oil-- had at home
cloves of garlic-- had at home
brown rice pasta-- 3.79 (used 1/2 bag)
1 lemon-- 4.49 for a bag of about 6
parsley-- 1.99 (used 1/2)
anchovies-- had at home
tuna-- had at home
capers-- had at home
red chili flakes-- had at home

Since I am trying to eat better and summer is coming up, I want to keep using these recipes.
**as a side note. I never imagined how much this blog would help me keep up with things that I want to do and goals to attain.  It has been pretty cool :-)