Shelby

I mentioned on the dinner thread that I've felt like we've been in an eating rut. I ran across this recipe for shrimp and pork dumplings or Shurmai. I've never eaten it or even heard of it, but it looked so good, and fun to make to boot. AND it was done in the IP. So, I ordered one of these steamers from Amazon It fits perfectly in my IP. Only one layer, though. Two steamer levels make it too tall. I didn't take pictures of every step....the recipe is very straight forward and easy to follow...but here's a little sampling . At the big grocery store I found these dumpling wrappers in the freezer section. After thawing them they seemed exactly like the wonton wrappers that I usually buy......so maybe dumpling wrappers and wonton wrappers are the same thing? Anyway, I much preferred these frozen ones because I never used up a whole package of them before they got all moldy. It never crossed my mind to freeze them. Anyway, I digress. I thawed out some shrimp and some ground pork and proceeded to make the "paste". I started with the shrimp first. Diced it all up really small, added the cornstarch and salt and proceeded to squish it all up with my hands and occasionally balling it up and throwing it against the bowl. Quote from the recipe "Chinese people believe that mixing by hand will create the best texture. Throwing the paste against the mixing bowl will increase the bounciness of the Shumai." Did I mention that this is super fun to make??? Anyway, here is the shrimp "paste" Pork "paste" Before mixing together after adding other ingredients I used round parchment paper that I had poked holes in on the bottom of the steamer. The recipe also says that lettuce leaves will work. I used a butter knife to scoop up about a tablespoon of the paste mixture into the dumpling wrapper. Then you just kind of crimp it around. Very easy to make. All ready to go into the IP I put a cup of water in the liner of the IP and then put my trivet in and set the steamer on top of that. Put the lid on the steamer basket and the secure the lid on the IP Manual, high pressure, three minutes. Natural release for five minutes and then quick release. All done! Seriously these were so good. And easy and fun. And, the recipe says they freeze well. These won't make it to the freezer. The leftovers will be my breakfast in a bit ALSO, in my other IP I had these going: Also found in the freezer section of the big grocery store. I was winging it on this. The package said to steam from frozen for 8-10 mins. So, again, I put a cup of water and my trivet in the IP liner pot. Then I put the parchment covered steamer basket in with the buns. Lid on the steamer. Lid on the IP. Four minutes using the steam setting and quick release. Came out perfect. There will be an after picture on the dinner thread in a bit.

Lordy, do I want this. ME TOO! Maybe Kay wouldn't notice if we showed up if we were very quiet and only ate like 2-3 pieces of cake instead of the whole thing.....

OMG you are brilliant. I am so doing this only maybe with venison. Come on deer season.

Brush with egg white right before baking. Nice looking bread!

Sometimes we just splurge...we don't go on trips so the food has to come to us lol. I get our crawfish from cajungrocer.com. 10 lbs. of live 'dads for $65 including shipping. Fedex delivers them by noon.

Crawfish boil last night Ronnie was smoking a pork roast so I hacked off a couple pieces to put in the boil. They sat in the boil all night. Should be nice and tender and spicy this morning.

Those look amazing, David. I definitely would love them.

57c/135F is my perfect temp for pork t-loin. So you're spot on in my book I think rotuts likes it at that temp too but I could be mistaken.

Welcome to EG, Dante and thank you very much for your service to our country!

All of this asparagus is making me so hungry for it. @JoNorvelleWalker If it's homemade bread, ones not best is still pretty damn good. I told my husband the other day that I feel like we are in a food rut--which would be my fault because I'm the one that makes dinner lol. So, after this renovation is all done I am going to break out my cookbooks and get adventurous. Meanwhile, when I was at the big city grocery store the other day I snagged a can of Hearts of Palm. I don't know why really....maybe someone around here used it recently. Anyway, I've never had it. Google showed me a lot of salads. I settled on a simple one. I just wanted to see if this was something I'd want to buy/make again. Hearts of palm with thinly sliced onions, a bit of olive oil, champagne vinegar, the worst tomato ever and salt and pepper and parsley. I liked the salad even with the horrid "tomato" so I know I'll love it if/when we get some from the garden. To me, hearts of palm are very similar to canned artichoke hearts. I can only imagine that fresh hearts of palm are amazing. However, another google told me that I'll likely never get to have a fresh one because they have no shelf life and are grown pretty far away from me. Anyone here had fresh ones before? Sheesh, that was a long diatribe ...lol...sorry. Venison burgers to go with. Yes, it was too tall for my mouth.

Had to wipe the drool off of my keys to type this. All sorts of possibilities with something like this...... Thinking Italian like mozz cheese and gravy.....or breakfasty with hollandaise sauce....

Thank you, kind sir! What a great compliment!

Hatch chile and chicken enchiladas

Your asparagus looks lovely. I can't wait for ours to make it's way through the dirt towards the sun

*faint*

My first car was around that price

Thank you, Chris, for taking time and I love your story! I feel the same way (scared to run out) about pickled beets..... I will have to try kimchi. Next time I'm at the Asian market I will try to find the brand that you've shown me.

Had to google Lancashire hot pot. Lamb or mutton under potatoes....I like the cheese addition.

You know, I've never eaten kimchi. Every time I see you or Anna or anyone eating it, I always think I should rectify that. Or maybe I would hate it lol.

I, too, went out and saw the bright Venus shining down. I would 100% rather be where you are than at a crowded, loud Mardi Gras party

We had raw oyster and fried oyster po boy sandwiches. I could eat another one of those sandwiches for dinner tonight. Soooo good. Yeah @kayb I gotta try that boudin cake, too. Soon.

Cyalexa's buns

Looks like a magazine picture, Norm! Oysters for Mardi Gras.....raw and in a po boy. Good stuff.

I could only hope to have a freezer that looks like this. We used to camp for just weekends at a time and mine was....well....let's just say you're amazing.

That pizza is my kind of pizza.