Chinese Laughing Dumplings (笑口棗)

Don't they look mouth-watering? Thanks Do what I like for sharing this wonderful recipe. Taste wise is as good as the ones I usually get during dim sum breakfast or sunday market..light, crunchy on the outside, soft inside with a hint of sweetness!
Only thing to be aware of is the temprature of the oil when frying the dumplings. Do ensure oil is not too hot or dumplings and sesame seeds would burnt rather quickly. .
 
Chinese Laughing Dumplings (笑口棗)
click here for recipe.


Ingredients: (18 pieces)
90g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
40g sugar
1.5 tsp melted shortening (I used Crisco)
3 tbsp cold water
White sesame seeds for coating

Method:
1. Sieve flour and baking powder into a mixing bowl. Stir in sugar.
2. Add in the melted shortening and water, mix to form a soft dough.
3. Rest dough for 30 minutes.
4. Divide dough into 10g pieces and shape it into round balls.
5. Wet the round dough balls with water and coat it with white sesame seeds.
6. Deep fry coated dough balls in oil, turning the dumplings with a ladle till golden brown.
7. Use absorbent kitchen paper towel to get rid of excess oil.
8. Cool before storing in an air-tight container.

Notes:1. Oil should not be too hot while you slide in the dough balls, otherwise the sesame seeds will get all burnt out. Increase the heat after you have slided in the dough balls. An easy snack to do but you have to control of the heat while deep frying. Would advise you to fry 2 at time until you get the rhythm of the heat control.
2. If you like the dumplings to be of larger size, you can increase the dough balls to 13g each.
3. Floured your hands if you find the dough a little sticky to handle.

 

Hungarian Ratatouille { Lecsó }

The base or basic ingredients for Lecsó (pronounced - Lecho) are tomatoes, onions and sweet paprika. Today I've included hard boiled eggs in the stew which tasted well together and finally, they're great with crusty bread :)

.

The following recipe was extracted from the internet loooong time ago (sorry, i've lost the link) .

LECSÓ
with sausage
serves 6

INGREDIENTS:

5 large onions (cut them into half and slice them)

6 large cubanell or european style of green peppers (sliced into rings)(Do not use green bell peppers they have a bitter flavor.)

4 large very ripe tomatoes peeled and diced. If the skin is hard to peel put them into hot water for a minutes, then try it again.

150g. of bacon (cut into cubes)

250g. of smoked sausage (cut into rings)

1 Tbs. of tomatoe puree

1.1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. grated black pepper

1.1/2 Tbs. of sugar

1.1/2 Tbs. of paprika
METHOD

Fry the bacon cubes medium brown in a large frying pan. If you didn't get enough fat add a few Tbs. of oil. Sprinkle with the paprika and add the sliced onions. Cook it for 2 minutes and throw all the ingrediens and spices into the pan. Cook it for 1/2 hour with occasional stiring.Taste to see if more salt or sugar is needed.