I recently tried making dumplings for a fundraiser we held. I had never made them before but had always wanted to and thought a party would be a good time to try. While pork is obviously a more traditional stuffing for a dumpling we didn’t want to prohibit some of our non-pork-eaters from enjoying them. I tried cooking them two ways: traditional potsticker method and baking. The potsticker way method definitely leads to better dumplings but for making a big batch, takes a far amount of work. In all, these were quite tasty but admittedly a fair amount of work.
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dpetc Appetizers, Asian, Recipes
This is a great colorful summer salad to make on the grill. I’ve made it two ways. The first time I added pretty much only corn and portabellos and found the salad needed a bit more. In this incarnation I added a couple of more ingredients and an Asian dressing alongside some Teriyaki swordfish. This could served alongside a number of different dishes and wouldn’t have to have an Asian dressing as well.
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dpetc Appetizers, Recipes
We were at Whole Foods recently and one of the free samples was a jalapeno hummus. We tried and liked it, so we bought some. When we got home and looked at the ingredients, we realized that all that was in it was chickpeas, oil, lemon, jalapenos, and seasoning, which seemed absurdly easy to emulate. A few Mondays later we created two of our own hummus dishes.
The first was basically a replication of the one we had bought at Whole Foods. After tossing around a bunch of ideas for the second we settled on a caramelized onion and feta hummus. Both worked out extremely well. It seems that there is basically no reason for us to buy pre-made hummus again; this was delicious, was very easy to prepare and made a lot at minimal cost. Note: this version does not use any tahini, the ground sesame paste; feel free to add some if you’d like.
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dpetc Appetizers, Recipes
Along with a lamb dish, we made a simple tomato salad. The salad has just a few ingredients and a basic lemon-vinaigrette. The dressing is easy to put together and could be used for many other salads or even bread or some grilled meats or fish. Any good tomato salad relies on the perfect combination of good tomatoes and salt - so make sure to get nice, ripe tomatoes. This cool, refreshing dish serves as as a lighter and acidic contrast to a grilled or roasted meat dish.
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dpetc Appetizers, Recipes
We made a bunch of Mediterranean-inspired appetizers to start off a dinner the other night. We served tsatziki, a chickpea, tomato and pancetta bruschetta and grilled lamb skewers alongside some freshly made grilled bread (same as from the grilled flatbread post).
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dpetc Appetizers, Recipes
