Crazy Dumplings by Amanda Roberts Will Delight Your Family With New and Fun Dishes ($25 Amazon Card giveaway)

Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this ebook, free of charge,from Reading Addiction book tours, for review purposes on this blog. No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it

Welcome to our stop on the:

Synopsis:

Dumplings. Wontons. Jiaozi. This remarkably simple food is found throughout Asia and in Chinese restaurants and kitchens around the world, but have you ever filled a dumpling wrapper with chicken? Lobster? North American Plains Bison? Hardly anyone has! The Crazy Dumplings Cookbook features over 100 recipes with some of the craziest and most delicious dumpling filling recipes you will ever see. From Chicken Taquito Dumplings to Timey-Wimey Dumplings to a dumpling for your dog, Crazy Dumplings will show you all the crazy things you can stuff into a dumpling wrapper for an easy meal or snack.

Review:
This is a fun cookbook that will definitely get you rethinking just WHAT you can put into a won-ton wrapper! The recipes are very simple, as Amanda had to seek out what she considered basic ingredients while living in China, so she came up with a basic 'pantry and spice shelf' that really is what you need. In fact, this would be a great cookbook to give to a coed in their first apartment, or for a newly married couple, with some accessories and spice mixes. Using wonton wrappers is a great way to use up leftovers into a fun and tasty new dish. I can't wait to try many of them!

Recipe:
While you can buy wonton wrappers in most grocery stores (check your produce section), they are super easy to make as Amanda shows you.

Basic Dumpling Wrapper

This recipe is for making 12 dumpling wrappers, enough for all the dumpling filling recipes in this book. Keep some extra flour on hand for flouring the counter and your hands to keep everything from sticking. Also, feel free to add more flour if necessary,if the dough is too sticky.

Ingredients;

3/4 cup flour
1/3 cup boiling water
Dash of salt
Flour for dusting

Directions:

1. Mix flour and salt together.

2. Slowly drizzle in water, mixing with a chopstick or fork.

3. Leave in bowl, covered with plastic wrap, for 15 minutes.

4. Gather dough up into a ball and knead on counter for a minute or two until the dough is smooth.

5. Pinch off small portion of dough and roll into a ball about 1 inch in diameter. Roll out into a flat circle on the counter, dusting with flour to keep dough from sticking.

6. Choose a dumpling filling from elsewhere in this book and continue following the directions there. 

Here I adapted a traditional Peking duck recipe for dumplings. Peking duck is most 

famous for its crispy skin and golden brown color, which are achieved through a very complicated preparation process that, ideally, can take days. If you are interested in making your own Peking duck, there are many great recipes available online. Just a half pound of leftover duck meat is all you need for this recipe. However, in this recipe, I just went for flavor, not texture or appearance since it is stuffed into a dumpling wrapper and you won’t notice the difference, so it tastes like Peking duck, but doesn’t have the crispy skin and can be made in about an hour. I’m not sure how readily available duck meat is near you.in America, but in China, it is available everywhere.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup oyster sauce or hoisin sauce

1 tsp Chinese five spice powder

1/2 pound raw duck meat 

1/4 cup cucumber, finely chopped

1/4 cup carrot, finely chopped

1 green onion, finely chopped

12 dumpling wrappers

1 cup oil for frying

Directions:

1. Mix oyster sauce/hoisin sauce, honey, and Chinese five spice powder together. Set aside

2. Rinse off duck with cold water and pat dry with a paper towel. Slather with half of the sauce mixture.

3. Place the duck on a metal baking dish (if the duck has skin, place it skin side up) and bake at 450 degrees for 30 minutes.
4. When the duck is done, finely chop the meat, including the skin. Mix the duckmeat, cucumber, carrot, green onion, and 1 tablespoon of the sauce mix together. Spoon mixture into dumpling wrappers and pinch closed.

5. To fry dumplings, preheat oil for 30 seconds on high heat, then lower heat to medium. Cook dumplings on each side for about 3 minutes or until golden brown.
6. Serve hot with remaining sauce mixture for dipping.

About the Author:

Amanda Roberts is an American writer, editor, and teacher who has lived in China since 2010. She has an MA in English and has published books, short stories, articles, poems, and essays in publications all over the world. She blogs about her life in China at TwoAmericansinChina.com and also heads the Women Writers of Shenzhen writers circle. She can be found all over the internet. Check out her Website, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest

GIVEAWAY:

                                   One tour readerr will win a $25 Amazon Gift Card

 a Rafflecopter giveaway

To Purchase this book

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Crazy-Dumplings-Amanda-Roberts-ebook/dp/B00OVTRWKC