Cravings...

So, I'm making a new rule: I cannot fulfill a craving for a food item from a restaurant or similar establishment until I know that I could create the item myself. (This will strictly apply to cravings in and of themselves, not simply ordering or anything.)

I had the craving for dumplings today: delicious, stuffed, steamed dumplings. I googled 'steamed dumplings'... somehow I managed to find someone who is just a big a fan of Alton as I am... and their foodblog reminded me of Alton's episode 'Wonton Ways'. He outlined that using storebought wanton wrappers are perfectly acceptable, and went over a few stuffings.

I review Alton's recipe, and some others on the web, and decided on a simple starting point for a recipe (The meatloaf a few posts back made it clear that Alton likes spicy food.)

Ground pork, scallions, bellpepper, and my new food processor from last weekend (yay), and I had enough stuffing for sixty dumplings (that's all the wrappers I had, I could have stuffed 70 probably.) Add my new bamboo steamer to the mix, and viola... steamed dumplings!

A photo diary of the afternoon:

The Stuffing Station (above)

A few specimens waiting to be cooked (I just staged them on the baking sheet) (above)

They actually got steamed... (above)

Finished Product (above)

I also tried my hand at pot stickers, but Alton wasn't kidding about two minutes, four just gets you pot charcoal. Maybe next time.