Saturday, June 30, 2007

Waiter there's something in my.. dumplings!

I _almost_ forgot about the deadline of this month's 'Waiter there's something in my...' event. It's themed on 'dumplings', i.e. anything stuffed, and cooked by boiling, steaming or baking. I wanted to make ravioli, but I was thinking to make them with Nicola, and I couldn't arrange it for today. So, I decided to do something less Italian and more strange. I was inspired by the Indian Modak dumplings, sweet dumplings made with rice flour and a coconut and spices or coconut and raisin filling. Still, instead of rice flour, I used a mixture of garbanzo flour and regular wheat flour. I was curious to try a 'garbanzo dumpling', I never found any recipe for something like that! So, here is my creation:

'Gnocchi' di farina di ceci ripieni di pistacchi, uvetta e rum / Garbanzo dumpling with pistachio, raisin and rum filling
Ingredients
1/2 cup garbanzo flour
1/2 cup white wheat flour
1 pinch of salt
1 cup water
~2 tbsp butter
~2 tbsp turbinado sugar
1/2 cup roasted and shelled pistachios
2 tbsp raisin
1 tbsp rum
powder sugar and cinnamon for decoration

Procedure
Prepare the filling: blend the pistachios, add the raisin, the sugar and 1 tsp butter. Warm in the microwave till the butter melts. Add rum and mix.
Prepare the dough: put some water in a pot, add the two flours, mixing to avoid clumping. Add the salt. Heat while stirring continuously. Add 1 tsp butter. Keep heating till the dough is of a somewhat workable consistency (neither too sticky nor too dry). Add flour if necessary.
Butter the palm of your left hand, place a ball of dough in it, flatten it, add some filling in the dough, and close the dough around it. When done with all the dumplings, place in a steamer and steam for ~10-15 minutes.
Place the dumpling on your serving plate. Melt the rest of the butter and pour it on top. Mix the powdered sugar and the cinnamon and sprinkle on top. Eat warm or cold.
Lucas and I enjoyed them a lot! The garbanzo bean flour give them quite an unusual taste. The filling was especially good. Next time, I'll experiment with a different type of flour!
Come back here for a link to the roundup of the event... I'm really curious to see all the great recipes!
Also, stop by later if you want to see the Italian ravioli creation. I'll make them soon!!!

5 comments:

thepassionatecook said...

how very adventurous! this sounds delectable - i love pistachios, so i will give this a try! many thanks for taking part and bringing such delicious dumplings to the table!

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

Those dumplings look very interesting! I've never heard of garbanzo flour before and would not know where to find it here in Switzerland...

Nora B. said...

Marta, that looks delicious! I love pistacios in dumplings but never had a dumpling made of garbanzo(chickpea) flour.

Minik Kus said...

Those dumplings looks delicious. Especially the filling. I love pistachios, but I couldn't find it in the States. Where can I buy them, any suggestions? Thank you :)

chemcookit said...

Hello everyone!
So glad to see that my experimentation turned on your curiosity!

Johanna - thanks! And thanks for organizing, I'm really looking forward to seeing all the recipes!

Rosa - not sure about Switzerland, but if you go to Italy I'm sure you can find it and get some to stock. It's the main ingredient to make 'farinata', really typical of Liguria. Did you ever try that?

Hello Nora! - good to see you back! I never had them before either. :)

Minik kus - great to see you here! I actually lived in Gainesville, Fl for about one year, but I don't think I ever looked for pistachios at that time. Here in California and back when I was in NC I can find them in Whole Foods, Trader Joe's and similar type of stores. I'd hope there's something like that in Florida too.. I can ask some of my old friends over there if they can help you. :) Otherwise at the very worst you could order them online!!