Memories are made in the kitchen, likely more than any other room in the house. “Kitchen. Noun – A gathering place for friends and family. A place where memories are homemade and seasoned with love.”
It’s where grandmothers teach the next generation; where parents create meals with love; where kids share their feelings while licking the spoon; where surprises are hatched; where mothers cry and laugh and reflect; where celebrations begin and end; where creativity and planning blossom into food for the body and soul.
Prior to the pandemic one of my great pleasures was spending a full day or two preparing a meal for guests, knowing that great conversations begin with food and end in laughter. These days, although we’ve begun welcoming one couple at a time into our home, I’m again spending creative time in the kitchen.
It’s peach season here and our neighbours have been sharing their bounty. We’ve been eating them as-is, their amber juice trickling down our chins and arms. To make a dent into the bounty I made one of my favourites, peach upside down cake — it’s the sticky caramel that I adore so much. And a few days ago, a decadently luscious peach pie was in the works.
Oh yes, I do make savoury as well as sweet. For instance, dumplings. There are so many recipes available online for dumplings. I’ll share the ones that served ‘as inspiration’ (at the end of this post) although I made my own adjustments and additions but these will get you started.
About a dozen years ago I made a few batches of dumplings but was never 100% pleased with the results, even though they were good but not great. So in the past few years I started over and, thanks to You Tube I had some great teachers. If you’re interested in making your own Asian dumplings, I highly recommend this great video by Adam Liaw, Basic Dumplings (Jiaozi). Don’t worry, if you don’t want to tackle your own dumpling skins, just buy the wrappers at the store, but the dumplings are easy and well worth giving it a try.
So I now make my own Jiaozi, pork & chive dumplings, shrimp or prawn dumplings, and most recently made some delicious beef dumplings. The beef dumplings I made yesterday were bursting with flavour (I always add to or enhance recipes) especially serving them with my own homemade chilli oil plus a drizzle of soy sauce and chopped scallion. Yum.
What are some of your favourite foods to share with family or friends? Do you have special memories in your kitchen or the kitchen of your childhood?
RECIPES: The cake is from one of my mom’s old cook books and the pie crust is my own, after decades of experimentation. But I must share with you the accessible recipe for the filling in the peach pie. Head on over to Chef John’s blog for the recipe and watch this video to see how he does it. There are multiple sources online for the Makowiec but this is one I have used (but none of the recipes tell you that you must thoroughly rinse the poppyseeds at least 3 times before using.)
For the dumplings: Marion’s Shrimp Dumplings is a great one especially if you watch her video to see just how easy it is. And her recipe for Pork & Chive Dumplings is also an easy one. If you’re interested in tackling the beef dumplings, this is the recipe I used as inspiration, Northern Chinese Beef Dumplings.
“The kitchen is a place of adventure and entirely fun, not drudgery. I can’t think of anything better to do with family and friends than to be together to create something.”
Ted Allen
your words in this post are so concise and hit the mark exactly with my own impressions of being in the kitchen with my mother, grandmothers and aunts.
the accompanying images of course are superb