Feast of the Sheep

Thursday 19 February

Today (yes, another snow day at home, so perfect for long simmers) we got out the roasted lamb leg bones from Saturday, put them under water with some celery tops, shallots, carrots, onions, and made a savory lamb broth.  After four or so hours, we added the juicy scrapings from Saturday's pan, plus all the lamb meat picked off the bones, and returned them to the pot.

It was also Chinese New Year - very appropriately, the Year of the Sheep.  So to go with the delicious lamb soup, Holt made a batch of lucky dumplings, following tips from here.

Not so much in the way of fresh greens or scallions was available after our four full days without going out of the house, but we mixed up a half pound of ground pork with a grated half zucchini that had been salted and squeezed dry, a knob of grated ginger, a little red onion, a teaspoon each of soy, Shaoxing wine, and the secret ingredient, sesame oil.  The Guardian adds egg, but that's very un-Chinese.

There were some wonderful dumpling tips on the Meat Loves Salt blog, including giving the log of dumpling dough you're cutting into pieces a quarter-turn after each cut, so that you can place them cut side down and have them roll into perfect circles.

With their help, Holt turned out a batch of perfect stegosaurus-shaped dumplings, which we pan-fried and enjoyed with a dipping sauce of Chinkiang black vinegar, soy sauce, and a little sugar, while slurping our savory sheep soup (try saying that three times fast). 

Have a prosperous new year, everyone!
恭禧發財