Saturday, December 6, 2008

Sweet Potato Dumplings

Earlier this week I made jaoizi (Chinese dumplings ) with my class as part of our study of China. We had left over dumpling wrappers and my husband suggested we fill them with sweet potatoes. I thought goat cheese would go well with the sweet potato, and then looked at recipes for Sweet Potato Ravioli for inspiration. It's hard to say whether we ate dumplings or ravioli for dinner, but either way they were so sweet and good and amazing that we'll be definitely making them again. Below is the rough recipe.

Sweet Potato Dumplings

16 dumpling or wonton wrappers
1 sweet potato
2-3 tablespoons goat cheese
1 tsp maple syrup
dash of nutmeg
salt & pepper
3 tbsp butter
4-6 fresh sage leaves, chopped

Wash the sweet potato but do not peel. Wrap in foil and bake for 45 minutes in a 375 degree oven until flesh is soft. Cut open and let the the flesh cool. Scoop it out and mash it in a bowl. Let cool. Add 2-3 tablespoons of goat cheese, maple syrup, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Stir together. Place one teaspoon of mixture inside dumpling wrapper. Dip your finger in a bowl of water and run it around the edge of the wrapper. Fold in half and then pinch in folds from each side.

Bring pot of water to a boil. When boiling add salt and dumplings. Stir to prevent sticking. Return the water to a boil and cook until dumplings rise to the top. Meanwhile melt the 3 tablespoons of butter in a skillet. Let the butter begin to brown before adding the chopped sage. When the dumplings are done, use a slotted spoon to ladle them into the butter. Here they are just after going into the skillet.
Let simmer and brown a bit on one side before turning to brown on another.
Let cool a bit before eating as the sweet potato holds the heat well.
Eat with your fingers :)

3 comments:

Marcia said...

Yum! They do look delectable! I guess the next time you're here you'll be stocking up on wrappers.

Dan said...

Those look really good and what a good use of sweet potatoes. I will be trying these.

I am going to try growing sweet potatoes next year in the garden. It is a long time off but I will be posting my progress at it.

Anonymous said...

So glad I found this recipe. Having a Chinese New Year party with many small kids, and wanted a kid-friendly filling for them to eat and also make -- this sounds perfect and I'm reassured that the sweet potato idea can work. I'll probably do cream cheese instead of goat cheese.