A few months back my friend Susan posted a recipe on her blog for shrimp and pork dumplings. Evelyn took one look at the pictures and immediately asked if I could make them. I said yes, but, I confess I dilly-dallied about it. I had recently made a huge batch of ravioli and I didn’t really relish the idea of making dumplings so soon after. But my mouth had been watering over them too so I kept turning the idea over in the back of my head.
Eventually, I realized the sad but simple truth that enough time had passed and in all likelihood I wasn’t going to make the dumplings. But I wanted to enjoy the flavors so I started pondering what else I could do with those ingredients. Suddenly, it struck me that the dumpling filling was, essentially, made from ground meat/fish and that I could easily turn that into a meatball.
A bag of snow peas and a package of udon noodles later and this meal was born. Of course, being me, I didn’t really follow the recipe Susan had posted. Why? you ask… because I’m a pain in the neck is my answer… but really it was because I was looking to get rid of some of the veggies I had in my fridge and tricking my kids into eating them by grinding them into a meatball seemed like a good idea.
I would encourage you to experiment with the recipe since it’s pretty forgiving. This particular combination is a tasty one but using arugula, kale, watercress, or any other green would be just as good. The same can be said for using yellow or red onion or shallots instead of scallions. Just keep those condiments in the list and you’ll come away with the overall flavor that was originally intended.
Looks delicious…I love the idea of reworking the dumpling recipe into something new. Nice!