when the weight comes down
dumplings for the new year and donut cake
Hello from the end of a tough week. If you live in Canada I don’t need to discuss why, but I hope the residents of Ottawa are staying safe, and I am so sorry for all the service staff, healthcare workers, and marginalized groups who are being disrespected and harmed by this so-called “protest”. Personally I have been doing my best to stay away from much of the news so that I’m not absolutely consumed with rage all the time the way I was while out trying to run errands on Saturday. I regret that my body comes equipped with only two middle fingers.
Maybe unsurprisingly, I’ve been throwing myself into my little projects as a distraction, spending most evenings immersed in my knitting, and much of last weekend in the kitchen, blasting my comfort albums on the record player while making a huge mess. On Sunday I baked a cake, got some pizza dough ready to ferment overnight, pickled some cabbage… Escapism isn’t always the answer, but for now it feels like the only thing keeping me somewhat sane. It’s soothing, amid this frustration and chaos, to know that there is still the ability to create. And for those celebrating the Lunar New Year this past week, I do hope the Year of the Tiger brings you strength and good fortune.
Sometime in 2020 I was thinking about what to make for my cake of the month and realizing that all I really wanted was an enormous, cake version of a sour cream donut, ie. basically the only donut worth ordering at Tim Hortons. I scoured the internet for possibilities but it seemed like no one had attempted such a thing, though I did find some enticing adaptations of jam donuts, old-fashioneds, and apple fritters. Since I wasn’t sure what would give the moist, dense yet crumbly interior and crispy outside, I put it on the back burner and made something else. I was excited to find this recipe, because the description made it seem like it could be adapted for such a purpose. I tried the original in February last year to see how it came out, and, if you read that newsletter, you’ll know that it was excellent. I didn’t intend to wait so long to try to create the cake of my vision, but I finally attempted to make it a reality this month.
Not much change was needed from the original recipe in terms of texture to make it more donut-like, although I did use cake flour instead of all-purpose to give it that extra bit of starchiness. To make the flavour more similar, I left out the citrus zests (and the juice from the glaze) and added some cinnamon and nutmeg, and used sour cream in place of the mascarpone. I considered replacing the yogurt with sour cream as well but worried that would make the batter too thick; instead I just reversed the amounts of yogurt and sour cream, so that the higher volume was now of sour cream.
This is a tricky one since the cake needs to come out of the pan as soon as possible to glaze while it’s warm, but I’m happy to report that this was my first bundt pan victory since using it for the first time to make the original recipe of this cake! So clearly whatever I’ve been doing to grease the pan with other cakes wasn’t working (or maybe this recipe is simply magic). I wouldn’t have minded a bit more glaze to make it more like that of a donut, maybe turning the cake over to glaze the bottom as well. The hardened glaze magnified the crispy contrast crust against the soft interior, and it would have been nice to have that all the way around. So while I wouldn’t call it a replacement for a donut, it quelled my desire to have a cake that was like a donut. I endorse making the recipe with these changes if you too long for a way to give in to the Tim Hortons craving without having to visit a Tim Hortons.
I’ve been periodically fantasizing about the things I would buy when I finally had an excuse to go to T&T. Amongst all the condiments and snacks, dumpling wrappers was definitely on there (after making pierogis from scratch once, I decided that making the dough for such things was best left to the pros). But I happened to stumble across them at the grocery store last weekend— maybe because of the Lunar New Year, or maybe they’ve always been there and I just never noticed— either way, I was thrilled to bring my dumpling dreams to life on Sunday.
Dumplings are pretty straightforward to make, but it’s definitely slow work to do by yourself. Having an assembly line of two or three gets everything done quickly enough that they don’t dry out if you forget to dampen the towel you’re using to keep them covered before cooking. There are plenty of popular choices for filling, but you can use whatever you’ve got around and they will still be delicious. I used shredded carrot and cabbage, and finely chopped shiitake mushrooms and crumbled tofu fried with shallots, a little Guilin chili sauce, soy, and rice vinegar.
I love the potsticker method for cooking because it is simple and delicious: let the undersides brown in the pan for a few minutes, then toss in some water and cover the pan just long enough to steam the tops. They come out crispy on the bottom and soft on top, which makes them so satisfying to eat. To dip them in I mixed soy sauce with some black vinegar and chili crisp, served with a cooling cucumber salad on the side. The plates show six dumplings, but we both went back for more.
I also made the sesame ramen again, which I implore you to try if you have yet to do so (message me if you don’t have access to the recipe, and you can read my tips on making it here). It’s full of wonderful umami flavour and has lots of good textures, just like restaurant ramen. I forgot to boil the egg this time until everything else was ready— I’m sure the recipe is good as it is but in my books it’s simply a crime to eat ramen without a perfectly boiled egg. Rather than forgo it, I just angrily stood in my kitchen waiting for it to cook while microwaving the other parts of the dish so that they wouldn’t cool the broth when I combined everything. Anyway, this prompted me to finally make a note for myself of the order I do things, so that in the future I can avoid having half the ingredients get cold while waiting for everything else to cook.
This week we didn’t finish all of the bread, so I made the stale half-loaf into croutons for panzanella. The base was kale and endive, and I roasted some golden beet and rutabaga, with honey mustard vinaigrette to contrast the earthiness and feta for extra salt. I’m out of pickled onion, so I added a little pickled cabbage instead, and in a pure brainwave, chopped up a couple slices of hot salami leftover from our pizza night. It had enough cozy wintry elements to be filling and delicious enough that it didn’t feel pathetic to eat salad for dinner on a rainy day, and it helped me use some of the vegetables I’ve been ignoring in the produce drawer lately.
Media:
Despite not living in New York and having no frame of reference for these places, I still signed up for Tammie Teclemariam’s “The Year I Ate New York” because I find her writing so engaging. The first instalment was published in Grub Street last week, where she hit up an impressive 26 restaurants in 5 days. I found it interesting, as a person still too anxious right now to dine indoors amongst strangers, to see how the other half are living. The way this piece seamlessly blends thoughts about the food with thoughts about Omicron seems appropriate, as the disease (for most of us) feels like the backdrop for everything else in our lives.
“More than anything, it struck me that people wanted the comfort that comes from being inside a lively room filled with happy strangers, exactly the kinds of places we’ve all probably tried to avoid at one point or another over the last two years.”
This is how I felt during the brief period between August and November last year when I felt comfortable eating indoors again, so this really jumped out at me— that is what I am missing. I can’t wait to have it back again, and in the meantime I will be happy to read more about how other people are experiencing it.
Thanks for reading— if you enjoyed this newsletter, please share it with someone new! I like providing this to you for free, but it does still involve time and effort, so donations I can use towards cookbooks or future treats are much appreciated. Anyway, maybe I’m giving too much of myself away here, but this has always been high on the list of forbidden snacks.