Steamed Vegetable Dumplings

The CC's dad forwarded him a recipe from the local newspapers. The CC liked the look of it, and it consisted of old ideas in a spanking new bottle so the CC decided to try it out (that, and the fact that the ingredients were coincidentally precisely what the CC needed to use up.)

The verdict? Gobbliciously good.

High on fiber too leading to a quadruple-flusher the next day (not that you needed to know that but what can the CC do? The blog mandate permits it.)

The CC changed one thing though. He will never understand his forefathers' love of the cabbage. Flabby, vile, nasty with a historical side-helping of being "good for you". Read Pliny, if you don't believe the CC.

So what's the old, and what's the new?

New would be combo of ol' Gujarati technique with North Indian spices and ingredients, and a free helping of New World stuff like corn thrown in to seal the deal.

Old would be the method of steaming the dumplings (which the Indians received via Chinese traders circa the 10th century incidentally), and the lentil batter (quite ancient.)

Just for the record, the final texture is astonishingly similar to the steamed pork dumplings (shu mai) served at dim sum, a thought that possibly scandalizes the CC's vegetarian forefathers.

Oh well! The CC was never long on formality.

Ingredients

carrots (shredded)
spinach (blanched, and chopped fine)
corn
1/4 cup whole masoor soaked (or just use any lentils)

3 cloves garlic
1" ginger
3-4 green chillies

rava (substitute with bulgur wheat)

cilantro leaves (finely chopped)
lime juice
salt

Recipe

The quantities are approximate because it's hard to screw this up, and you will have control in the last step anyway. If you have a food processor, you're golden. Won't even take you 20 minutes. (And since the CC is a full disclosionist, yes, he used frozen spinach, and frozen corn. Gasp, the horror!!!)

As you might have guessed, you can really use any vegetables but you do need some shredded stuff to help the dough all hold together.

Soak the lentils for at least 6 hours. This is the only real prep step.

Grind the garlic, ginger, green-chillies into a paste. Grind the lentils into a paste too (can be combined.)

Mix all the ingredients except the rava. Add the rava in small quantities till you get a very loose dough but one that you can form balls in. (This is the reason everything is approximate since you can control the texture here.)

The little balls ready to steam on the CC's steamer thingy. They were steamed for about 8-9 minutes.

Steamed Vegetable Dumplings