Dreaming up new things for dinner

Guys, I am bored. Well, maybe not FULLY bored, but my cooking is lacking in excitement these days. It just feels like I am always cooking the same things, week after week, and I need some variety in my life.

So as I was feeding my sourdough starters this morning, I realized that I could use them to do more than just bake delicious bread... why not use them to create a main dish worth of praise? So the next question then became, what do I make?

You guys all know me by now... I love that Asian flair when it comes to cooking and flavours, and dinner today is going to be no different. I want to try using my sourdough starter to make homemade-from-scratch sourdough dumplings.

I can't imagine it being that difficult, and I am hoping that the end result is as yummy as I think that this has the potential to be. My plan is to keep these super simple - just a few basic ingredients and maybe a sweet-and-spicy homemade dipping sauce to go with them. Add some garlic shrimp and I think we have a meal!

Wish me luck! Pictures will be posted after dinner this evening.

Easy Sourdough Dumplings:

· 50 grams cold butter, chopped into small cubes

· 150 grams all-purpose flour

· 6 grams baking powder (1 teaspoon)

· 6 grams salt (1 teaspoon)

· 1 tbsp. fresh herbs of choice (you can use any fresh herbs you like. I typically use fresh thyme and chives, but fresh parsley, rosemary or sage work well too. You could also use dry herbs if you prefer)

· 150 grams sourdough starter or sourdough discard (you can use sourdough discard or active sourdough starter, it doesn't really make a difference for this recipe since the baking powder is the leavening agent here. The only caveat here is not to use discard that's too old or sour or you'll get unpleasant tasting dumpling)

· 1 egg

1) Make sure your butter is really cold before beginning (you can pop it in the freezer to cool it faster if you need to first). Cut the butter into small cubes

2) Add the flour and butter to a mixing bowl and rub the flour into the butter using your fingertips. The mixture should be crumbly, but still feel cold

3) Add the baking powder, salt and herbs of your choice to the flour mixture and gently stir them through the mixture

4) Whisk the egg and sourdough starter together and then pour into the centre of the dry ingredients. Gently bring the wet and dry ingredients together to form a dry dough (don't overwork it or your dumplings will be tough!)

5) Using your fingers, form 12 small balls of dough (they don't have to be perfect and they might seem crumbly, that's perfectly ok)

6) If you are going to do the long ferment method, once you've formed a dry dough, pop an elastic food cover on the bowl and place it into the fridge for up to 2 days. When you want to cook the dumplings, take the dough out of the fridge and allow it to sit for around an hour before forming the dough into 12 small balls. Proceed with the instructions when ready to cook the dumplings

7) Make sure your soup is gently simmering (not boiling). Carefully drop the dumplings into the soup. They might sink at first - don't panic! They'll pop back up in a minute or two

8 ) Pop the lid on the soup and leave to gently simmer for 10 to 12 minutes

9) Serve your soup and dumplings immediately

10) Freezing Instructions - you can freeze these sourdough dumplings to use another day. Once you've formed the dumplings, place them on a tray lined with parchment paper. Freeze them like that and then when they are frozen, transfer them to a zip loc bag. You can then grab a few out when you need them (just drop them into your soup frozen)