Sprouting Broccoli and Oyster Mushrooms in Ginger Broth with Pumpking and Macadamia Dumplings

This one is out of one of my favourite recipe books, a gift from my sister called Wild Garlic, Gooseberries and Me, by Denis Cotter. It's really great.

This is also the last of my backlog, which means that I will probably be falling silent for a while as I have some travelling coming up.

So! The first thing I have to admit to is that in Dunedin it is impossible to find either sprouting broccoli or oyster mushrooms. So, um. That was fun.

I ended up using portobello mushrooms and ordinary broccoli, so it was probably totally different to how it was meant to be. But, it was still pretty good.

So, You start by bringing1.5 litres of water to the boil in a large saucepan, and throwing in a chopped onion, 2 chopped celery sticks, a chopped carrot, some garlic cloves (recipe says four, I probably used more, because I always do), a thumb of sliced fresh root ginger, a sliced chilli, some coriander leaves and parsley leaves. Turn down the heat and simmer for 20 mins. Then strain through a sieve and discard the veggies, keeping the broth. (This part always breaks my heart, but I assume all the goodness of the veggies in the juice by then anyway.)

Then steam 100g pumpkin diced up till it's soft. (I actually steamed this over the broth while it was cooking.) Mash it up. Stir in a tablespoon of finely chopped macadamia nuts (I used significantly more than that. Mmmmmm macadamias.), grated zest of half a lemon, 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice (I just squeezed it over the pumpkin and guestimated), and 2 tsp chopped coriander. Leave it to cool.

The recipe calls for 8 wonton wrappers, but I made more than that. Possibly I used too much pumpkin. I basically just kept going until the mixture was finished.

So place the wantons on a work surface, put a teaspoon of the pumpkin mixture in the middle, moisten the edge of the wrapper and fold it to make a rectangle, pressing down the edges. (A few of mine burst open, so make sure about those edges!)

Reheat the broth gently, Fry the broccoli (350g) and mushrooms (100g) in some olive oil in a pan, occasionally ladling in some of the broth to keep them moist. Add 4 sliced spring onions, and cook a little more.

Bring the broth to the boil, and drop the dumplings in, simmer for two minutes, and serve broth and dumplings poured over the fried veg.

This dish was really tasty - the broth was amazing. It didn't survive longer though, so eat it all immediately! It sort of went mushy and gross after a day.

But those dumplings - NOM. Highly recommended, even though it's a bit fiddly.