Red Curry Shrimp Dumplings & Green Vegetable Curry

Also on my theme week using Wonton Wrappers, I made Red Curry Shrimp Dumplings and equally as delicious Green Vegetable Curry with Coconut Milk over Jasmine Rice.  Both dishes packed a ton of flavor and I had a ton of fun creating Asian takeout style meals at home!

First, before I tell you about these recipes, I first want to tell you about my favorite Asian ingredients.  If you like eating this style of food, here are some ingredients I think you should always have on hand.  And yes, some of them are "cheat" ingredients (meaning they make your life much easier!)

I always have red and green curry paste.  One of my favorite ingredients!  I also always buy :90 second Uncle Ben's Microwavable Rice.  It's an awesome, easy product to have around!  And the squeeze ginger.... it lasts longer and I love it.

Okay back to the dumplings.  They take some prep work, but they are pretty simple to put together and cook.  And look how gorgeous they turn out!

Red Curry Shrimp Dumplings

Inspired by Martha Stewart

Ingredients:

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

3 tablespoons minced peeled fresh ginger (from a 2-inch piece) or 2 big squeezes of your ginger bottle

2 scallions, very thinly sliced

3/4 pound shrimp (peeled and deveined) (I bought mine pre cooked and already peeled and deveined- make it easy for yourself!)

4 teaspoons red curry paste

1 teaspoon fish sauce

24 wonton wrappers (from a 12-ounce package)

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

Instructions:

In a small skillet, heat 1 teaspoon vegetable oil over medium-high. Add 2 tablespoons ginger and scallions and cook, stirring, until scallions are slightly softened and mixture is fragrant, 2 minutes. Remove from heat. In a food processor, pulse shrimp until finely chopped. Add ginger mixture, curry paste, and fish sauce and pulse a few more times.

Place a spoonful of the shrimp mixture in the center of each wonton wrapper. With a wet finger, moisten edges of wrapper, then bring all 4 corners together, pinching at top to seal.  In a large nonstick skillet, heat 1 teaspoon vegetable oil over medium-high. Add dumplings, seam side up, and cook until golden brown on bottom, 1 minute. Carefully add 1/2 cup water to skillet, and cook until water is almost evaporated and dumplings are tender, 3 minutes. 

Continue to cook until water evaporates, 1 minute (reduce heat to medium if dumplings begin to overbrown). Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine 1 tablespoon ginger, soy sauce, and sesame oil. Serve dumplings with dipping sauce.

Quick, simple, beautiful and delicious.  Can't beat that.

And because I can't just have dumplings for dinner, I also made a Green Vegetable Curry.  I love curry dishes because curry paste mixed with coconut milk is one of my all time favorite combinations.  I could drink the broth ... not that I did or anything....ummm...

This dish mixed together a ton of vegetables, you can really use anything you have on hand.  It was another dish inspired by Martha Stewart.

Green Vegetable Curry

Ingredients:

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

3 tablespoons green curry paste

1/2 pound shiitake mushrooms, stems trimmed, halved if large (I used half shitake, half portabella)

Handful of Broccoli

4 heads baby bok choy sliced

1 red bell pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 can (13.5 ounces) unsweetened coconut milk

Cooked jasmine rice, for serving

Instructions

In a large skillet or wok, heat oil over medium-high. Add curry paste and cook, stirring, until fragrant, 30 seconds. Add mushrooms, broccoli, bok choy, and bell pepper and cook 5 minutes. 

Add coconut milk and bring to a boil. 

Reduce heat and cook at a rapid simmer until beans are crisp-tender, 8 to 10 minutes. Serve over rice and enjoy!

Both these dishes I will make again in different ways.  This was DEFINITELY a favorite of the week.

Curious what else I made using Wonton Wrappers?

Cara's Baked Salmon Rangoon with Apple.  Combining salmon, goat cheese, sesame oil, ginger and apples... I wasn't quite sure what to expect.  But they were quite good.  I was really impressed!

 Emily's Turkey Ravioli with Spinach Cream Sauce. Only I used swiss chard because I didn't have spinach and ground chicken instead of turkey.  I don't think this dish was quite as pretty as the others, but wow did it have a ton of flavor.  I loved every bite and I enjoyed it even more the next day! I mean c'mon, spinach cream sauce?  How could it be bad!  One other big thing I changed was I added cream cheese AND boursin cheese in the filling.

I also made a sweet dish- Mini Pumpkin Pies! I got this recipe from Dashing Dish and I really didn't change much.  I can totally see myself making these again for parties!

So there you have it.  My week in Wonton Wrappers.  By the end, my husband was definitely sick of eating bite size meals but I know he enjoyed it.  I do love theme weeks!  If you're going to buy the ingredient, why not use it in a variety of different ways, especially when they give you so much in each package : )

What is the best meal you've made with Wonton Wrappers?