sweet dumplings

I'm going to start off by saying that I was really wary of this idea at first because it involves frying. I don't like it, and I try to avoid it whenever possible. I've done a little shallow frying with mixed results and I think those experiences are good enough for me to cross frying off my list.

I've come to terms with it. I'm not good at frying. It's better I'm not, anyway. Otherwise, I'd probably be making donuts every month.

But Idle Husband kept seeing this stupid box of dumplings. And I kept reading the directions: Mix this dough, fry it in some oil, pour on some sugar.

And I would whine about the frying and the sugar and the frying of bread dough and the frying. And eventually, I'd get my way and he'd put it back.

Until one afternoon, he refused.

He'd make them for me. I wouldn't have to do any mixing or frying or sugaring, he'd do it all. Just please let him have some dumplings.

So I reluctantly agreed.

 

And throughout the whole process, I moaned about the frying and I complained about the oil and worried about him burning himself, because for some reason, Idle Husband doesn't compute that when things come out of the oven, they are hot.

 

And then we got to the frying and he read the directions carefully, patiently heating the oil to the right temperature.

And as he dropped spoonfuls of batter into the hot oil, it didn't splatter all over the place and smoke up the whole house. (Is that the trick to it?)

He tried to get them round like the picture on the box, but he ended up dropping them in dollups instead. Sure; they kind of look like chicken nuggets, but the objective wasn't esthetics. It was to get them crispy and golden and perfect. And that they were.

So I ate my slice of humble pie (or nugget of fried dough) and apologized for having absolutely no faith in his frying abilities and for doubting him at all.

Overall, the box looks shifty, but it's really quite easy to make and the dumplings turn out really pretty delicious, though I credit that entirely to the sugar syrup. Without it, the dough will taste exactly like nothing and then what's even the point to eating fried dough in the first place?

Idle Husband declared that they were exactly as he remembered them tasting in Greece when his mom would make them. So if you want to experience an authentic Greek dumpling, this is the mix for you. You can find Domo Dumpling Mix [probably] at any middle eastern supermarket. We happened to get ours at Al Salam Pita (aka Pita the Great), but I'm pretty sure I've seen it at Hellas foods, too.

{warning} This box makes a LOT of dumplings. We would have had even more had he shaped them into perfectly uniform balls (some of the dumplings could really have qualified as two) and had he actually finished frying all of the batter -- we decided to stop even though there was still a whole cup left to fry. If you want to finish it out, I would really suggest doubling the amount of syrup or do not let them sit in the syrup for 3 minutes (as suggested). He stopped frying them on account of low syrup (and gluttony). 

{fun post fact} Every time I had to type 'syrup', I typed it as 'syrump'