At the word "dumplings" the first thought arises about a meat dish. And many people are sure: if the filling is made from fish or vegetables, you will already get dumplings. But the main difference between dumplings is that raw ingredients are always wrapped in the dough, and pre-cooked in dumplings. So dumplings may well be fish, potato, and cabbage. And a hundred years ago in the best Moscow taverns one could taste even their fruity version.
Traditions
Almost all peoples of the world have dumplings or similar things to them, they are especially popular in the northern lands. After all, it is so convenient to preserve raw meat in the dough and remove it and store it out in the cold. The flour casing prevented the meaty smell from penetrating outside, reducing the risk of plundering supplies by animals. And you could get a hearty dish at any time. Since in the old days it was satiety that was one of the key parameters of food, meat mixed with lard was put in dumplings. True, in those areas where it was easier to get food in the water than to kill a moose or a bear, fish fillets became a common filling for dumplings. Siberians who lived near large rivers invented dumplings with sturgeon and nelma; near Lake Baikal, this dish is prepared with omul and grayling. In the Far East, they adopted Japanese and Chinese traditions and put seafood in the filling. As a hearty filler for dumplings, you can use minced meat from fillets of herring, hake, halibut, cod, salmon, pink salmon, chum salmon, etc.
In most of Russia, the preparation of dumplings was influenced by the need to fast for Orthodox people. This is how lean dumplings appeared. Most often, raw grated potatoes mixed with onions were used in the filling. Instead, they could also use mushrooms, adding various cereals to them. In this case, the dish was already closer to Ukrainian dumplings, but retained its traditional shape. Dumplings in fasting were also stuffed with raw or sauerkraut,
Exotic
The idea of lean dumplings is now adopted by vegetarians. They replace meat in the filling not only with potatoes and mushrooms, but also with spinach, radish, beans, chickpeas, carrots, zucchini, cheese, kohlrabi, etc. True, legumes have to be boiled and mashed before sculpting. If desired, even such food can be given the desired meaty spirit - just add a little onion fried in unrefined oil to the filling.
But in America, Russian emigrants invented the most expensive dumplings in the world. They also have a non-standard filling - mixed fish and meat, and the glands of the torch fish are added to the dough, so that in the dark the dish glows slightly. True, this option is far from the dumplings from the travel legends of Marco Polo. It is said that in China he was lucky enough to try dumplings stuffed with ice crumbs. However, today's housewives are able to surprise guests by making not just sweet dumplings, but also placing chocolate inside. If you melt it first, then mix it with heavy cream in a 2: 1 ratio and cool until it thickens, it will not have time to melt during cooking.
