Remember last week when I asked you about drinkable chocolates? Well, I ended up getting over two hundred responses. So many responses that trying to consolidate them into a semi-coherent list has been quite a challenge. Many of you expressed interest in hearing the other responses I received. Below are the names of the drinkable chocolate products that you mentioned again and again, with a sprinkling of highlighted comments.

This is by no means intended to be the definitive post on or about drinking chocolates. I haven't even had a chance to sample all of these....yet. It is a taste of the responses you sent in. Chocolate, like wine, olives, etc, is a rich area of interest - complex, and steeped in history. My recent readings on the chocolate front include: Mort Rosenblum's Chocolate: A Bittersweet Saga of Light and Dark, The Great Book of Chocolate by David Lebovitz, La Maison du Chocolate by Robert Linxe. Also, Nigel Slater on his darkest desires (thanks Ian). Just the very tip of the iceberg.

One of the questions I still have...What is the advantage of using a drinkable chocolate product over shaving your favorite premium bar into a cup with a splash of hot milk? Convenience and less mess? The packaging on many of these products are fancy and beautiful (making for nice gifts), and many of the fancy flavor infusions are tasty...what else?

Some are confused about the difference between hot cocoa and drinking chocolates. One of my Seattle-based readers kindly offered up this well articulated explanation for the difference between cocoa and drinking chocolates:"Cocoa is derived from chocolate liquor - the professional term for unsweetened baking chocolate. Cocoa powder is chocolate liquor that has been pressed to remove half to three-quarters of its fat and then pulverized. A hydraulic press, designed by the Dutchman C. J. Van Houten in the 19th century, removes fat while leaving solids behind. Cocoa has a strong chocolate flavor and is easy to incorporate into other ingredients." Cocoa will give you difference texture, taste, and mouth feel.

Here is the list, in alphabetical order....I have a feeling the comments area on this post is going to be an absolute free for all. Enjoy, and drink in moderation ;) -h

Angelina's
Mixed reviews on the legendary Angelina's hot chocolate in/from Paris. One of my globe-trotting friends suggested that Angelina's is no longer the "it" chocolate chaud destination that it once was - and hinted that a sprinkling of others had taken its place.

J.S. exclaimed it was the best hot chocolate in the world, and F.V. emailed this Angelina experience,"...someone told me about a cafe on the Rue de Rivoli, right across from the Tuileries/Louvre called Angelina. The few people I talked with about it (locals and visitors alike) emphatically claimed they served the "best" drinking chocolate. Of course, I had to check it out for myself. It was sort of a touristy place. I wasn't able to stay to try the chocolate there, but I did buy some of their instant mix that was reported to be just as good as having it in the cafe. The mix itself was surprisingly pretty good, slightly sweeter than I like it, but notably rich and creamy for coming from a mix that you add to water (...skeptical at first, because chocolate mix plus water equals Swiss Miss without the crispy marshmallows, to me). The interesting thing about their product is that it has the milk mixed in already....seems like the finer drinking chocolates rely on fresh milk to be added to the mix. Anyway, Angelina calls their mix "granulated," if I remember correctly, as opposed to "powdered" because it actually comes in a fine pellet form, almost like chocolate sprinkles. The instructions to make it direct you to whisk the granules into hot water over a flame, then to bring it back to a boil. The bringing-it-back-to-a-boil part makes a huge difference - it makes the drink very, very creamy and frothy. I was lazy once and thought I could make the mix in the microwave, without the additional boiling, and it came out as flat as the conventional mass produced hot chocolate powders like Swiss Miss." F.V.

One more, "I know Angelina in Paris is known for their African hot chocolate and apparently, there's a cafe in downtown Napa that makes it. I couldn't bring myself to pay the $7 for it last week, otherwise, I would have tried it." L.T. Northern California

Chuao Chocolatier
"It is a powder, but with large chunks of chocolate that get so smooth and gooey. They have a version called Spicy Maya that has a great bite, but I more often turn to their plain Abula version. Because there's a little powdered milk in the mix, this is best made with water - and I use quite a generous amount of the mix (about 1/3 of whatever cup I'm drinking from)." R.N.G.

Dagoba
All organic, all natural. Dagoba seems to be a darling....lots of people wrote in citing sustainable practices and delicious products as reasons they buy. "We love his tasty chocolate drinks -all made from organic chocolate. You definitely need to try this one." B.D.

"Dagoba's Organic chocolate mixes are my favorite, very dark and rich." F.V.

Green & Black's
A little different in their approach, G&B mix chocolate with cane sugar and cocoa derived from the same beans for their mix. You said, "At first I bought the products because they were fair-trade and organic, now I buy it purely for the taste!" C.L.

Jaques Torres
Dessert Circus! Whenever that show came on PBS I was always watched - chocolate balloons, lollipops, and clown noses -oh my! Jaques offers up 2 flavors drinkable chocolate - straight, and a spiced up version that features allspice, cinnamon, ground sweet ancho chili peppers, and smoked ground chipolte chili peppers.

L.A. Burdick
Their site says pure shaved chocolate, but I'm not sure what kind of chocolate exactly. Quite a few of you listed L.A. Burdick as a favorite, citing, "rich, intense, drinking chocolate."

MarieBelle
The ladies like MarieBelle. Chalk it up to impeccably cute packaging and a tasty product. I've had the MarieBelle Aztec Hot Chocolate - their most popular flavor. It is medium dark, on the sweet side, and made with high quality Venezuelan cacao beans coming in with a cacao content of 63%. P.C. adds, "If you prepare the Aztec Hot Chocolate and chill it, it becomes pudding!"

Max Brenner
My pals down under rave about Max, the bald Israeli. He has popular chocolate cafes in Australia (and other locations?), and his hot chocolate is available for purchase online with other inventive hot chocolate products like cute little tea light heated cups with metal straws keep you chocolate melty and warm. Available for purchase here.

Mayordomo
I had a cup of Mayordomo Mexican Hot Chocolate from Oaxaca a couple weeks back and it was delicious, the problem is I forgot to ask what variety of Mayordomo was used - tablets, choco classic, canela, etc. So I am going to have to try them all. In general it seemed smoother (less gritty) and milder than the Ibarra I've tasted in the past. There is a great Mexican Chocolate Pudding recipe in Nick Malgieri's Chocolate book to try if you are a Mexican chocolate fan.

National de Chocolates (link broken)
With a higher cocoa to sugar ratio than some of the Mexican brands, many of you wrote to me about this Colombian chocolate. I haven't tried it yet, but it also seems to have some fans on this eGullet hot chocolate thread as well.

Poulain
A lone voice singing the praises of Poulain sent me the above link.

Recchiuti
Sounds like Michael may offer a drinkable chocolate product of some sort available later this year.

Scharffen Berger
No big surprise, many of you liked one of my personal hometown favorites, Scharffen Berger. Not too sweet, thick, and rich. Highly recommend trying this one.

Schokinag
Many people wrote to me recommending Schokinag. I enjoyed their 'Extreme Dark' (79%) quite a bit when I tried it at the Fancy Food Show earlier this year. I found a few of the other novelty flavors way too sweet for my tastes - especially the Dulce De Leche (not really drinkable chocolate, but part of their drinkable chocolate line nonetheless)....Give the Extreme Dark a taste. Rich, dark, smooth, all natural, GMO Free.

Valor
"I was able to keep my children moving from one historical site to another on a trip to Spain last summer by bribing them with hot chocolate stops along the way. This chocolate is unbelievably rich, velvety, and so thick, you can almost stand a spoon up in it. It has the added advantage of being relatively easy to find and very easy to make (it has both Spanish and English instructions on the label)--just heat your milk and whisk in until melted. It thickens as you let it sit off-heat for a few minutes." B.A.

"My husband and I just returned from Madrid where, as you may know, a common breakfast food is churros with chocolate. You dip the delectable churros into the thickest, most amazing hot chocolate I've ever tasted. A little bit of heaven every morning! (I'm attaching a picture, in case you're interested.) Anyway, right behind our hotel was a Valor chocolate shop, and that is where we ate every morning." J.W.

"Valor Chocolate a la Taza (in tablet form): Heated with milk (a splash of cream doesn't hurt either!) until the starch thickens it to almost spoonable consistency.

Vosges Haut Chocolat
For you infused chocolate fans. I'm not sure if this is chocolate or cocoa - they call it cocoa. T.S. says,"Outrageously expensive, but I am addicted to the Red Fire bar. This is the exquisite Red Fire in drinkable form.You can order it over the internet, so it's shippable if you don't
mind spending your kid's college tuition fund in the process."

Zingerman's

Dark Spanish drinking chocolate. I haven't tried this one yet, but lots of you mailed me raving about it.

Techniques and other information you sent:

"I had dinner with friends recently, and they pulled out their "cocomotion" hot chocolate machine. If you haven't seen it, it's like a slow-speed blender that gradually emulsifies the milk and the chocolate, heating it up to the right temperature. It takes longer than heating the milk on the stove, but I will say that it made perfectly blended, smooth-as-silk hot chocolate. I am a true believer now." A.M. - Washington D.C.

"I wanted to point you to a book you might enjoy, a chunk of which deals with chocolate in its original form. The book is called 'America's First Cuisines,' by Sophie Coe. Coe discusses the major foods and preparation techniques of the Aztecs, Maya, and Inca indigenous people. And, as I said before, she's got a great section on chocolate, full of wonderful quotes from primary sources... it's really good. And it's also very well written. I highly recommend it." D.N. - Berkeley.

"Best drinkable chocolate? Couverture. No doubt about it. Skip the 'hot chocolate mixes'. Melt couverture at no more than 80 degrees C. Stir it into a paste and keep adding water and milk (you'd be surprised, but more water than milk..just my opinion, tho). Let it rest. It becomes thicker and 'smooth' that way. I don't know if you prefer 'pure' chocolate flavor only, but sometimes chocolate tastes better with other flavors. Cayenne pepper powder can be surprisingly delish. Mint,orange etc are traditional. But there are other unusual combinations too. Lavender, wasbai, curry powder, pepper, sweet paprika, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves..you name it, it can be done." F.B.

One of the first things you notice as you start browsing local markets in places like Merida or Mexico City is that many of the stalls are punctuated with big, baskets overflowing with the dried maroon petals of the jamaica flower (also known as hibiscus). If nothing else on this trip, I learned how to properly pronounce jamaica - in reference to the flower, not the country. It is ha-MIKE-uh in Spanish. If store clerks are looking at you funny in the states when you ask for it, try asking for dried hibiscus. You can usually find it near the loose teas, or nestled in with bulk herbs and spices in natural food stores. I usually get mine at Rainbow Foods in San Francisco. For those of you who have more limited options in your communities you can always mail order it here or here.

Dried jamaica flowers create one of the most beautiful and delicious infusions you can imagine. In restaurants, people can't help but crane their necks as trays filled with icy tall glasses of Agua de Jamaica make their way towards lucky recipients. In the case of the jamaica flower, the flavor is as engaging as the visual. Well-chilled and served over ice, the jewel-like ruby red juice brims with the tangy sweetness of the dried petals and sugar - add a kiss of lime and you have the perfect late afternoon refresher.

Making this iced tea is easy, easy, easy. It is a must for your next BBQ or pool party - people are always delighted when they get to try anything made with jamaica flowers. Once you find a source for dried petals you are halfway there. Creating the actual tea doesn't take more than ten minutes of active cooking time, after that you are just waiting for the tea to cool.

I am sold on the taste alone, but it is also believed (in many cultures) that jamaica/hibiscus packs a bounty of healthful properties. It is rich in vitamin C, and has been widely used as an herbal method of controlling high blood pressure, tempering fevers, alleviating digestive problems, as well as improving circulatory disorders. So enjoy it on this front as well.

Other ideas: use the petals to infuse granitas, sherbets and sorbets. I've also used the petals to flavor margaritas. Popsicles! I also want to try making it into a jelly at some point.

Jamaica Flower Iced Tea Recipe
(Agua de Jamaica)

4 cups water
1/2 cup dried jamaica flowers
1/2 cup sugar (I used natural cane sugar this time around)
Another 3 cups of cold water
More sugar to taste
1 lime, thinly sliced

If you prefer, you can sweeten with any natural sweetener of your choice including honey in place of granulated sugar).

First off, pick out a pot that won't stain. Hibiscus has the potential to stain just about anything it comes in contact with including your countertop, cookware, wooden spoons, favorite jeans, etc. So keep this in mind.

Bring the 4 cups of water to a boil. Remove water from heat and add the dried flowers and sugar. Place a lid over the pot and steep for 10 minutes, stirring once or twice along the way to break down the sugar granules.

Pour the infusion through a strainer into a pitcher or jug (this is usually where something gets stained). You are going to want to add about 3 more cups of cold water to the pitcher. Taste and adjust based on your personal preference. You can add a bit more sugar if you think you need it, or more water if you feel like the jamaica is too overpowering. This is usually just about right for my taste. I don't like the sugar to overpower the refreshing natural tartness of the jamaica flower.

Cool completely and serve with plenty of ice in glasses garnished with a slice of lime.

This Irish Coffee recipe was inspired by a weekend trip to Lake Tahoe. Friday morning I stepped out my front door and hopped into a rented SUV. I’m used to driving a spunky, small, city car, so driving a large lumbering 4x4 is a bit of a challenge for me. Nevertheless, I pumped the beast to the brim with $60 dollars worth of unleaded and headed north-east for a weekend in the snow. Although the cabin we stayed at came fully-furnished, it didn't come with the things that make a cabin a home for the weekend. The SUV served as transport for many things required for a long (and comfortable) weekend in snow-packed Lake Tahoe. Things like:

- snow shoes I’ve had since I was 16
- my favorite skillet and metal spatula
- micro-plane grater
- sea salt
- 900 layers of clothes
- good olive oil
- trusty camera
- favorite chapstick
- cozy socks
- music
- someone to cuddle with

So, off we went - 191 miles door-to-door. Across the breadth of the Golden State, across two bridges, through the San Joaquin Valley, up, up, up the snow-capped Sierras and down into the Tahoe Basin – all under crisp, blue skies.

Emerald Bay, Lake Tahoe from the highway

A few hours after we arrived, a few of us drove around the lake to Emerald Bay. We parked the car in a lot just off the highway, and then slipped and slid our way down the mile-long, snow-packed trail to lake level where we poked around a shuttered and deserted Vikingsholm. We used to drive our boat onto the beach at Emerald Bay in the summer and tour the mansion as kids – but this is the first time I’ve visited in the winter and it has a completely different feel. You've got this big, heavy, stone house in a deep, quiet slumber waiting for warm weather and vibrant people to come later in the spring and bring it out of its deep sleep.

Hand carved font: detail of a trail map

Over the holidays I received a cute little collection of cold-weather drink recipes assembled in a tiny volume titled Some Like it Hot. It’s filled with the kind of drinks that warm you from the inside out after a long day on the slopes. I had my heart set on making their version Irish Coffee – if you’ve ever had Irish coffee you know why. You get a jolt of deep coffee flavor infused with the sugar-kissed alcohol-powered hotness of whiskey, sipped through a smooth, soothing layer of cream. Need I say more? I did a practice run before making them for my friends, but then in the flurry of activity that happens in a cabin kitchen trying to feed twelve people I somehow got distracted and forgot to make the drinks altogether. So, while my friends missed out – hopefully you won’t. This might be the best pick-me-up cold-weather apres ski drink ever. If it doesn’t look up your alley, flip through the rest of the book, there are dozens of other cozy-sounding drinks as well.

Tree graffiti from a distance

Kiss Me I’m Irish Coffee Recipe

For each drink:
2 teaspoons sugar
1 1/2 ounces Irish whiskey
2/3 cup freshly brewed strong black coffee
1 tablespoon heavy whipping cream

Combine the sugar whiskey, and coffee in an Irish coffee glass. In a small bowl, lightly whisk the cream until slightly frothy. Gently pour the cream onto the back of a spoon resting on the surface of the coffee, so that it floats on top of the coffee. Serve without stirring.

Hot hint: Getting the cream to float on top of an Irish coffee may require a little luck of the Irish. To ensure success, don’t omit the sugar, even if you don’t typically take it in your coffee, and remember not to stir in the cream, as the secret to experiencing the true flavor of an Irish coffee is sipping through the floating cream.

I was waiting for the perfect day to give this blackberry limeade recipe a try. Time and again, bundled in blankets on fog shrouded San Francisco afternoons, I'd whine to Wayne that we should move somewhere with a proper summer. Visions of my hand wrapped around a frosty glass of a jeweled-toned refresher like this occupied a disproportionate amount of my daydreams. No more. With temperatures roaring well past 90 degrees in San Francisco on Friday, I got my perfect summer day - and with a bit of help from Martha Hall Foose (executive chef of the Viking Cooking School), I took full advantage. The recipe is from her eloquently written new cookbook, Screen Doors and Sweet Tea: Recipes and Tales from a Southern Cook.

Cookbooks writers and enthusiasts listen up - Martha is a master of the head note. Hers are some of the most alluring, informative, and transporting lead-ins to recipes I've read. This one precedes the recipe for Cantaloupe Daiquiris...

The hottest I have ever been in my life was at 5:45 P.M., on August 29, 1998, on the no. 923 St. Charles Avenue streetcar in New Orleans. I had been working down in the French Quarter as a pastry chef for Susan Spicer's Bayona. Some days the unique commute felt like the scene in a movie. After rattling down the boulevards, and immediately upon entering our uptown digs, I stripped down and stood in the shower with only cold water running. I could almost hear the sizzle on contact. I really felt as if I had been braised.

The courtyards of New Orleans offer a haven from the heat. Shaded and mossy, planted with sweet-smelling Confederate Jasmine, they're like Mrs. Venable's arboretum in Suddenly Last Summer. She had her trusty secretary deliver a daiquiri every day at five. The musky sweetness of the melon, married to the brightness of the basil and mint, suspended in an icy slurry, will cool an afternoon down to the slow simmer of twilight.

I'd be willing to bet you'd like to try that recipe as well. And that's how it goes with this book - the author skillfully unveiling glimpses of her life (and love) of the South through a lovely collection of recipes.

I know many of you come to my site for inspiration on the natural foods/veg-friendly fronts, so just be aware that this isn't really that kind of book. This is Southern cookbook with all the deep-fried, shortening-packed delicacies you can imagine. Lots of meat, plenty of seafood-based recipes. That being said, there are many great ideas that are easily adaptable. For example, there's a black-eyed pea cake that (minus the bacon) looks like a fresh twist on a veggie burger, a frozen cucumber salad that sounds fascinating, and multiple rice salads that could easily be done with any number of whole grains (or whole grain rice). Plenty to be inspired by.

One of the things I loved about the blackberry limeade recipe was Martha's use of raw sugar - it lends deep, complex level of sweetness that you just don't get with white sugar. It bridges the blackberries, lime, and cardamom wonderfully.

Blackberry Limeade Recipe

Martha's recipe calls for ginger ale as the mixer (delicious!). I don't drink much soda of any sort - it's just too sweet for me, so I did a second batch with sparkling water as the mixer- great for those of you avoiding soft drinks. For some it might make sense to keep the components separate (instead of combining everything in one pitcher - making it easy to mix each drink to order. This way each person can control their own level of flavor/sweetness. Martha also includes a side bar of helpful notes related to this recipe - berries can be pulsed briefly in a food processor and strained. Be careful not to crush the seeds, as this adds a dirty taste to the blackberries. You can freeze blackberries in ice cubes for a nice accessory to the drink. The sugar syrup can be transferred to a metal mixing bowl set in a bowl of ice to cool it down quickly. For a wonderful frozen cocktail, puree ice and a jigger of gin with the blackberry-lime mixture in a blender.

4 cups fresh blackberries, or unsweetened frozen blackberries, thawed, plus extra for garnish

1 cup turbinado sugar, natural cane sugar, or grated palm sugar
1 kaffir lime leaf, crushed, or 1 tablespoon grated lime zest
1 green cardamom pod, lightly crushed
1/2 cup fresh Key lime juice (about 8 -12 limes)
Thin lime slices, for garnish
2 cups ginger ale (hs note: or sparkling water)
Ice cubes

Lay a doubled piece of cheesecloth on a nonporous work area. (As the berries will stain a wide array of cutting surfaces and clothes, this may be best done outside or over newspaper and wearing an apron or smock.) Place the blackberries on top of the cheesecloth and gather into a bundle like a hobo sack. Hold the sack of berries over a glass, stainless steel, plastic, or ceramic bowl. Twist the top of the sack to squeeze the juice from the berries into the receptacle. (This will yield about 1 cup very strong, tart, dark juice.) Refrigerate the juice until needed; discard the purple mash.

In a small saucepan, combine the sugar, 1 cup water, the lime leaf, and the cardamom pod. bring to a boil. Simmer over low heat for 10 minutes, or until the mixture is reduced to a thin syrup. Remove the lime leaf and cardamom. Allow the sugar syrup to cool and then chill it.

In a 1-quart pitcher, combine the blackberry juice, sugar syrup, and lime juice. Stir to combine and then refrigerate until cold.

To serve, stir the ginger ale (or water) into the pitcher, fill glasses with ice, and pour in the blackberry limeade. Garnish with slices of lime.

Serves 8.

Excerpted with permission from Screen Doors and Sweet Tea by Martha Hall Foose (Clarkson Potter, a division of Random House, Inc. 2008)

Today I'm going to try to encourage you to make your own crackers. It's not that difficult or fussy, and the results are infectiously satisfying. What kind of cracker? The cracker recipe I'm featuring today makes thin, snappy, rustic crackers. Though they are sturdy enough to stand up to a hearty dip. The technique is simple and straightforward (utilizing just a few ingredients) and the dough is a welcoming canvas to all manner of seeds, salts, cheeses, spices, or flavored oils that you might want to use as accents. The crackers are fantastically adaptable in this regard. For those of you intimidated by baking with yeast, no worries, I don't use any here.

You can make these crackers just about any shape you like. You can cut them into wide strips, thin ribbons, precise squares - or simply bake them off in big sheets. They go nicely with the artichoke dip I featured last week. I suspect they'd also be great crumbled over this Caesar salad, or diving deep into Rachel's midnight hummus over on Mighty Foods.

I'm going to list of a bunch of suggested toppings in the head notes of the recipe, but I'd love to hear your suggestions as well. Someone always comes up with a brilliant idea or approach that never would've dawned on me. I think I want to do the next batch topped with lemon zest, poppy seeds, black pepper, and Parmesan...but I suspect I could be persuaded to go a different route ;)...

Update 10/08: Lauren posted a gluten-free version of these crackers on her site.

Olive Oil Cracker Recipe

If you have trouble tracking down semolina flour, just substitute white whole wheat flour (or all-purpose flour), it will be make a slightly different cracker but should still work. To get creative with your crackers you can top them with lots of things before baking: freshly grated cheese, artisan salts, cornmeal, a dusting of your favorite spice blend, seeds, or a wash of your favorite flavored or infused oil. You can simply cut the unbaked cracker dough into various shapes using one of those pizza cutting wheels.

1 1/2 cups semolina flour
1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour (or all-purpose flour)
1 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
1 cup warm water
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

special equipment: pasta machine (optional)

Whisk together the flours and salt. Add the water and olive oil. Using a mixer with a dough hook attachment mix the dough at medium speed for about 5 - 7 minutes. Alternately, feel free to mix and then knead by hand on a floured counter-top. The dough should be just a bit tacky - not too dry, not too sticky to work with. If you need to add a bit more water (or flour) do so.

When you are done mixing, shape the dough into a large ball. Now cut into twelve equal-sized pieces. Gently rub each piece with a bit of olive oil, shape into a small ball and place on a plate. Cover with a clean dishtowel or plastic wrap and let rest at room temperature for 30 - 60 minutes.

While the dough is resting, preheat your oven to 450F degrees. Insert a pizza stone if you have one.

When the dough is done resting, flatten one dough ball. Using a rolling pin or a pasta machine, shape into a flat strip of dough - I can usually get down to the 4 setting on my pasta machine w/o trouble. Pull the dough out a bit thinner by hand (the way you might pull pizza dough). You can also cut the dough into whatever shape you like at this point. Set dough on a floured (or cornmeal dusted) baking sheet, poke each cracker with the tines of a fork to prevent puffing, add any extra toppings, and slide into the oven (onto the pizza stone). Repeat the process for the remaining dough balls, baking in small batches. If you don't have a pizza stone, bake crackers a few at a time on baking sheets. Bake until deeply golden, and let cool before eating - you will get more crackery snap.

Makes a dozen extra large crackers.

Back in the late 1990s, my friend Beatrice had a tradition of hosting dumpling parties. She'd make a few fillings ahead of time and then a bunch of us would spend the afternoon sitting around stuffing, folding, sealing, pinching, steaming, chatting and eventually eating. If you've never tried making your own dumplings you might consider the whole process a bit fussy, but the next time you have a bit of extra time on your hands, and/or a few nimble-fingered helpers, consider giving it a try. The filling for these particular dumplings is bright and light, focusing on the peas as the central flavor. That being said, the lemon zest is the magic ingredient that sets everything off. It permeates the pea and ricotta puree punctuating each bite like a bolt of sunshine. Dumplings are often served with a dipping sauce, but I found that all these needed were a thin drizzle of olive oil and a few grains of salt.

I'll warn you in advance, some people are natural dumpling darlings - able to crank out row after row of identical pillows. Others? Not so much. You'll quickly discover which camp you fall into. Either way, here are a few tips (I've learned the hard way) that might be helpful:

- Keep wrappers covered, they dry out quickly becoming brittle and impossible to work with.

- Exercise restraint when filling your dumplings - they key is to avoid overfilling. Also, ease out any air pockets before sealing - they expand when heated and will cause problems.

- When stuffing and folding dumplings use an assembly line method. Line counter with a dozen wrappers, drop filling onto each, seal and fold each. Instead of doing one at a time.

I cooked these two ways. You can see how the pan-fried version looks in the above shot, and they were de-licious. That being said, the steamed version were even more exceptional. The recipe below includes techniques for both.

- There are various ways cooks keep dumplings from sticking to a steamer. You might line the steamer with banana leaf, tamale leaf, or a large leaf of lettuce. I didn't have any of those on hand this time around so I kissed the back of each dumpling with a touch of olive oil (where the dumpling would touch the steamer), and hand no problem with sticking.

- You might not want to immediately steam every dumpling you make. That's ok, they freeze perfectly. To keep them from freezing together in a big clump, freeze dumplings for an hour flat on a parchment-lined baking sheet or plate. Now place them in a freezer bag. You can go straight from freezer to steamer.

Plump Pea Dumpling Recipe

Scan the notes in the original entry for more dumpling making tips, I've outlined 4 or 5 important ones there. Also, the instructions here are for steaming the dumplings, but I also had success pan-frying them in just enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the skillet. Cover and cook in a single layer until the bottoms are deeply golden, flip using a metal spatula, cover and cook until the other side is browned.

2 cups (about 10 ounces) cups peas (freshly shelled or frozen)
2/3 cup ricotta cheese
2 tablespoons olive oil
scant 1/2 tea spoon fine grain sea salt
1 small shallot, minced
1/3 cup grated Parmesan
zest of one large lemon

1 package of wonton wrappers, or round wrappers

special equipment: bamboo steamer (or see head notes for alternative cooking method)

Bring a medium saucepan of water to a boil. Salt the water (as you would pasta water) and add the peas. Cook until bright green in color and puffy, about a minute if the peas were frozen, less if you started with fresh ones.
Drain the peas and run under cold water for one minute to stop the cooking.

With a food processor (or hand blender) blend the peas, ricotta cheese, olive oil, and salt into a puree. I like a bit of texture, so I don't go too far. Return the mixture to a big bowl and stir in the shallots, Parmesan, and lemon zest. Taste. Add more salt if needed.

Fill the dumplings using an assembly line technique - a dozen at a time (for the most part following the instructions on the wrapper packaging). Place twelve wrappers out on the counter, drop a very scant teaspoon of filling onto each wrapper, rub the perimeter of each wrapper with a wet finger seal, fold (most packages have diagrams), and set aside on a plate. Do the next dozen and repeat until all the filling is used up.

Set up your steamer, rub each dumpling with a bit of olive oil, arrange the dumplings in a single layer (being careful not to overlap), and steam for about three minutes - until the dumplings are tender and transluscent. Sprinkle with a touch of salt and enjoy.

Makes about 4 dozen dumplings.