Dumpling is a broad classification for a dish that consists of pieces of dough (made from a variety of starch sources) wrapped around a filling, or of dough with no filling. The dough can be based on bread, flour or potatoes, and may be filled with meat, fish, cheese, vegetables, fruits or sweets. Dumplings may be prepared using a variety of methods, including baking, boiling, frying, simmering or steaming and are found in many world cuisines.
South Africa has another kind of dumpling known as melkkos. These dumplings are formed by putting milk, one teaspoon at a time, into a dry flour mixture. The flour clings to the milk and forms dumplings, which are then boiled in a mixture of milk and butter. They are served hot and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar.
Chuchvara is a very small boiled dumpling typical of Uzbek and Tajik cuisine. Made of unleavened dough squares filled with meat, it is similar to the Russian pelmeni and the Chinese wonton, but in observance of the Islamic dietary rules, the meat filling is without pork. Chuchvara can be served in a clear soup or on their own, with vinegar or sauce based on finely chopped greens, tomatoes and hot peppers. Another popular way of serving chuchvara is topped with suzma (strained qatiq) or with smetana (sour cream), Russian-style.
In Barbados, dumplings differ from those in other Caribbean islands in that they are slightly sweetened. The dumplings may either be of the flour or cornmeal variety. The dough is flavoured with spices, cinnamon and nutmeg. Dumplings are often added with Bajan soup where they are boiled. When found in Stew food, the dumplings are steamed along with ground provision, salted meat, plantain and other ingredients which is served with gravy.
"Papas Rellenas" or stuffed potatoes consist of a handful of mashed potatoes (without the milk and butter) flattened in the palm of the hand and stuffed with a savoury combination of ingredients. The stuffing usually consists of sauteed meat (could be beef, pork or chicken), onions and garlic. They are all seasoned with cumin, aji, raisins, peanuts, olives and sliced or chopped hard boiled eggs. After stuffing a ball is formed, rolled over flour and deep fried in hot oil. The stuffed potatoes are usually accompanied by onion sauce consisting of sliced onions, lime juice, olive oil, salt, pepper and slices of fresh peppers. The same dish may also be made with seafood. In some countries, yuca puree is used as the starch component of these Latin American dumplings.
Ravioli and tortellini fit the basic definition of a dumpling: these are pockets of pasta enclosing various fillings (cheese, mushrooms, spinach, seafood, or meat). Instead of being made from a ball of dough, the dough is rolled flat, cut into a shape, filled with other ingredients, and then the dough is closed around the filling.
In Swedish cuisine, potato dumplings of originally German origin have several regional names, mainly depending on the type of flour used. When the potato is mixed with wheat flour, which is more common in southern Sweden, it is called kroppkaka. In Blekinge and parts of the island of Oland, it is traditionally made from grated raw potato, which makes it greyish in colour, while on Gotland and in Smaland it is predominantly made from mashed boiled potato, and is thus whiter in colour. The kroppkaka is usually filled with diced, smoked bacon and chopped, raw onion, and is often spiced with allspice.
A variant of palt is blodpalt, where pig, beef or reindeer blood is mixed into the dough. Other palt variants are leverpalt, with minced liver added to the dough, and njurpalt, with diced kidney mixed into the bacon filling. Blodpalt also existed across the country originally, and has been found in Iron Age graves in Halland.