I woke up early today and decided to clean the refrigerator. It could be argued that there are far better ways to spend a day-off than hunch and scrub cold surfaces off white, crumbly things which I can only hope are cheese curds, but cleaning is the only way I can take stock of what I’ve been buying. And true enough, I just discovered that we have three opened jars of mustard, 14 different kinds of cheese in various stages of freshness and decay, and dog ice cream. Someone has been buying various brands of dog ice cream that has started to occupy valuable real estate in my freezer.

It’s a cold day today so I thought of making some sort of soup. I really want to try making xiaolongbao (soup dumpling) but I’m too lazy. It takes a lot of time and skill. And if you’ve been scrubbing for almost an hour, those kind of dishes are a no-go. So I decided to make shrimp dumpling soup. The fact that I discovered that i have 3 bags of shrimps in the freezer may or may not have come into play in making that decision.

To make the dumpling, simply wrap a shrimp with some chopped ginger. I don’t do fancy wraps, i just want to make sure it won’t open up . One pound of shrimp should be enough for a family f 2-4.

For the broth, boil the shrimp heads and carcass in a cup of water for about 5 minutes drain, set aside. Chop some onions and ginger. Boil about 3 cups of chicken broth then add the onions and ginger. when boiled add the shrimp broth.

Add the dumpling one by one, slowly, without crowding. Stir gently and cook for about 4 minutes. Take picture. Enjoy.

Easy. Simple. One less bag of shrimp crowding my freezer. More room for dog ice cream. #winning