Dutch Oven Dumpling Rice
Jasmine rice cooked in coconut milk with frozen gyoza steamed on top, all in one pot over coals.
- calories
- 700
- weight
- 9 oz
- cal / oz
- 78
- protein
- 18 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 45 min
- total time
- 55 min
- water
- 300 ml cold
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Jasmine rice | 2 cups | rinse at home, carry dry |
|---|---|---|
| Coconut milk powder | 3/4 cup | reconstitutes to about 2 cups; cans work too but weigh more |
| Chicken bouillon | 1 cube | |
| Water | 300 ml | |
| Butter | 1 tbsp | |
| Salt | 1/2 tsp | |
| Frozen gyoza | 20 pieces | pork, chicken, or vegetable, whatever the store has |
| Dried cabbage or bok choy flakes | 1/2 cup | fresh bok choy if the cooler has room |
| Light soy sauce | 3 tbsp | |
| Gochujang | 1 tbsp | |
| Neutral oil | 3 tbsp | |
| Garlic | 2 cloves | grated, or 1 tsp garlic powder |
| Fresh ginger | 1 tsp grated | 1/2 tsp ground works |
| Scallions | 2 | sliced thin |
| Sesame seeds | 1 tbsp |
Method
- Build a fire and let it burn down. You want coals, not flame.
- Whisk the coconut milk powder and bouillon into 300 ml of cold water plus another 2 cups. Pour it into the dutch oven with the rice, butter, and salt. Stir once so the rice sits flat.
- Lid on. Set the oven on a bed of coals and shovel more coals onto the lid. Bake about 15 minutes.
- Lift the lid, scatter the cabbage over the rice, and lay the frozen gyoza on top in one layer. Do not stir them in. Lid back on, coals back on, another 25 minutes.
- While that cooks, shake the soy sauce, gochujang, oil, garlic, and ginger together in a jar until it stops separating.
- Pull the lid, spoon a third of the sauce over the dumplings, and leave it uncovered on the coals for 5 minutes so the tops dry out.
- Scatter scallions and sesame seeds. Serve the rest of the sauce alongside.
The whole thing works because rice and frozen dumplings want roughly the same amount of time and the same wet heat. The rice absorbs the coconut milk from below; the dumplings steam on top of it and never touch the pot. Nothing gets fried, so nothing sticks, and there is one pot to scrape at the end.
Coconut milk powder replaces the can. It weighs a fraction as much and there is no metal to pack out. The last uncovered five minutes matters more than it sounds: the dumpling wrappers go from slick to slightly tacky, which is the closest you get to a pan-fried bottom without a pan.
Packing
Rice, coconut milk powder, bouillon, salt, and cabbage flakes go in one zip bag as a premix. Sauce ingredients mix into a screw-top jar at home and ride in the cooler. Gyoza stay frozen in the bottom of the cooler and act as an ice block until dinner.
Variations
- Vegetable gyoza keep the whole pot vegetarian if you also swap the chicken bouillon for vegetable.
- No dutch oven: a deep skillet with a tight lid over a low camp stove burner does the same job in about the same time.
- Canned coconut milk instead of powder. Cut the added water to 200 ml or the rice goes to mush.
https://www.matprat.no/oppskrifter/kos/dumpling-bake