Dumpling

Dumpling

A fried dumpling filled with minced chicken and spring onion, originally from China.
Main ingredients	Flour, potatoes or bread

Dumpling is a broad classification for a dish that consists of small pieces of dough (made from a variety of starch sources), often wrapped around a filling (as in ravioli or wontons). The dough can be based on bread, flour, or potatoes, and may be filled with fish, meat, sweets, or vegetables. They may be cooked by boiling, frying, simmering, or steaming. Dumplings may be savoury or sweet and can be eaten by themselves, with gravy or sauce, or in soups or stews.

Banku and kenkey fit the definition of a dumpling in that they are starchy balls of dough that are steamed. They are formed from fermented cornmeal dough. Banku are boiled while kenkey are partly boiled then finished by steaming in banana leaves.

Fufu may be described as a dumpling although in actual sense, it is not. Fufu is made by pounding boiled cassava (common in Ghana) or yam (common in Nigeria) in a wooden mortar with a wooden pestle. Plantain or cocoyam may be added. There are several other versions of fufu in Africa and the Caribbean. There have been other versions of fufu which will fit better into the definition of dumplings. These are mostly common outside Africa where they originate. It is made by steaming cassava and plantain/cocoyam flour into thick starchy balls.

Tihlo—prepared from roasted barley flour—originated in the Tigray region of Ethiopia and is now very popular in Amhara as well and spreading further south.