Grilled cheese and tomato soup dumplings

Roll the premade dumpling wrappers thin, add cheese and a brick of gelled soup, and fold them up.

Melt the butter over medium heat in a high-walled skillet, add the chopped small yellow onion and cook five to six minutes until translucent.

Add the minced garlic and cook a minute longer.

Deglaze the pan with the chicken stock.

Add the crushed tomatoes, sugar, kosher salt, black pepper, celery seed, dried oregano, red pepper flakes and the basil stem; simmer 35 to 45 minutes.

Remove the basil stem, transfer to a blender and blend completely smooth.

Bloom two teaspoons of powdered gelatin per cup of soup in a little cold stock for about five minutes.

Stir the bloomed gelatin into the soup until dissolved, pour into an ice cube tray or shallow container and refrigerate until set.

Combine shredded cheddar and Gruyere with a brick of the gelled tomato soup for the filling.

Cook the dumplings pot sticker style rather than steaming: sear to get a crispy bottom, then add water and steam until the skins turn translucent and the filling has melted.

Variation, the uncrustable: roll two slices of white bread thin. Put a slice of American cheese down, a cube of gelled tomato soup in the centre, and another slice of American cheese over the top.

Punch out a round of the cheese and soup, set it on one slice of bread, top with the other slice, punch out a round of the whole thing and crimp the edges with a fork.

Spread mayonnaise on both outsides, preheat a pan over medium heat and cook two to three minutes a side until golden brown and crispy.

Variation, the ravioli: build the same filling between two dumpling wrappers instead of one folded one.