Happy Lunar New Year! It’s called Tsagaan Sar in Mongolia, and I this grandiose plan to make these dumplings called Buuz. Sometimes I can be overly ambitious, but somehow I sort of got these done.

These Buuz (Mongolian Dumplings) are traditionally made of yak or mutton meat. Enter my first dilemma: yak is impossible to find in greater Boston (no kidding, right?) and mutton too — or I had to buy a frozen 4 pound block and then what was I going to do with the rest of the mutton? Lamb would have been the obvious choice, but I don’t eat veal or lamb. Goat meat from the halal butcher right around the corner? I went with bison instead because I know what bison tastes like, I like it, and I could buy a 1/2 pound without having leftovers. Dilemma number 2 is that I actually am not great at making any dumplings, but I was bound-and-determined not to let the year of the dragon get me on the first day, so I managed to make a dozen, even if some of them are a little misshapen.

Final tidbit of trivia? Buuz are evidently served with ketchup. Yup, ketchup. Because ketchup is a delicacy in Mongolia. Or something. Although I guess that I could see if being a hard thing to get in Ulaanbaatar. Again, this seemed a bit strange to me, so I mixed together my usual dumpling dipping sauce. That wasn’t in the steamer basket when I steamed the buuz; I just put it there for presentation.

So, Happy New Year! May you have a prosperous, happy and healthy year.