Asian Dumpling Tips

Year of the Snake: Lucky Dumpling Party Tips

It's just around the corner, ladies and gents. The Year of the Snake begins on February 10. By some accounts, it will be one of instability and extremities but will generate overall peace and prosperity. I feel like that is my life in the main.  

If you're looking to start out the year on good footing, consider having an Asian dumpling party. It doesn't have to be taxing. In fact, you can have other people shoulder some of the work, get kids involved too. 

Posted on Vietworldkitchen.com are some party throwing tips along with ideas from the Asian Dumplings cookbook, as well as recipe links. Check it out and weigh in.

Winter & Spring 2013 Cooking Classes

Ah, the new year. Time for reflection, refreshing and restart. Take a half step back and a full step forward. If you subscribe to an Asian mindset toward the new year, you can celebrate twice – first for the solar calendar and then again for the lunar calendar. (February 10, 2013 will launch the Year of the Snake.) That means you can take your time to set goals and meet them!

If expanding your cooking skills is one of your goals, maybe I'll see you at a cooking class this year. I've got a number of hands-on classes lined up in the Northern California area near my home. They are geared for lots of learning and fun:

4-hour classes at Love Apple Farms: We sold out the first time around with this series of classes so we’re running them again. Some people took all of them, driving as far as Fresno. I already know that someone is flying out from the Midwest for the Viet class. Love Apple Farms is a unique biodynamic farm in the Santa Cruz Mountains, about 1 1/4 hours from San Francisco. There are locals who sign up but many people make a day-long excursion to cook in the mountains, then hang-out by the beach for dinner.

• Sun, Jan 27, 12-4pm: Asian Dumplings (great for gearing up for Chinese New Year) SOLD OUT
• Sun, Feb 24, 12-4pm: DIY Asian Tofu (plus a mostly vegetarian full menu of tofu dishes)
• Sat, Mar 16, 12-4pm: Get Into the Viet Kitchen (includes banh xeo sizzling rice crepes)
• Sat, Apr 20, 12-4pm: Asian Dumplings (added after the Jan class sold out)

5-hour classes at the San Francisco Cooking School: This is a brand new facility in San Francisco. The classes will be intensive and fun so I hope you’ll join me to break in the new school. I’ve got a weekend booked in March. The longer class format means that we can do interesting things. For example, in the tofu class, we’re going to make yuba, fresh tofu skin that’s out of this world, not to mention vegan. The dumpling class got tweaked a bit too from others that I’ve taught.

• Sat, Mar 23, 10am-3pm: Homemade Tofu (go from bean to curd, make yuba, and a whole meal of tofu) 
• Sun, Mar 24, 10am-3pm: Asian Dumplings (master classic doughs, shapes, and cooking techniques) WAITLIST ONLY
• Sun, Apr 7, 10am-3pm: Asian Dumplings (added after the March class filled up)

1/2 day at Cakebread Cellars: I like to offer a little wine at the end of each cooking class but for this special class at renowned Cakebread Cellars, the winery is doing the pairings! Hurray. I’m looking forward to what the winery uncorks. We’ll start off with a morning hands-on class of Vietnamese favorites and then you get to take a private tour of the winery. Finally, everyone gathers for lovely sit-down lunch with paired wine. The staff and I will be on hand to answer questions. No wonder Cakebread calls their cooking classes the “Good Life Series.”

• Sat, May 18, 9:30am-early afternoon: Viet Spring Celebration (cook, drink, and learn about Viet food and wine pairing)

With all of these cooking classes, there is a staff to clean up. You attend to cook and tinker. At the end, we eat the food that we make. Hope to cook with you this year.

Korean Shrimp Dumpling Recipe

When I saw the photo of these dumplings, I had to make them. The image was in Cooking Light magazine, in a poignant story on a Korean homecoming of sorts by my friend food editor Ann Taylor Pittman. This unusual mandu (the generic Korean term for dumpling) was at the top of my list of recipes to try. The concept is brilliant and the look is adorable -- perfect for casual snacking, a light lunch, or entertaining!

As with most Korean dumplings, tofu is involved, so are garlic and green onion. A little pork goes a long way to enriching the filling; use chicken thigh if you’re not porky. The shiitake mushroom contributes extra umami. 

Jump over to Vietworldkitchen, where the full recipe is posted. 

Easy Dumpling Folding Strategies -- Video

In July I traveled back East to do a consulting job, stopping enroute in New York City to see my friends at Saveur. (I've been a contributing editor at the magazine since 2007.) We'd been talking about making a video of me giving a cooking tip or two and settled on one about folding dumplings.

If you have Asian Dumplings, you know my motto about shaping dumplings. If you don't have the book, it's this: Get the wrapper closed. Practice pretty shapes later.  

Senior video producer Anique Halliday is a veteran of doing wonderful, fun educational videos; she worked on PBS projects before coming to Saveur. We strategized and planned on the phone in June and then in July, spent a couple of hours at the Saveur test kitchen to produce this:

 

Saveur's "Test Kitchen Tips" videos have run the gamut from the viral one on how to peel garlic in less than 10 seconds to the practical one on dipping truffles in chocolate. Asian food-wise, editor in chief James Oseland has shown folks how to tie a knot with lemongrass and how to use and chop kaffir lime leaves into fine hairs. (James wrote the amazing Cradle of Flavor cookbook, which I reference and use all the time.) 

If you're looking for more Asian dumpling tips, jump over to this page. 

Upcoming Events in Vancouver, Seattle, and Portland!

I just dragged my luggage out from the garage and am getting ready to fill it up. Later his week, I'll be hitting the road for an incredible book tour. I can’t remember how all of this started but it was some time in late spring.

Food writer and stylist Nathan Fong asked me, “When are you coming to Vancouver?” Seattle chef and restaurateur Eric Banh called and said, “Let’s plan an event for  your new book at Monsoon.” Lara Hamilton of Book Larder (a Seattle store dedicated to cookbooks) and Philip Lee of Readers to Eaters (a pop-up book store) told my publisher that they'd love a tofu event in the fall.  

We began conversations about what to do, people who'd be interested in helping me put together an interesting book tour. One thing literally led to another and I was suddenly having conversations with old and new friends to mastermind some terrific food events.

Hell, yes. Any reason to travel to some of my favorites places: Vancouver's Chinese food scene is one of the best in North America. Seattle is brimming with charming and terrific restaurants and markets. Portland has fabulous food carts (I'm heading to Nong's for chicken and rice), wonderful restaurants and no sales tax. 

So we went a little crazy and the result is a packed schedule of amazing events spanning about 2 1/2 weeks. There are non-profit fundraisers and signings as well as TV demos, cooking classes and a restaurant luncheon. Some of these are free while others have a nominal charge. Here's the city-by-city lineup: