Asian Dumpling Tips

Gluten-Free Asian Dumplings: Uses Beyond Pot Stickers

I suppose that you could say that I've displayed signs of OCDD (obsessive compulsive dissorder for dumplings). With a fine amount of dough and filling leftover from making the gluten-free pot stickers, I wanted to see how versatile the dough is. The great thing about dumplings is their versatility, right? With the basic dumpling dough in your back pocket, you can use different fillings, create different shapes, and cook your dumplings in a variety of ways.

So I put both kinds of gluten-free dumpling doughs (see the links below to the three recipe trials) to the test. My findings about how they worked with the various shapes and cooking methods are posted on VietWorldKitchen.com in this post.

Related posts:

• Gluten-Free Pot Stickers: Recipe Trial & Dough 3 (sorghum, sweet rice, and tapioca starch dough)
• Gluten-Free Pot Stickers: Recipe Trial & Dough 2  (millet, sorghum, tapioca, and potato dough; includes tips on working with GF dumpling dough)
• Gluten-free Pot Stickers: Recipe Trial 1 (on Asiandumplingtips.com)
• Guide to Building an Asian Dumpling Pantry
• Tolerance Test: Are Gluten-Free Asian Ingredients for You?

If you have the enhanced e-version of Asian Dumplings, these technique videos are included. Otherwise, see the printed book for details and/or watch my videos below, which are on Asiandumplingtips.com:

• How to roll out Asian dumpling wrappers
• Basic Asian dumpling shapes: Half Moon, Pea Pod and Big Hug
• Advanced dumpling shapes: Pleated Crescent
• Advanced dumpling shapes: Pleated Crescent
• How to shape a rope edge (for empanadas, turnovers, curry puffs)
• How to Fold a Closed Satchel

Gluten-Free Pot Stickers: Round #2

Soon after the Asian Dumplings cookbook was published in 2009, people started writing me about gluten-free dumplings. My response was, “There are many gluten-free Asian dumpling recipes in the book. Check the rice, starch, and legume and tuber chapters for ideas.”

As you may know, I tried my  hand at making gluten-free pot stickers in December 2009 and they were just okay -- mediocre, actually. The dough vexed me and I kept simmering on it until I had time a couple weeks ago to tackled it again. I made two (2) gluten-free dumpling doughs to use in place of the Basic Dumpling Dough on page 22 of Asian Dumplings. 

It was a really interesting experiment in which I blended my own flour. I also made unexpected discoveries about working with gluten-free dumpling dough. How I went about it and my technical notes are in this post on Viet World Kitchen.com:

Gluten-free pot stickers: Recipe Trial 2

Check it out, even if you don't eat a gluten-free diet. 

Gluten-Free Asian Ingredients?

I tried making a gluten-free dumpling dough last year and to a s0-so success. This year, I've been inspired again to tinker with coming up with a dough for gluten-challenged Asian dumpling lovers. While I was futzing with the gluten-free dumpling dough, I got to thinking about gluten-free Asian ingredients. I tried some of those ingredients out after doing research via Laura Russell's new Gluten-Free Asian Kitchen Cookbook. 

If you're sensitive to or interested in the gluten used in Asian ingredients, read this new post on Vietworldkitchen.com:  Tolerance Test: Are Gluten-Free Asian Ingredients for You?

Certain ingredients, such as the all-purpose flour used for pot sticker and jiaozi wrappers, are off limits to gluten-free cooks. But as Russell rightly points out, there is gluten in a number of staples used in making Asian food, too. But what this means to you may vary in degrees.  So let me know your thoughts on VWK!

Related posts: Building a Pantry for Asian Dumplings

Sriracha Crab Rangoon Wonton Recipe

Here's an updated rendition of the tiki-lounge classic. The recipe is based on one from Randy Clemens's new book, The Sriracha Cookbook: 50 “Rooster Sauce” Recipes that Pack a Punch.

Clemens developed some nifty recipes for heat seekers but this one caught my eye. It's got some more complex flavors than the classic version that I worked up from the original Trader Vic's recipe. But I think you'll enjoy the Sriracha iteration too. Goodness knows, my friends and I ate them all up! The Sriracha crab rangoon wonton recipe is posted at Viet World Kitchen.

If you are interested in more wonton recipes, see Asian Dumplings for some classic approaches. Past posts on this site include: 

• Almost Meatless Pork and Vegetable Pot Stickers Recipe
• Modern Indian Chile Pea Puffs Recipe
• Classic Crab Rangoon Wonton Recipe
• History of crab Rangoon

Does Sriracha chile sauce captivate you? See these related posts on Viet World Kitchen:

• Homemade Sriracha Chile Sauce Recipe
• Sriracha Taste Off: Thailand vs. America vs. Vietnam
• Has Sriracha become like Kleenex and Xerox?

Wonton Skin Buying Tips

If you have time and a pasta machine, try your hand at making your own wonton skins. But if you don’t, be an informed, smart wonton skin shopper! Many first-timer dumpling makers start with pre-made wonton skins as their wrappers, so I hope that this post will elaborate on text in Asian Dumplings and deliver you even closer to dumpling mastery. When shopping for good wonton skins, keep these tips in mind:

Where to Buy
Good pre-made wonton skins are sold at Chinese and Southeast Asian markets. There is a faster turnover rate and they have a bigger selection.

There are decent wonton skins at supermarkets. Dynasty brand above, made by JFC (an Asian company) is actually quite good. Many specialty grocers carry Azumaya but I’ve consistently found that they are dry, thick, and difficult to work with. Yes, they pass the paper ream test described below but they disappoint.

How to Buy
Pick your thickness. Wonton skins come in different thicknesses. I’ve seen thin, medium, and thick. Then there’s also super thin Hong Kong-style and egg-less Shanghai-style skins that are pure white. I like thin ones, but medium is okay. Thick wonton skins produce an overly doughy result that can overwhelm the filling. Egg-less wonton skins are great for vegans but lack a bit of richness.

Examine the ingredients. Aim for skins with egg and no food coloring. Read the label. Frozen eggs are better than no egg at all, in my opinion. Manufactures add food coloring to mimic the use of real eggs. But my homemade wonton skins don’t have a yellow cast.


Test for freshness. After determining the wonton skins thickness, I test their freshness. I run my fingers on the stack and if they fall nicely like a ream of paper, they they’re fresh and supple. If they are smashed together and damp looking, you don’t want that package.

In Your Kitchen
Use more water to seal purchased skins. People in the past used egg and I think it’s because their skins may have been very dry or on the thick side, thus requiring extra “glue”. Also, egg is used with spring roll skins. But you can get by just fine with water. 

Freeze leftover skins or shaped wontons. You can keep them for about 1 month. Or, follow the directions in the recipe to shape the wontons (works best with raw fillings) and then freeze them for the future!

Wonton skins are a good substitute steamed open face sui mai dumplings. Just use a round cookie cutter to get a round skin. BUT, wonton skins are not great for pot stickers as the skins are too delicate. Pot stickers need some chew to them to reflect their wonderful rusticity.

My Baking Soda and Bao Mistake (don't do this!)

I try to not cook too early in the morning, especially when I have not had my cup of coffee. One  recent weekend morning, I forgot that personal rule of thumb and set out to make a batch of yeasted bun (bao) dough for some steamed chicken bao that I'd planned to take to a luncheon. "How can I fail," I smugly said to myself. I use a scale to accurately weigh my flour. I've made this recipe a zillion times. It's fail-safe. They will be steamed and still warm when I arrive at the luncheon and present our hosts with homemade bao. Perfect timing. It seemed all perfectly downhill from there.

Well, not. What happened was this: I reached into my cupboard for the round container of baking powder and mistakenly picked up the baking soda, which came in a similarly-shaped container. For years I kept the soda in a glass container in another cupboard, but several months ago, I purchased some organic baking soda from Trader Joe's and the little cylindrical paper container was of the same size as your typical Clabber Girl/Calumet brand.

When the dough rising time was over, I noticed that it hadn't puffed up as much as usual. Oh, well -- I thought, it may be the air temperature or humidity level. Whatever. I formed my buns, let them rise and steamed them up.

Shaoxing Rice Wine: A Buying Guide

Several people have inquired in the past month about Shaoxing rice wine, a commonly used Chinese ingredient that I frequently reach for when making Asian dumplings. The questions asked include: (1) Where do I buy the rice wine? (2) Where is it stocked in an Asian market? and (3) What is a substitute for it? This post will hopefully answer those questions and more!

What is Shaoxing rice wine? How is Chinese rice wine used?
Amber colored, aromatic, and pleasantly nutty tasting, Shaoxing rice wine is the standard spirit in Chinese cooking. Made of brown glutinous (sweet/sticky) rice, it is one of the earliest types of liquors that the Chinese made. Shaoxing rice wine adds an unmistakable flavor and fragrance to dishes, whether it is mixed into Asian dumpling fillings, added to marinades for roasted meats such as char siu pork, combined with seasonings for stir-fries, or simmered with soy sauce and sugar for red-cooked dishes. If you’ve ever used sake in Japanese cooking, Shaoxing rice wine is employed quite similarly in Chinese cuisine. Sip on some of the rice wine and you’ll warm up quickly as it contains about 17 to 18% alcohol.

How to Make Steamed Chinese Bao White?

As absurd as that headline may sound to you, it’s a question many home cooks ask. What is the Chinese secret to getting their buns so snowy white? It’s like how is Wonder Bread produced? In Asia, there’s the notion – just like there used to be in much of the developed western world – that white colored food reflects modern progress, purity, and civility. (If you want more on this, read Laura Shapiro’s Perfection Salad and note what she says about the use of white sauce on page 91.) I have done a fair number of experiments, as a previous post on The Trick to Making Bao described, but I’d not gotten down to the nitty gritty. Here they are:

Does adding vinegar to bao dough make it whiter? Sorry. No. I’ve read of that trick in a number of Chinese American recipes and have tried it out, but the vinegar doesn’t do anything to the color. I suspect that the deal with adding the vinegar has to do with developing gluten in the dough. In order to get white bao, many Chinese American cooks use low-gluten (low-protein), bleached cake flour for their bao dough; cake flour is milled from soft wheat and has 8 to 10% gluten/protein. To make up for the flour’s lack of gluten a touch of vinegar is added to result in more chewy dough.