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.

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. 

Tips for Making Asian Dumplings without Eggs or Pork

I haven’t had time to make a new dumpling to share with you, but I have been fielding email queries from cooks interested in preparing Asian dumplings. Over the weekend, this came from Meghan in Indiana:

I was wondering if it is possible to make dumplings, or pot stickers, without egg yolks? I am allergic to egg yolks...and pork actually. That's not a big deal though because I could always add beef or chicken, etc.. but I do need to know about the egg. I'm not allergic to egg whites and it does actually work in most recipes that I've tried. I would really appreciate it if you could let me know. Thanks!

After I wrote back to Meghan, I decided to organize and expand my tips to her in a post. For the details, visit Viet World Kitchen where the post resides. Thanks!

Muslin is the Better Cheesecloth

I stopped using cheesecloth for cooking purposes about 2 years ago. It was expensive to purchase at markets and cookware shops. It got caught in my scissors at the most inconvenient times. It had to be discarded after each use. I got fed up and instead, turned to unbleached muslin. I have never looked back. It's great for making dumpling fillings and more.

Just posted 5 reasons for using muslin in the kitchen and tips on where and how to buy muslin on Viet World Kitchen. 

Crisp Pot Sticker Duck Tacos

Last December, stylist Karen Shinto, my husband and I went to the original Trader Vic’s in Emeryville for happy hour. Along with our requisite Mai Tais, we ordered a few snacks. Their crisp pot sticker duck tacos was our favorite. Trader Vic’s has a track record of coming up with salty-sweet-rich snacks to pair with drinks. After all, the tiki bar-restaurant chain contends that it came up with the original crab rangoon – made from wonton skins.  

Turning a pot sticker skin into a crisp taco shell and stuffing it with roast duck is yet another brilliant dumpling skin move. I simmered on the Asian-Mexican taco mash-up for a couple of months. When we had Peking duck meat leftover from a Chinese New Year dinner, I had the perfect excuse to experiment. The hardest part was frying the pot sticker skins into a taco shell.

For a video on how to repurpose a storebought pot sticker skin into a taco shell and the details on the duck tacos, see the post on Viet World Kitchen. 

Bringing New Year Dumplings to Busy Families

This is Henry. He’s about 3 1/2 years old and experiencing his first Asian dumpling. Many of my friends started families not long ago and consequently, it’s been difficult for us to schedule normal adult activities. For this Year of the Dragon, I decided to bring the ‘adult’ activity of making and eating dumplings to a couple of friends and their kids.

I made a big batch of filling, some of which I used on Monday and Tuesday. There was plenty leftover by Wednesday, when we had a 5pm cocktail hour date with Diane and John (Henry’s parents). We typically bring over a bottle of wine along with nuts or cheese and bread to nibble on. This time, my husband and I walked in with:

Gluten-Free Stuffed Buns (Bao): Dough, Baked Buns, Steamed Buns

I have poked and held enough loaves of gluten-free breads to know that it would be a challenge to create fluffy, chewy dough that could be baked and steamed. But knowing that Filipino cooks prepare a rice flour based dough for siopao (stuffed bao) gave me hope for creating gluten-free bao dough.

I ended up adapting a gluten-free Western cinnamon roll dough for the stuffed Asian buns. I tested out the dough with a char siu pork filling for these baked buns and steamed buns:

    

Gluten-free bao is not like what you get at dim sum but they do have a rustic appeal of their own. If you follow a gluten-free diet, I hope this satisfies your Chinese bao cravings. If you do not, this is a recipe that helps you better understand flours, starches, and dough. It was a cool experiment.

I’m structuring this trilogy of posts like the recipes in Asian Dumplings. There are three posts related to this subject on Viet World Kitchen:

• Gluten-Free Bun (Bao) Dough (in the lead post called "Gluten-Free Bun Trilogy")
• Baked Gluten-Free Bun (Bao) Recipe 
• Steamed Gluten-Free Bun (Bao) Recipe

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)

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