Teamwork!!! I never thought to make dumpling skins from scratch until we
made Chinese dumplings at my pastry school to celebrate the Chinese New
Year. All the Asian classmates got
together and made a variety of dumplings for our class. The fillings and styles of wrapping were
different but the dough was basically the same with the only difference was
whether hot or cold water was used. The
non-Asian classmates would help out between turns of their Danish pastry dough
because the class must go on! All the
dumpling dough was rolled out by hand and cut out with a ring. I wish I had a picture to commemorate the
event that started me on my homemade dumpling journey.
The experience brought back memories of my childhood when
the Loo family would all make “fun guo” (steamed pork dumplings) around the
kitchen table. Patriarch and Matriarch
Loo made the best tasting dumplings.
They made sure that the ingredients were of quality and with ingredients
that all the children enjoyed - shrimp, pork and chinese shiitaki mushrooms. I’m salivating just thinking of the
translucent pockets filled with savoury and juicy shrimp and meat
fillings. The Loo girls would make the
dumplings and the Loo boys would eat them.
Teamwork!!! At that time we used
a tortilla press to flatten the dough.
Now I’m using the kitchenaid pasta dough roller to flatten out the
dough. Seriously, why roll by hand when
I have access to a machine that will help make sure the wrappers are consistent
in size and thickness.
The below recipe
is not the translucent wrapper or filling from my childhood. Once I find one I’ll certainly write it down
and we can have a Loo family dumpling day!
The filling can really be anything you like. Go wild!
Go crazy! Go enjoy the fruits of
your labour! It’s definitely an all day
event when doing this alone. I didn't mind because it is for family and so relaxing while listening to oldies music.
The recipe below makes about 150 dumplings.
FILLING:
Ingredients:
1.3kg of ground pork
200g of chopped raw shrimps
4 dried chinese mushrooms
15g light soya sauce
15g cooking wine
20g salt
30g sugar
300g water (or water from the soaked mushrooms)
3 eggs
Dark soya sauce
Sesame oil
Oil
Method:
Wash and soak the chinese mushrooms. Chop the mushrooms. Combine the marinade ingredients and then
pour over the ground pork. Using a kitchenaid, with the paddle attachment, beat at medium low / medium speed until all the
ingredients are combined and liquid absorbed.
Add in the shrimps and mushrooms and continue to beat. Let sit for 30 minutes.
WRAPPERS:
Ingredients:
1000g AP Flour
560g warm water
Extra flour for dusting
Method:
In a large bowl, mix in the warm water with flour. Once, more or less combined, turn out onto the table and knead until a smooth ball. Cover and let rest for 30 minutes. Cut into 4 pieces and wrap 3 in plastic wrap. Dust table top with flour and roll dough into a sausage. Flatten out and pass the dough through the pasta roller, passing twice for each thickness, starting at 1, then 2, then 3, and finally to 4. I like the thickness of 4 but you can go to 5. Cut using a 3 ¼” / 8cm ring (glass cup or whatever you have on hand). Flour well between layers
ASSEMBLY:
The easiest way is to make half moon shaped dumplings. Take a dumpling wrapper, wet half of the edge
with water, put a full teaspoon of filling in the middle of the wrapper and
fold over the wrapper so that the dry edge meets the wet edge. Press the edges down. Another way is to use a gyoza mold. Lay on dumpling on a parchment lined tray that has been well floured to prevent the dumplings from sticking. Cover with plastic wrap to prevent the
skin from drying as you continue making the rest of dumplings. You can freeze the dumplings on the
tray. Once completely frozen, transfer
to a plastic container or bag. Dumplings
can be boiled or pan fried.
