October 10, 2021
Fall weather has arrived. I can feel the crisp, cool weather all around me as I stroll through the streets. I have even begun dusting off my fall sweaters and preparing to wear them throughout the season. Fall time is the best time to enjoy cozy, warm foods and spiced drinks. One of my favorite foods to make pretty much year-round, but especially during the fall time is dumplings. My usual go-to dumplings are my pork and cabbage dumplings. They are a family (and friend) favorite in our household. Dumplings are one of those food items where both Kev and I ate tons of growing up. Kev grew up in Hong Kong, so his experience with dumplings differs quite a bit from my own experience. Kev’s favorite dumplings of all time will forever be soup dumplings. He would order soup dumplings whenever and wherever the opportunity arises. For me, I prefer traditional pork dumplings served both fried and steamed. My experience with dumplings was heavily influenced by the variety of dumplings I ate growing up in New York City. I would hop onto the train and take it straight into Chinatown just so I can enjoy some steaming hot dumplings from any one of the restaurants throughout Chinatown. Even on days where I chose not to head straight to Chinatown for dumplings, I usually could access equally good dumplings in the Brooklyn neighborhood where I grew up. My family loved dumplings. They would order them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner whenever the opportunity arises. The popular options served in the restaurants I grew up eating at were usually pork, vegetable, or crab. While I enjoy all three, my favorite is still pork dumplings. These plump juicy gems are always a welcome addition to the dining table. Lately though, I’ve been making a version of dumplings featuring a blend of mushrooms, ground chicken, and aromatics. The composition of a truly good dumpling is a thin wrapper (although I do prefer a thicker wrapper at times) and a juicy filling. Pairing ground meat with a watery vegetable usually does the trick. You get the juiciness of the dumplings from the combination of the ground pork and watery cabbage. Those features are what make pork and cabbage dumplings so good. Since ground chicken is a leaner meat, pairing the ground chicken with a juicy mushroom achieves the same juicy effect. My mushroom of choice is of course dried shiitake mushrooms. The dried variety has a stronger punch of flavor and pairs perfectly with the ground chicken once the mushrooms are reconstituted in some water. The rest of the filling for the dumplings are rounded out with the Asian trifecta of ginger, garlic, and scallion, and a variety of sauces and seasonings to pack in a flavorful punch. My favorite way to cook the dumplings is to fry and steam them in a large pan. I start out with a layer of cooking oil, transfer in the dumplings one by one, let them crisp up at the bottom, add water to steam the dumplings, let the water evaporate, and let the dumplings fry a little bit longer before serving them up. The dipping sauce for the dumplings is always a blend of vinegar and soy sauce with optional garnishes added to brighten up the dipping sauce. These dumplings are so good, we just cannot get enough of them in our household. Even though soup dumplings and traditional pork dumplings still hold the first rank in Kev’s heart, he is slowly beginning to make room in his heart for these mushroom and chicken dumplings. The balance of flavors and textures within these dumplings is what makes them truly delicious.
For the dumpling wrappers:
· 2¾ cups all-purpose flour, plus additional flour for kneading and rolling out the dough
· ½ teaspoon kosher salt
· 1 cup lukewarm water
For the mushroom and chicken filling:
· 1 pound ground chicken
· 5 whole shiitake mushrooms soaked in water at least an hour before, diced
· 3 cloves garlic, finely minced
· 1 inch knob of ginger, minced
· 3 stalks of scallions, finely sliced, plus additional thinly sliced stalk of scallion for garnishing
· 1 teaspoon sesame oil
· ½ tablespoon soy sauce
· ½ tablespoon oyster sauce
· 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
· ½ teaspoon kosher salt
· Dash of white pepper
· 4 tablespoons of vegetable or canola oil, for frying
· 1 cup water, for steaming dumplings
Dipping Sauce:
· ¼ cup soy sauce
· 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
· 1 tablespoon Chinkiang vinegar
· thinly sliced scallions (optional)
· finely chopped cilantro (optional)
· sesame seeds (optional)
· crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
Directions:
1) On a large baking sheet, sprinkle on some all-purpose flour. Set aside.
2) To make the dough, combine the 2 cups of flour and salt in a large bowl. Add the lukewarm water to the mixture. Use your hands to thoroughly mix the dough. The dough will be sticky at this point. Gradually add the remaining ¾ cup of flour slowly into the bowl as you continue kneading the dough for about 3-5 minutes. Let the dough rest for 30 minutes. While the dough is resting, you can start making the filling.
3) To make the mushroom and chicken filling, combine the ground chicken, diced shiitake mushrooms, minced garlic, minced ginger, sliced scallions, sesame oil, soy sauce, oyster sauce, granulated sugar, kosher salt, and white pepper in a large bowl. Use your hands to combine all ingredients until well mixed. Set aside.
4) When the resting time for the dough is up, stretch the dough out into a rectangular shape. Cut the dough into four strips and cut each strip into about ½ inch pieces. Roll each of the pieces into a ball. Cover the dough balls until ready to roll out to prevent the dough balls from drying out. To make the dumplings, prepare a small bowl of flour. Sprinkle a small bit of flour onto a surface and begin rolling out the pieces of dough balls into a thin circle one by one onto a floured surface. Place about 1 tablespoon of filling on each circle wrapper. Bring one edge of the circle wrapper up and pinch close at the middle. Beginning on one end, press or pleat the dough until you form 3-4 pleats. Repeat on the other side. Press the edges to seal the dumplings. Continue this process with the rest of the dumpling wrappers and filling.
5) Place the pieces of wrapped dumplings onto the floured baking sheet until ready to fry.
6) Heat a frying pan on medium heat. Add a tablespoon or two of vegetable or canola oil into the pan. Once the oil is hot, arrange 7-10 dumplings in a circle around the pan and fry for about 1-2 minutes, until golden brown. Pour about ¼ cup of water into the pan. Cover the pan with a pan cover and let the dumplings steam for about 3-5 minutes until the water is evaporated. Let the dumplings fry for another 1-2 minutes. Remove the dumplings to a serving plate and let the dumplings rest for a few minutes before digging in. Continue the process of frying the remaining dumplings until all dumplings are fried. Garnish the dumplings with the additional thinly sliced stalk of scallion.
7) To make the dipping sauce, combine the soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, and Chinkiang vinegar in a small sauce bowl. Garnish with scallions, cilantro, sesame seeds and crushed red pepper flakes, if desired.
Takeaways: My dumpling recipe usually yields anywhere from 27-30 dumplings. The dumplings are best when consumed immediately. On the slight chance there are any leftovers, I’ve stored the dumplings in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. They usually don’t last that long in the refrigerator though.