Dumplings, stir fry, broccoli

I really like dumplings. Almost every time I order Chinese, I get dumplings, and I'm surprised why I don't see more people getting them, too. They are meaty, crispy, doughy, salty and tangy all at once. I've made dumplings once before, and tonight we decided to have them again.

Dumpling dough is super simple. Put water up to boil. Put 2 cups of flour into a bowl. Add 1 cup of boiling water. Knead. You're done!

Ok, so the hard part is kneading the dough right after you pour boiling water into it. It's pretty hot. Use your own judgment when deciding when to start kneading, but don't burn yourself. When the dough is smooth, make it into a disc and wrap with plastic wrap. Set aside for 20-30 minutes to let the gluten relax.

Then you mix ground beef with soy sauce, rice vinegar, some pepper, and whatever other spices you want - garlic (fresh or powdered), ginger, cumin - whatever you want. If you have scallions, chop 'em up and mix them in. Or dice an onion and mix that in. I didn't have chives, and didn't want to use up a whole onion for it. So mine came out tasting like little burgers. Not bad, but I prefer when they taste more like a meat filling, which means the meat needs to be supplemented with onions or some other kind of flavorful veggie.

To make the dumplings, pinch off little walnut sized pieces of dough and roll them with flour into a 3 or 4 inch circle. Mine were sticky, I should have added more flour to the dough. Next, dip your finger in water and wet the edge of the whole circle. Then, put 1 tablespoon of filling into the center. To close the dumpling, fold it into a crescent and pleat the edges over itself to create a pretty pattern, and a solid seal.

That doesn't make any sense in writing, so look for a video or pictures, or you can look at our final product. It's good to work in a team. I rolled the circles while Rachel filled and sealed them. She's a natural, by the way; they were such pretty little dumplings. Truly the work of an artist.

Then the question becomes: how to cook the dumplings. I will tell you the three ways I have tried.

1. Pot-stickers. This is how I made them the one other time I've made dumplings. You heat up a metal pan (non-non-stick, because it won't work on non-stick!), and plop your dumplings on it. You let them cook for a couple minutes. They will become stuck to the bottom of the pan. To unstick them, you pour maybe half a cup of water (check a pot sticker recipe to be sure) into the pan, and then clamp on a lid right away. The water unsticks the dumplings, and the steam causes them to finish cooking, and wrinkle. When they are done, they'll slide right out.

2. Steaming. I'll be honest. I was trying to recreate the dumplings I've eaten in restaurants. These dumplings are not wrinkled, so I know they aren't pot stickers. They are crispy on the outside, so I know there is some pan frying in involved. But they are also kind of chewy/doughy. I thought perhaps they are steamed, and then pan fried. I figured that maybe they could also just be steamed, and then be eaten in their extra-doughy state. I tested this on the first half of tonight's dumplings. I set up the steamer basket and everything, put them in and cooked them for 5 to 10 minutes. I learned two things. Firstly, steam is really hot, which is why it cooks stuff. But if you stick your fingers down in the basket, they will get steamed as well. Secondly, steaming causes dumplings to stick a little bit to the basket, and to generally disintegrate. Maybe 1/3 of them stayed together, but most fell apart to some extent.

3. Pan frying. This is what I did with the second half of my dumplings, and this time I hit the jackpot. Instead of frying them straight, as in pot stickers, you put a think layer of oil on the bottom. Then, you just keep them moving like any other fried thing, until they are brown all over and cooked through. And that's it, that's the classic restaurant dumpling - crispy, chewy, meaty.

We also made some baked broccoli (see older post), this time changing it up by adding soy sauce, so as to fit alongside the dumplings. We also had a stir fry of onions, green peppers, garlic and mushrooms.

Other than the fact that most of the food was too salty (a problem caused by adding both crystal salt and salty soy sauce to things), it was a veritable feast. Or as they say in Chinese... I have no idea.