It has been over a year of complete silence. New job, new demands meant no time for creative writing. After a hectic holiday season where I actually did not like myself, I decided that I would go back to writing in 2012. Of course, we are past the middle of January and I have yet to sit down and actually do it. It is not for lack of ideas though, they are constantly flowing. Clever tidbits that I store in the part of my brain labeled: SOMEDAY….. You know, those really funny and clever anecdotes that you know people will just love.
So being the opportunist that I am, I decided to start writing at the beginning of the Lunar New Year. Convincing myself that starting on this day would surely bring me luck.
I decided to invite a few friends over for a simple meal of dumplings and noodles. I often make dumplings throughout the year. Making a huge batch and freezing them for those emergency meals when no one wants to eat out anymore. My kids love it and I believe they associate it with a real home cooked meal, much like they do Chicken and Dumplings in the winter.
Over the Christmas break, we headed up to a small hole-in-the wall dumpling place in Maryland that my husband tried during his lunch break. It is nothing fancy and to get to the restroom, you actually walk through the kitchen. As you wait in line to use the restroom, you get to see them make the dumplings. I can tell you now, there were easily a hundred health code violations going on which I am sure was why the food was so good. All fresh and made to order. One person rolled out the dumpling wrapper, two people filled it and one person was in charge of cooking them – steaming or pan frying. These dumplings were the real deal – so flavorful and the filling was not dry or tough at all. They reminded me that while my dumplings were good enough for emergency meals, they were far from delicious. In fact, they were awful. The only thing going for them was that I formed them by hand.
So for this Lunar New Year dinner, I decided to take my time and really put the time and effort in to the dumplings. I did not use my food processor which I would normally use to mix everything. All the ingredients were chopped and mixed by hand. I taste tested each batch of filling and adjusted the taste at least three times. I even sealed the dumpling differently, crimping the edges instead of merely making a half-moon. This created a much more compact pocket without a lot of space for the filling to float around in as it cooked. Plus, they just looked nicer.
Was it worth it? Absolutely. The dumplings were in many ways imperfect. The filling could have used more chives, the crimping uneven and the cooking time was hit or miss. Did the guests care? More importantly, did I care? No I didn’t. Today was not so much about the dumplings but about the art of cooking that I have missed over the past year. I innately knew that to create a good dumpling I had to go through all these steps but I just never did it. Too many excuses. Much like my writing. Full of great ideas but just as many distractions. Hopefully, this new year will bring the focus back to the food and the writing.
Pork Dumplings (makes about 50)
1/4 cup finely chopped chives (yes, 1/4 cup!)
1/4 cup finely chopped green onions
2 tsp. freshly grated ginger, plus one whole uncut piece which you can add to the chicken stock
3 tbs. dark soy sauce
1 tbs. seasoned rice wine vinegar
black pepper
2 lbs. fresh ground pork
1 package round (or square) dumpling wrappers
6 cups chicken stock (if cooking immediately)
1. In a large mixing bowl, combine chives, green onions, ginger, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar and black pepper.
2. Add the fresh ground pork and with your hands, mix the ingredients together until they are well combined.
3. Allow to sit in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to allow the flavors to meld. Put a pot of water (or chicken stock if you have it) on the stove and bring to a simmer.
4. Taking one dumpling wrapper, place roughly a teaspoon and a half of filling in the center. Line the edge of the entire wrapper with a bit of water. You can do this by dipping your finger in a bowl of water and running it on the rim of the wrapper. Fold the wrapper in half, creating a half-moon shape. Beginning for the center, begin crimping the edges to seal. I make about four to six folds depending on how much filling I put it.
5. Place on a parchment lined sheet tray (or one dusted with cornstarch) until ready to cook or freeze. To cook, gently slip into a pot of simmering chicken stock. Allow to cook for three – four minutes until the wrapper is puffy. Don’t crowd the pot, for a 2.5 quart dutch oven that has about 6 cups of chicken stock, I would not cook more than 6 – 8 pieces at a time. Adding too many drops the temperature too low which in turn increases the time it takes for the stock to come back up to a simmer. This all leads to the dumplings sitting at the bottom of the pot and sticking. We are not making pot stickers.
6. Once the they are puffy, remove with a slotted spoon, draining as much stock as you can. Allow to sit for about 1 minute before serving.
Dipping Sauce
1 cup low sodium soy sauce
4 tbs. seasoned rice vinegar
1/2 cup cilantro, finely chopped
Combine all ingredients and allow to sit for at least an hour. This sauce can be refrigerated for up to 2 weeks.
A side note on not using the food processor for the filling: Processing the meat filling (or any filling in particular), really gives the meat a beating. It gives the meat an almost fluffy texture when raw but a particularly spongy texture when cooked. Think frozen meat balls or microwave breakfast sausage links. OR….chicken nuggets. They all have that spongy texture. The texture of the actual protein (in this case pork) is lost. The mouth feel is nothing like what ground pork should be because by this point, not only has it already been though meat grinder, by putting it through the food processor, you killed it again.
A side note about freezing: Allow the dumplings to freeze on sheet trays before putting them in freezer storage bags. They can be frozen up to three months.
