Yes, we've been on a kick lately. It happens. Japanese- everything from the hibachi joints to sushi. Thai- making it ourselves and stocking up various curry pastes from our favorite Asian market. Chinese- digging dumplings, which we prefer our own homemade versions!
Viv is a dumpling devotee. But it's only been this week that she wanted me to show/teach her to make them from scratch. She's really been getting into cooking recently, which makes me so happy, of course. We found round Hong Kong style dumpling wrappers at our favorite market, Asian Market on Dutch Square Blvd. I just gave Viv the basic run-down verbally, and while I was out working, she whipped up the filling herself.
We got the butcher at Publix to grind some pork for us. Then, Vivian used that, some chopped serrano pepper, finely chopped carrot, green onion, ginger, garlic, an egg, and some soy sauce to create the dumpling filling. We wrapped them up, and off to the races. If you've never made your own, it's quite simple. The most challenging part is learning the various methods to folding and crimping the dumpling. But, simply folding and sealing is ok; no need to be fancy.
You heat a very thin layer of oil in a skillet. Place dumplings bottom (flattened) side down to fry and get golden crispy. Then, you (carefully) add about a 1/3 cup water and smack a lid on that baby. Crisping up the bottoms before adding water keeps them from sticking; skip this step, and you have a stuck on mess (thus the name potstickers.) Turn the heat down to med-low and let them steam about 3-4 minutes. Then, remove lid, turn heat up a bit to cook out any remaining liquid and to make sure dumpling bottoms stay crisp. Now, get your chopsticks and get ready to have (IMHO) better than restaurant dumplings.
I like mixing up a simple dipping sauce of soy sauce, rice vinegar, thin slices of ginger and sliced green onion.
Tonight, we wrapped them all up, cooked a few, served with some sauteed baby bok choy and put the rest of the dumplings in the freezer for another day!
