Big Girls, Global Kitchens: A Dumpling Slideshow

Posted by on Saturday Mar 13th, 2010 | Print

EVENT: Food That Takes Two
VENUE: Cara’s Apartment, Park Slope
PARTY SIZE: 2
TYPE: Interactive Valentine’s Day Dinner
MENU: Meat and Scallion Pot Stickers with Tangy Soy Sauce; Momofuku Pork Bo Ssam with White Rice, Butter Lettuce Leaves, and Ginger Scallion Sauce; Nothing for Dessert (Phoebe on this development: “Do I even know you anymore?”)

I began mooning over Andrea Nguyen’s cookbook, Asian Dumplings, before it came out. I’ve owned it since December 25th, and I’ve read it cover to cover several times. But I hadn’t cooked from it yet, and after hearing about all our readers’ Valentine’s Day cooking plans, I decided that the 14th was the ideal date for me, and a helping hand, to approach the dumpling book. Below is a slideshow of the meat and chive dumplings Alex and I rolled out, assembled, and pan-fried. All 32 of them made by hand, dough and everything. It only took a little more than an hour start to finish, but it was a really fun activity, and an easy one to do on the “dining room” table, since there’s no room for rolling in my small kitchen.

Because Andrea Nguyen’s directions and diagrams are so perfectly, accurately done, I didn’t think I could do justice to them by typing them up. So follow her steps in my photos, and then heed my recommendation and buy or borrow the book.

I’ll be posting about the Momofuku pork soon-for now, sate yourself on this pulled pork.

From my kitchen, dumplings and all, to yours,

Cara, THE QUARTER-LIFE COOK

**Slideshow**

the dough is made with boiling water

dumpling dough comes out of the food processor crumbly and resembling playdough

kneading

setting aside the warm dough in a plastic bag lets the gluten develop

the makings of the meat-scallion filling

meat and scallion filling

 



cutting the dough into dumpling wrapper size


 

 

each piece is flattened in a pool of flour

 

 



stacks of pressed dough

the initial flattening of the disks

 

 

rolling each circle out into a thin, 3 1/2″ dumpling wrapper

 

 

 

piles of wrappers

 

 

assembled dumplings, pleated and everything

crowded into the pot


finished potstickers


going for a dunk in the tangy soy dipping sauce

 

Photography by Alex
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  • Susan @The Spice Garden

    I cannot tell you how much I love potsticker dumplings! My niece, Gwen, lived with my family during her PT internship and she was my 'extra set of hands' when we made wontons, dumplings, and egg rolls… what a wonderful food memory you girls have given me today! They look wonderful! I can practically taste them!

  • Kate

    Having gotten to eat them, the day after, I must say…these were absolutely delicious. I am dreaming of them (and the pork) now. They were such a wonderful lunch, and if they really aren't as hard as they look-I can't wait to try them the next time I have a kitchen.

  • Kelsey B.

    That is SOO cool! I make homemade ravioli at home but have never attempted dumplings, what a great idea. Also, great tip on the book. I've seen it but now I'll have to flip through it and consider adding it to my collection. I could definitely do these for an hour during naptime. :)

  • Chef Aimee

    I saw Andrea Ngueyen do this once on tv and I am beyond impressed that you made these as perfect as she did! Bravo!

  • Heather @ The Single Dish

    These look amazing! I love eating dumplings, will have to try this out. They are so pretty too.

  • Colleen

    These look amazing. The photos are immensely helpful and have persuaded me that even I can do this.

  • Marisa

    You've totally inspired me to devote a day to dumpling making … they look incredible!

    Marisa

    http://www.lerainyday.blogspot.com