Wednesday, February 10, 2010
For the love of dumplings
Prepare them for your dumpling on Chinese New Year and Valentine's Day and they might just make you lucky in love.
Photos by KYLE GREEN The Roanoke Times
Serve your potstickers (bottom side up to show off the crispy part) and boiled Chinese dumplings with dipping sauce.
If the dough is too dry and flaky, add water a little bit at a time to get it to the right consistency.
Roll the dough out into a log to begin the process of making wrappers.
Cut the dough into equal portions for each wrapper.
Each wrapper must be rolled out. Keep the middle of the wrapper a little thicker than the edges so it holds the filling better.
Put the filling in the center of the dumpling wrapper. Do not overfill.
To make dumplings, you pinch and crimp together the edges of the wrapper.
Photos by KYLE GREEN The Roanoke Times
Dumplings (foreground) are traditionally boiled, while potstickers (back) are pan-fried in a skillet.
Food writer Lindsey Nair
- lindsey.nair@roanoke.com | (540) 981-3343
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Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year fall on the same day this year, but it is a fleeting embrace. Because Chinese New Year is determined by the lunar calendar, they won't be together again for decades.
Despite the rarity of their rendezvous, the two holidays really are quite compatible. Both are associated with the color red and, in a way, both celebrate wishes.
On Valentine's Day, we wish to find love, sustain love or repair love, while Chinese New Year is about hoping for prosperity and happiness in the year ahead.
On Sunday, many people will be eating chocolate. But I'm more of a savory girl myself, so I would much rather have the delicious, traditional Chinese New Year dishes.
In addition to a feast of other symbolic foods, such as fish, noodles and Mandarin oranges, many Chinese make and eat jiao zi, or dumplings, on New Year. Feng Chen, owner of Cafe Asia in Roanoke County, said some are filled with salty concoctions, such as pork and cabbage, and some with delicately sweet mixtures such as sugar and peanuts.
Jiao zi are an important part of many Chinese New Year parties because they stand for wealth and prosperity in the year ahead, explained David Bello, director of East Asian studies for Washington and Lee University.
These dumplings are shaped like an early form of Chinese currency called yuan bao, which were made from lumps of silver or gold. Also, the Chinese word jiao zi refers to a paper money that was used during the Northern Song Dynasty.
Some families used to hide gemstones or coins in dumplings as a blessing of prosperity upon the surprised recipient. Today, many cooks still wash and nestle coins inside a few select dumplings on Chinese New Year.
I have loved Chinese dumplings and their close cousin, potstickers, ever since I had my first tender bite (especially because the dipping sauces are addictive). But I always assumed they were difficult to make -- until I got a firsthand lesson in dumpling-making from some very learned teachers.
Extra editor Kathy Lu recently had a visit from her mother and sister, Chyun and Sandy Lu. Chyun Lu was born and grew up in Taiwan, and Kathy's father is from China.
The Lu ladies took over my kitchen and showed me just how fun and easy dumpling-making can be.
The most time-consuming step in the process is filling and crimping the dumplings, which is why many families choose to make them when lots of relatives are around to help. This makes jiao zi a perfect recipe to prepare with the people you love.
With our helpful guide to making dumplings, you can bring all the celebration and hopefulness of Chinese New Year into your home. And because it's also Valentine's Day, perhaps they will make you lucky in love.
Dumpling tips
- If the recipe calls for mushrooms, consider buying a bag of dehydrated Chinese mushrooms from your local ethnic market. They can be rehydrated in hot water whenever needed. They are far less expensive and last longer than fresh mushrooms.
- If making homemade dough is intimidating, simply purchase packaged gyoza skins, which can be found frozen at Asian grocery stores. Gyoza skins are round, as opposed to wonton skins, which are square. Be sure to defrost the skins before using.
- When filling store-bought skins, dip a finger in a bowl of water and wet the inside edge of the skin before folding and pinching the edges together so that they will seal.
- Dumplings freeze well and need not be thawed before cooking. Arrange fresh dumplings on a cookie sheet or cutting board and slide into the freezer. When they are firm, they can be transferred to a freezer bag or plastic storage container.
- Dumplings are traditionally boiled, but potstickers, which are very similar, are pan-fried in a skillet. To make potstickers, heat 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil in a skillet. Arrange dumplings in skillet; do not crowd. Cook until bottoms begin to brown, then add 12 cup water or chicken stock (or enough liquid to come up nearly halfway on the dumplings). Cover and cook until liquid evaporates and dumpling bottoms are brown and crispy.
