Dumplings 101

Nearly a month ago Stella's parents came over to teach us how to make dumplings. For $15 we bought enough ingredients to feed an army! We learned to make the dough for dumplings as well as both pork and beef fillings. Stella's dad also made us a tofu salad (that was delicious!) and spare ribs. Rather than using recipes, everything seems to be eyeballed and learned from trial and error. Stella was translating multiple conversations at once while I frantically took notes, hoping we can repeat this meal for our families when were home and not land in the 'error' column.

The fillings consist of meat, ginger, onions, and really whatever else you like. We added mushrooms, a vegetable I identify as "leafy celery stuff" in my notes and rice stems.

Rice stems--you peel them and just use the white hearts.

You'll also need:

Three kinds of soy sauce, oyster sauce, rice vinegar, rice wine and sesame oil for the filling.

An oatmeal lid and tape for an irrationally angry smoke detector.

The dough is just like pasta dough--flour, water and egg. We got an assembly line going--rolling out the wrappers, stuffing and pleating. I think it's fair to say we were responsible for the bottle neck.

Delicious dried tofu salad with a soy dressing and cilantro.

Spare ribs

Final product with a vinegar/soy/garlic/cilantro sauce

yummers

After the five of us gorged and gorged on all the good food we still had about 80 dumplings left over. This is when we learned the very shallow drawer in our freezer isn't for ice cube trays (this much we knew), it is for freezing fresh dumplings. We are so in the know!

lunch for the next week!