Recently, I had been craving dumplings. I don’t think I’ve seen vegetarian dumplings at the Chinese restaurants in the area yet. So, even though I’m going back to China in under a week I cooked steamed dumplings two nights ago.
The recipe I eventually ended up using was a mixture of all the different ones I’d come across on google. Or the ingredients were anyway, the process I took mainly from HOLY SHITAKE except I steamed the dumplings rather than steam-fried them.
Alas, there are no photos since I waited too long afterwards to think about taking pictures, and by that time they were all eaten
So on to how I made them. Be forewarned this was ridiculously time-consuming without a food processor and being one person. With an assembly line and a food processor I’m sure I’d be much faster.
Also, if you can’t find dumplings wrappers, you can make your own, but from what I hear it’s very messy and are prone to fall apart if you’re not a pro dumpling maker, so I decided use store bought ones. I’m glad I did since that would just add more time.
Recipe (makes about 50)
Ingredients
- 500g Soft Tofu finely diced
- 1 head Napa Cabbage
- 1 tablespoon grated ginger
- 2 tablespoons water
- 2 scallions
- 4 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1/2 cup shitake mushrooms
- 2 teaspoons sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 vegetable stock cubes
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 2 packets of dumpling wrappers
Method : (Taken mostly from HOLY SHITAKE)
Wash the cabbage, put some of the outer leaves to the side, these will be used for steaming. Finely dice 4 cups of cabbage. Blanch in salted water for five minutes, then strain and rinse under cold water. Squeeze out the excess water and set to one side. Chop scallions and put to one side.
Peel fresh ginger with a spoon (this is amazing!) and then grate (messy and weird and only added to my dislike of ginger). Mix all the ingredients, except the wrappers one of the stock cubes and one of the garlic cloves, in a large bowl. Wash your hands and continue to mix together more thoroughly with your hands. If it’s too dry add some water.
Let the wrappers thaw for about half and hour if frozen, and then keep covered with a damp cloth to stop them from drying out while you’re working. Now for the extremely tedious part, folding. At first it’s difficult but then you get the hang of it.
Fill a small bowl with water sit it near you. Place a wrapper in your palm, place a spoonful of filling in the centre, dip your finger in the water and wet the edges all around. Press two opposite edges against each other so that it’s now semi-circular. Now the tricky part, here I advise you look at the various videos on the technique since it’s hard to explain. Make two pleats on the side facing you, on each end. Then press the top together all the way along. The dumpling should now be shaped like a crescent.
Once they are all folded, or, if you’re like me, you run out of wrappers. Place a small amount of water, a clove of garlic and the last soup cube in the bottom of a pan with a cover. Then, add the cabbage leaves you saved earlier, make sure they are on top of the water, not under it, as they are what keeps your dumplings from the water-soup-mixture. Place a few dumplings on the leaves, taking care to make sure they don’t touch or else they’ll stick to each other. Put the top on the pot and let steam for 5-7 minutes. Continue until all the dumplings have been steamed. Or, alternatively, freeze them while raw and save them for later.
I hope that makes sense. They were very tasty.
