Asian Dumplings

I started a post about my experience using Andrea Nguyen's Asian Dumpling cookbooks recipe for Famian dough. But I thought I'd start a more general thread about making Asian dumplings of all kinds (I know there are a few potsticker threads already) since I've become a little dumpling obsessed as of late.

I made Thai tapioca dumplings (Sakoo Sai Moo) for the LTH picnic using Andrea Nguyen's instructions for the dough and dumpling construction and Hot Sour Salty Sweet's recipe for filling (because it had pickled radish in it--I love that stuff).
The tapioca is fun to work with--you buy the packages of tiny tapioca pearls (they come in different colors), rinse them, add hot water and some salt and let them 'bloom' into dough.

Green tapioca pearl dough



The filling is made with ground pork (I used shoulder whizzed in the food processor) and includes white pepper, palm sugar, peanuts and a handful of other ingredients.
Here is recipe that's similar to the one I used (minus a quarter cup or so of chopped pickled radish.




You roll the tapioca into balls, make an indentation with your thumb and fill it with filling, then pinch the ball back together. The dumlings are steamed, then topped with fried garlic/the garlicky oil and cilantro.






Finished dumplings (pre-garlic sprinkling)


So, today I made Zhong jiaozi (Szechuan crescent dumplings) inspired by Andrea Nguyen's website and using her basic dumpling dough and the filling recipe from Fuscia Dunlop's Land of Plenty.

The dough is pretty simple (hot water and flour made in the food processor with minimal additional kneading). The filling is made of fatty ground pork, 'ginger water', soy sauce, rice wine, white pepper and an egg white. There's a fair amount of liquid in the filling and you beat everything together to get the meat to absorb it. The dough was pretty easy to work with and the homemade wrappers seal without water. The finished dumplings are boiled and topped with sauce (light/dark soy/sugar/chili oil/garlic/sesame oil)

Filling:


Rolled dumpling wrappers (note to self: Do not stack dumpling wrappers-- stacking them like this was really dumb--they stuck together a bit)


Ready to cook


Finished dumplings


They made a great dinner along with Fuscia Dunlop's flowering chives with bacon

They look absolutely fantastic!

Jyoti

Very beautiful.

Hi,

I could not get over how beautiful those balls at the picnic. It is also a unique sensation in your mouth. The only restaurant I saw these offered closed recently. I am glad to know these are doable.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote: The only restaurant I saw these offered closed recently.

Thanks everyone

P.S. Bangkok has a steamed dumpling with this type of filling, although I think they use a rice flour wrapper. The restaurant can sometimes be inconsistent but I've never had a non-delicious batch of these. Theirs were what motivated me to try these. But they are doable (you don't even have to roll the wrappers out!)