how i stopped worrying and learned to love the dumpling

if you were to ask me what is a uniting characteristic for chinese people from shanghai to kashgar, from harbin to hainan isalnd, i’d answer “dumplings.”*

it’s not language (have you heard cantonese people speak mandarin?), it’s not rice or noodles as there’s a split above or below the yangtze river, but dumplings can be found in all four corners of china.

*not really, but i couldn’t figure out a way to start this post.

one of the first things i learned to make as a cook was jiaozi. when i was growing up, my parents and i would watch tv and fold jiaozi, and when i got to university, i’d often spend sundays watching the nfl or nba games and making two or three wrappers packs worth of jiaozi to freeze and eat during the week when i was too lazy to walk to top dog or la burrita, i could just defrost 10 or 15 or 20 and have a quick and easy meal.

the recipe i use is a little bit unique, it’s mainly pork and spinach. most common chinese dumpling recipes are pork/lamb and chives or cabbage or bok choy, but i used spinach because it was an old family recipe, or so i thought, until i asked my mom one day and she said we used frozen spinach because it was easier to find and keep and a lot less hassle to chop up than cabbage or any other veggie. but after a lifetime of eating them this way, i’ve gotten used to it, and make my own with the same recipe, adding soy sauce, dark vinegar, minced garlic, a little bit of salt and some sesame oil.

here’s my bowl full of dumpling filling along with my bowl of water (for sealing the edges)

place a spoonful of filling in the middle of the dumpling wrapper (yes i bought mine pre-made. i made them from scratch once, it was a lot of work, and the wrappers were uneven, difficult to work with and honestly, a package of wrappers costs less than $2 in the us, and its even cheaper here in shanghai so why bother?)

fold the wrapper over carefully, making three slight folds on the top of the wrapper

after you make several dozen, you can reward yourself. i’m using a saute pan here, but i’ve found that electric skillets work the best (for me at least) – but i don’t have one here, so i made due. place some oil in the pan (here i prefer peanut oil to my ubiquitous olive oil, because the taste of olive oil doesn’t quite go with the pan fried dumplings. note – you can also boil the dumplings, but i like to pan fry).

place dumplings in and let them sizzle for a few minutes, then – and this is an important step, dump in a small amount of water and cover in order to cook the pork in the dumplings. how much? i never really know. here, i’ve taken my friend audrey’s trick of using beer and combined it with my own addition of a little bit of dark vinegar (only because i don’t have any regular handy). the beer crisps up the edges of the dumpling giving it a nice pan-fried-ness.

serve with soy/vinegar/sesame oil/chili sauce. try not to get your iphone greasy with one handed photos (hence the bad focus).

(i don’t actually have any halloween photos of myself if that’s what you’re here for . . . will have to get from someone else)