Several people asked me that question last week after they perused the Asian Dumplings cookbook. Here are my tips for getting started:
1. Before setting out on your Asian dumpling adventure, check your pantry to make sure you have the basic ingredients for making Asian dumplings. At the least, be sure to have some all-purpose flour on hand. The regular kind from the supermarket works best. None of that fancy high-gluten stuff for rustic, chewy bread making! In general, unbleached all-purpose flour is better for savory dumplings and bleached all-purpose is preferred for sweet dumplings. See the sidebar on page 9 for an Asian dumpling pantry listing and use the glossary of ingredients to help you buy Asian ingredients. The photo on Page 14 includes the major flours and starches employed in Asian Dumplings. You can also review my post on how to build an Asian dumpling pantry.
2. Make sure you have the essential cooking equipment handy. See the discussion beginning on page 5. (Hint: The little rolling pin and a scale are extremely handy!)
3. Review the “Tips for Success” on page 19 so that you won’t feel overwhelmed. Pace yourself.
4. Begin with the Basic Dumpling Dough recipe (page 22) as it is the most versatile dough in the book. All you need is all-purpose flour and water! Make it in a food processor or by hand. Make it a day ahead, if you like.
5. Pick your filling from the recipes on pages 31 through 57. They offer the flavors of China, Japan, Korea, Tibet, Nepal, and Mongolia. I chose each recipe for its distinctive qualities and how it would contribute to the entire collection of recipes. However, you can mix and match the filling and cooking method.
6. Fill and shape your dumplings. There are many options for shaping dumplings, from the simple half-moon to the charming closed satchel. I present the recipes and shapes in an increasing order of difficulty. Plug in where you feel comfortable.
7. Select the cooking method – poached, pan-fried, steamed, or deep-fried. You can follow the cooking instructions that come with the filling you’ve chosen, or apply the cooking instructions of one of the other recipes.
8. Eat and enjoy!
The Basic Dumpling Dough is a great foundation for making other kinds of dumplings. Start with that dough to practice rolling out wrappers, making handsome dumplings and then cooking them. You’ll hone your dumpling skills quite handily. Of all the doughs in Asian Dumplings, the basic dough is one that I return to the most. After mastering that dough, try your hand at making one of the others.
Wonderful! I’ll have to give my first dumpling a try!
Glad you found the tips helpful. Asian Dumplings has over 75 recipes so I can see why it’s hard to choose!
I just received your dumpling book from amazon yesterday and I love it. I want to make all of them! Where do you teach? I want to take your classes.
Marilou, check the classes and events listing for info on where I teach:
http://www.asiandumplingtips.com/andrea-nguyen-events-schedule.html
Thank you for this book! I heard about it from KCRW’s Good Food podcast and have always wanted to make Dim Sum.
After several weekends of buying the equipment (2 big metal steamer racks from Action Sales, a tortilla press from Koontz Hardware, a scale from Amazon.com) and ingredients from 99 Ranch and Pavillions, I am proud to say my girlfriend and I made our first Shu Bao. I made the char shu pork from your recipe, and she made a Filipino adobo chicken filling (substituting with our newly acquired dark soy sauce)
Photos here:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?pid=4788766&id=672226671
I definitely have to practice folding and we forgot to let the dough rise for 30 minutes after filling (oops! we were too hungry!) but they tasted amazing!
Mr. Stokes — Thank you! Lovely photos. You totally made my day. Greatly appreciate your feedback.
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There is something wonderfully permanent about their perspective
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Our stormwater service fees and other water utility costs keep rising. Why? Just so many people in Durham, right? No. Not exactly. The reason Durham will have to spend $300,000 to $700,000 to comply with the Jordan Lake clean-up rule: development, all of it. And as Raleigh presses the State to come up with a similar rule for its main drinking water supply, Falls, guess who is going to be paying the most to clean-up the lake as well? Durham. It is not unreasonable to say Durham is going to have to kick-in over $1 billion dollars to fix all the waterways in county it has impaired due to its fast growth. Waterways impaired with sediment, fecal coliform from human and domestic waste, nitrogen, metals, etc. Durham is not worried about it though. Who cares if the evidence shows these pollutants increasing as they and the developers collect all the money? After all, why should they worry? They will just fix it by continuing to raise water, sewer and stormwater fees. Durham makes money, developers make money, and once again the tax payers get screwed. And I guess if you are not in on the game, you get fired too.wllv20111108