Asian Dumplings Cookbook Archives - Page 3 of 5

Week of Asian Dumpling Fever and Book Reviews

It’s been an overwhelming week of dumplings as people rev up for the Lunar New Year, Chinese New Year, Vietnamese Tet – however way you’d like to call one of the biggest Asian holidays. We’re looking at Valentine’s Day as THE date to welcome the Year of the Tiger. Dumplings are typically a central element on Chinese menus, and with the book being out, many people want to get cooking doughy Asian morsels.

I was thrilled to see an outpouring of interest by the following people: (if I missed you, send me a message)

Christine Yue Gallary and Eric Slatkin, CHOW.com: I've been working with CHOW since last fall on a few projects involving video and recipes. This past week, it all came together in one giant post called "Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year, Together at Last". Just in time for the New Year!

Nathan Lau of House of Annie: Asian Dumplings inspired Nate to master rolling out own dumpling wrappers. With practice, he’s become a pro! Hurray! If you’re challenged by the text instructions in Asian Dumplings, watch the new instructional video I posted on that very basic technique.

Jacqueline Church: Jackie was so excited about the book coming out. She embarked on adventures to an H-Mart Asian grocery store, then went repeated rounds with making her own dumplings in order to master Asian dumpling techniques. If I could give Jackie a certificate of achievement, I would! Through that experience, she wrote a lovely review of Asian Dumplings on Suite101.com.

Grace Niwa and Jaden Hair, NewAsianCuisine.com: I have known these two women for several years, and now they have joined forces on Grace’s site devoted to Asian cooking. The revamped, snazzy site debuted this week and I was delighted to have the Japanese shrimp and pork gyoza recipe from Asian Dumplings be part of their new partnership. Go Asian gals!

Kristina Gill: Goodness, while she was in Italy (her place of residence), we communicated about Asian Dumplings. She asked for an exclusive recipe and I obliged. Today, Kristina posted my poached vegan tofu and vegetable wonton in spicy oil at Design Sponge, and surprised me by including Asian Dumplings in her new cookbook column launch at Mattbites.com.

Finally, there was a very thoughtful review by Tom Witcom of Lake County Journals in Illinois. I know I’ve done my job as a cookbook author when it’s not just the coasts that find my work engaging, but also people across the country.

Hope you have an enjoyable, dumpling-filled weekend, wherever you may be.

Countdown to Chinese New Year: Easy Dumpling, Cocktail, and Decorating Ideas

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You may be thinking of nachos, guacamole and Super Bowl Sunday, but I’m focusing on the weekend after that: Valentine’s Day – Sunday, February 14 – to be exact, when people all over the world will also be celebrating Lunar New Year. It will be a double whammy – a romantic, luck-laden weekend.

Don’t miss out on doing something for Lunar New Year in 2010. It does not need to be extravagant. What’s important is getting together with family and friends to relax and renew. Late last year, my friend and colleague Jennifer Spiegel of Fork and Spoon event productions in San Francisco and I talked at length about how we can encourage people to have fun with Chinese New Year. The holiday can be intimidating if you get bogged down in too many details. What if you take a hassle-free approach? What’s involved?

Jennifer and I brainstormed and a couple of weeks ago had the opportunity to put our Chinese New Year ideas on camera. We teamed up to tape a short segment for View from the Bay, a popular San Francisco television show that broadcasts on our local ABC News affiliate. The segment aired this afternoon and is below for you to watch. Recipes are posted at the View from the Bay site.

You may recall that last October, I showed View from the Bay
hosts Janelle Wang and Spencer Christian how to make baked char siu bao pork buns. This time around, Jennifer and I had Nick Smith on camera with us. We shot the segment in
the Fork and Spoon kitchen, which is where I worked with Pablo to make hundreds of Asian dumplings for 125 people.

In less than 2 weeks, be prepared to say “Goodbye” to the Year of the Ox and “Hello” to the Year of the Tiger. Maybe our baked spiced lamb and potato curry puff, Shanghai Tiger cocktail, and nifty centerpiece will be part of your festivities?

The Perfect Soup Dumpling – CHOW.com Video

Asian Dumplings Cookbook, Cooking Tips & Tricks, Dumpling Restaurants

Last year CHOW.com invited me to do a video on what goes into making perfect Shanghai soup dumplings (xiao long bao). As you can imagine, I had much to say about the subject, especially after spending 3 weeks making them every day to get the recipe instructions right. It was hard to pick a spot that consistently produced excellent dumplings, and I deliberated for weeks. But CHOW.com producer Meredith Arthur was super patient, even though she was expecting a baby. Then I settled on Shanghai Dumpling King (3319 Balboa Street, between 34th Ave & 35th Ave) located in the Outer Richmond in San Francisco; I’ve mentioned this restaurant before as being the inspiration for the Chinese sugar egg puffs recipe (bai tang sha weng) .

CHOW videographer Eric Slatkin just finished editing the video and released it over the weekend. "The Perfect" is a series of CHOW.com videos that asks experts to share their insights on culinary excellence. Here is what I had to say about Shanghai soup dumplings:

"The Perfect Soup Dumpling" by Meredith Arthur and Eric Slatkin
Video presented here courtesy of CHOW.com

For the video above, Meredith, Eric, and I convened at ‘the King’ last September. We had a great afternoon of filming and were very well fed too. The cooks and staff at Shanghai Dumpling King were friendly, gracious, and proud of their xiao long bao. They spoke limited English and I got to practice my Mandarin, which you’ll hear in the video. But we all love food, and their xiao long bao brilliantly communicate the skill, ingenuity, and care that goes into making excellent Asian dumplings.

What do you think makes for a perfect soup dumpling?

If you've got a favorite place to get good xiao long bao, do share your tip in this 1/24/10 post.

Tips on How to Have a Dumpling Party (and not work hard)

Asian Dumplings Cookbook, Cooking Tips & Tricks

It may not surprise you to know that I involve Asian dumplings in a fair amount of my entertaining and social activities. People come over to my house and they get dumplings. I go to parties or pot-luck dinners and I bring dumplings. Let’s just say that I like to share dumplings with others. Spreading the dumpling love also prevents me from getting the dumpling belly – a physical condition brought on by over consumption.

However, you can have your Asian dumplings and eat them too – that is, you don’t have to work too hard to keep the flow of dumplings going. They can be labor intensive but with a little strategic planning and a flexible approach, dumplings can be a no sweat effort and lots of fun. Here are a few tips to keep in your back pocket:

Asian Dumplings among NPR Best 10 Cookbooks of 2009

Asian Dumplings Cookbook

Yowza — T. Susan Chang selected Asian Dumplings as one of NPR's Best 10 Cookbooks of 2009! As the cookbook reviewer for the Boston Globe and contributor to the Kitchen Window column on National Public Radio (NPR), Chang sees most of the cookbooks published in the United States every year. I greatly respect her work and to be included alongside The Pleasures of Cooking for One by Judith Jones, Gourmet Today by Ruth Reichl, Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking by Eileen Yin-Fei Lo, and Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day by Peter Reinhart — well that's pretty amazing company to keep.

You may know of Ruth Reichl's acclaimed work as the LA Times and New York Times restaurant reviewer, food writer and editor of Gourmet magazine, but Judith Jones is the legendary editor who oversaw the publication of Julia Child's cookbooks, Eileen Yin-Fei Lo has been a maven of Chinese cooking for decades, and Peter Reinhart is royalty among bread bakers. Here's an excerpt of Chang's comments about Asian Dumplings:

Personally, I have always strictly believed that the effort of making dumplings yourself magically negates the calories you might accrue by eating them. With the help of this book, you may find yourself reaching the same conclusion.

For the full article, read NPR.org's The 10 Best Cookbooks of 2009

Chinese Steamed Rolls Recipe

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Chinese yeast dough is extremely versatile and easy to prepare. In fact, I usually let the food processor do the work so that the dough comes together in minutes. With the dough, I make filled buns to create steamed or pan-fried bao. Or I form the dough into little rolls that can be served alongside rich meats, such as Cantonese roasted pork, roasted duck, deep-fried duck or braised pork belly. You may have seen these types of rolls at Asian weddings, celebrations and the frozen food aisle at Chinese markets. They’re also the ones at places like Momofuku Ssam Bar and Noodle Bar in New York City. No Ancient Chinese secret here. Just an easy yeast dough made from grocery store ingredients. As a bonus, you can freeze the steamed rolls for up to 3 months. Just thaw and resteam to refresh and reheat.

Makes 16 large, 24 medium, or 32 small rolls

1 1/4 pounds Basic Yeast Dough (see Asian Dumplings, page 92, or “The Trick to Making Bao” in the Los Angeles Times)

1. Cut the dough into 16, 24, or 32 pieces for large, medium, and small rolls, respectively. Then roll out the dough pieces to form circles that are a scant 1/4 inch thick. There’s no need to make a belly here.

2. Brush a little canola oil on one half of the dough circle to prevent it from sticking and make it easier to pry open later. Fold the circle over into a semi-circle and then put on a parchment paper square.

3. Place in a bamboo steamer or on a baking sheet, let rise for 20 to 30 minutes, and then steam over boiling water for 6 to 8 minutes, until puffy and dry looking. When done, the rolls will resemble pairs of thick lips. Serve the rolls with the sliced meat or pre-assemble the little sandwiches for your guests. Moisten the roll with some of the cooking juices, if available.