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Tips on Asian Dumpling Menu Planning

Asian Dumplings Cookbook, Cooking Tips & Tricks

As people settle into the Asian Dumplings cookbook, they want to spread the carb fun by organizing get-togethers. Wayne F. from Vancouver emailed this morning with this question:

Hi Andrea. I just wanted to say how much I am enjoying your Asian Dumplings book. You've done a great job with the instructions and providing fascinating background behind the recipes. I had a copy from the library but it is in so much demand that I can't renew it so I bought two copies. We are planning a dumpling party so I have to lend out one book to friends so they can practice.

Any advice on which dumplings to serve together? I'm looking for relatively easy ones to make and a variety to expose my friends to. Here is our proposed menu:

Boiled – pork and napa cabage water dumplings
Pan-fried – pot stickers
Steamed – har gow, siu mai, Chinese chive dumplings
Deep fried – spring rolls, taro puffs

My response:

Wayne, I want to come to this party not just because you purchase two copies of Asian Dumplings(!!), but there will be fabulous food! Unfortunately, I am geographically challenged, being in California and you in Canada.

Your Northern and Southern Chinese dumpling menu is quite ambitious. You’ve got a lot of different kinds of doughs and fillings going on. Pulling off that menu will require a fair amount of work and coordination on your part.

You seem like an organized fellow since you've lent out a copy of the book and given assignments to your friends. I like that! Nevertheless, I suggest scaling down the menu.

Here are a few tips on Asian dumpling menu planning:

How to Teach Children to Cook? Make Wontons

Cooking Tips & Tricks

I was asked to a number of food-related events during my visit to Yale university this past weekend. One of the events involved families with children adopted from Vietnam. The kids ranged in age from 3 to 12 years old.

My niece Paulina and her cohorts of the ALIVE program at Yale outreach specifically to parents who have adopted children from Vietnam. The parents, kids, and students get together on average once every 3 weeks. The experience helps the children and parents to build bridges between their Vietnamese and American heritage.

Paulina and her friend Vi asked me for a dumpling recipe that they could make with the children. I suggested wontons. That’s what my mother started me on after I learned to make rice for our family. I recommended the poached wontons in soy sauce and chile oil (see the thin skin chapter in Asian Dumplings) because:

(1) the Yale students could prepare the filling in advance
(2) there are good commercial wonton skins available at supermarkets
(3) anyone can wrap a wonton and
(4) the dumplings are simply boiled and then served with the dipping sauce.

Perfect for a party of about 20 kids and an equal amount of adults (40 people total). The chile oil was omitted for picky eaters. Whether or not you make wontons, think of the above 4 points when picking a dumpling to teach children. That is, keep it simple.

By the time I arrived at the event, the wonton filling station was already set up at a coffee table — the perfect height for children to gather around and work. I didn’t think any of that up. The Yale students did!

After a brief introduction, the children and Yale students set out to fill and shape wontons. “The kids are really fast,” Paulina told me. “We showed them how to do it, with using their fingers to wet the wrapper. Then they made their own shapes.”

In about 30 minutes, there were about 100 filled wontons, ready to be poached off. I amazed. The cooked wontons were eaten faster than they were made. Here's a satisfied dumpling maker and eater:

When I was a child, folding wontons was a kitchen assignment that I got. I mostly worked alone and now I know that it’s a terrific kids party activity!

Some other helpful links:

How to fold basic wonton shapes (video instruction)
Wonton skin buying guide (tips on finding,
choosing, and using)
Crab Rangoon fried wonton recipe (an American
classic)
Almost
Meatless
Pork and Vegetable Pot Stickers Recipe (w/ an interesting shape to
learn)
Modern
Indian Chile Pea Puffs Recipe(a baked wonton acting like a samosa)

Wonton Skin Buying Tips

Asian Ingredients, Cooking Tips & Tricks

If you have time and a pasta machine, try your hand at making your own wonton skins. But if you don’t, be an informed, smart wonton skin shopper! Many first-timer dumpling makers start with pre-made wonton skins as their wrappers, so I hope that this post will elaborate on text in Asian Dumplings and deliver you even closer to dumpling mastery. When shopping for good wonton skins, keep these tips in mind:

Where to Buy
Good pre-made wonton skins are sold at Chinese and Southeast Asian markets. There is a faster turnover rate and they have a bigger selection.

There are decent wonton skins at supermarkets. Dynasty brand above, made by JFC (an Asian company) is actually quite good. Many specialty grocers carry Azumaya but I’ve consistently found that they are dry, thick, and difficult to work with. Yes, they pass the paper ream test described below but they disappoint.

How to Buy
Pick your thickness. Wonton skins come in different thicknesses. I’ve seen thin, medium, and thick. Then there’s also super thin Hong Kong-style and egg-less Shanghai-style skins that are pure white. I like thin ones, but medium is okay. Thick wonton skins produce an overly doughy result that can overwhelm the filling. Egg-less wonton skins are great for vegans but lack a bit of richness.

Examine the ingredients. Aim for skins with egg and no food coloring. Read the label. Frozen eggs are better than no egg at all, in my opinion. Manufactures add food coloring to mimic the use of real eggs. But my homemade wonton skins don’t have a yellow cast.

Test for freshness. After determining the wonton skins thickness, I test their freshness. I run my fingers on the stack and if they fall nicely like a ream of paper, they they’re fresh and supple. If they are smashed together and damp looking, you don’t want that package.

In Your Kitchen
Use more water to seal purchased skins. People in the past used egg and I think it’s because their skins may have been very dry or on the thick side, thus requiring extra “glue”. Also, egg is used with spring roll skins. But you can get by just fine with water.

Freeze leftover skins or shaped wontons. You can keep them for about 1 month. Or, follow the directions in the recipe to shape the wontons (works best with raw fillings) and then freeze them for the future!

Wonton skins are a good substitute steamed open face sui mai dumplings. Just use a round cookie cutter to get a round skin. BUT, wonton skins are not great for pot stickers as the skins are too delicate. Pot stickers need some chew to them to reflect their wonderful rusticity.

Asian Dumplings Potluck Tips

Asian Dumpling Basics, Asian Dumplings Cookbook, Cooking Tips & Tricks

I love to spread and share the wealth when it comes to cooking and eating dumplings. You don't have to do all the work. Let go and invite others to participate. Aside from organizing a dumpling making party, you can also hold a potluck! Over the weekend, I attended an Asian Dumplings cookbook club potluck organized by 18 Reasons, a non-profit organization in San Francisco that’s part of the Bi-Rite family of locally-owned businesses in the Mission district. About 20 people attended with an amazing array of dumplings prepared from recipes in the book. They totally strutted their Asian dumpling stuff.

My goodness — there were Korean mandu, pot stickers, Chinese poached water dumplings (shui jiao), Vietnamese water dumplings (banh bot loc), Shanghai soup dumplings, Filipino lumpia, spiced lamb Nepalese momos, Cantonese shrimp rice rolls, samosas, taro puffs, and Indian gulab jamun milk dumplings. I brought Singaporean spiced pineapple tarts. I’d never seen such a range of Asian dumplings in one place at one time (even my own kitchen). The potluck warmed the cockles of my heart and gave me a dumpling carb overload! (See photographer Emily Heller's montage of images to get a sense of how much fun we had.)

It was fabulous to hear people's experiences with making dumplings, how they didn't think they could do it and how they practiced and persisted. As someone at potluck said, "Dumplings are instant smiles."

My Baking Soda and Bao Mistake (don’t do this!)

Asian Ingredients, Cooking Tips & Tricks

I try to not cook too early in the morning, especially when I have not had my cup of coffee. One recent weekend morning, I forgot that personal rule of thumb and set out to make a batch of yeasted bun (bao) dough for some steamed chicken bao that I'd planned to take to a luncheon. "How can I fail," I smugly said to myself. I use a scale to accurately weigh my flour. I've made this recipe a zillion times. It's fail-safe. They will be steamed and still warm when I arrive at the luncheon and present our hosts with homemade bao. Perfect timing. It seemed all perfectly downhill from there.

Well, not. What happened was this: I reached into my cupboard for the round container of baking powder and mistakenly picked up the baking soda, which came in a similarly-shaped container. For years I kept the soda in a glass container in another cupboard, but several months ago, I purchased some organic baking soda from Trader Joe's and the little cylindrical paper container was of the same size as your typical Clabber Girl/Calumet brand.

When the dough rising time was over, I noticed that it hadn't puffed up as much as usual. Oh, well — I thought, it may be the air temperature or humidity level. Whatever. I formed my buns, let them rise and steamed them up.

Sending Dumplings in the Mail

Asian Dumplings Cookbook, Cooking Tips & Tricks

I came home yesterday and found an oddly shaped package stuffed into my mailbox. The postage indicated that it came from Singapore, and on the back the sender revealed himself: Christopher Tan, an Asian food expert, author, and writer whom I luckily call a dear friend. Ha! We are in the Lunar New Year season and I upon tearing open the package, I found exactly what I suspected, a box of pineapple kuih tart, a dumpling/cookie that’s a must-have for Chinese New Year celebrations in Singapore. The tarts are fashioned to look like small tangerines, a traditional good luck symbol. The whole clove stuck on top underscores the tangerine effect.

I first tasted the spiced pineapple jam filled treats in New York City at Saveur magazine headquarters, when I was visiting with Editor-in-Chief James Oseland. We were discussing the Asian Dumplings recipe collection and James said, “Here try these.” He opened up a large tin of kuih tart that Chris has sent him. They were heavenly and I unknowingly ate the whole clove decoration and received an extra spicy high. When I returned to California, I emailed Chris about them and he pointed me in the right direction for developing a recipe (see the Sweets chapter, page 195 for the spiced pineapple-filled dumplings recipe). That was in fall of 2007. The book was released in last August. Getting a box of the dumplings from Chris makes me feel like I’ve come full circle, though there is still more to explore in the world of Asian dumplings.

Tips for Mailing Dumplings
If you’re thinking of mailing dumplings, they should be relatively sturdy cooked ones. These little gems travel well, so long as you pack them tightly like Chris did, each one in a little paper cup. There was a layer of parchment between the layers. This year, Chris changed his dough recipe and made it flakier than mine, so the dumplings crumbled a tad during the arduous trip via air mail. They nevertheless tasted great. Every time I eat one, there’s a huge grin on my face.

Which dumplings mail well? If I were to mail dumplings, I’d go for the kuih tart or one of sticky rice dumplings wrapped in banana or lotus leaf. Individually wrap and then freeze the leaf-wrapped dumplings so that they stay fresh, then mail them in the shortest time possible. In the U.S. the all-you-can-stuff priority mail flat rate boxes ($4.95 or $10.70) are fabulous deals. Whatever dumpling you send, the recipient will feel like he/she is the luckiest person on Earth!