Technique Videos and Photos Archives - Page 2 of 2

How to Fold Basic Asian Dumpling Shapes: Half Moon, Pea Pod and Big Hug (Video)

Asian Dumplings Cookbook, Technique Videos and Photos

I’ve said this so many times in cooking classes and I’m typing it out right here: When folding up Asian dumplings, start out simple and work your way up. The number one goal at the beginning is to get the darn wrapper closed! Concentrate on that and then hone the aesthetics as your progress.

You’ll find that fresh, homemade wrappers yield to your touch and manipulation much easier than store-bought wrappers, which tend to be dry side and require moistening with water. The shapes that I demonstrate in this video produce with CHOW.com are for the most basic shapes. The idea is that you start with a half moon then you can make a pea pod and a big hug. They latter two shapes build upon the half moon. They are merely baby steps on your journey toward becoming a dumpling master!

These instructions are meant to go along with the text on pages 26 and 27 of the Asian Dumplings cookbook. Also check out the general tips for shaping dumplings on page 28. Even though these dumplings were formed from wrappers that I had just rolled out by hand, you can apply these techniques to purchased wrappers.

Presented here courtesy of CHOW.com

More how-to videos:

How to Roll Out Asian Dumpling Wrappers (video v.2)

Cooking Tips & Tricks, Technique Videos and Photos

If you have made Asian dumplings using purchased wrappers, how about trying out making your wrappers from scratch? Freshly made Asian dumpling wrappers are (1) easier to fold and shape, (2) do not require water to seal as they are super soft and moist, (3) taste a lot better than store bought ones, and (4) do not involve a special trip to an Asian market. The ingredients are at your fingertips: all-purpose flour and water. Once you have rolled your own, you’ll be on your way to making perfect pot stickers, mandu, momos, Shanghai soup dumplings (xiao
long bao), baked and steamed bao, and deep-fried curry puffs.

To encourage cooks to try rolling out their own fresh dumpling wrappers, I posted a YouTube video tutorial last May. But I’m my worse critic, and soon after I uploaded the video, I felt like it had room for improvement. I wanted to lead cooks from beginning to the end of how to form the wrappers. A few days ago, my husband and I spent a rainy afternoon making this more detailed how-to video. You’ll see me in my home kitchen and my hands do most of the ‘talking.’

I can’t physically/personally teach you how to do make your own
wrappers, but I think you’ll gain lots of pointers between this video
and the detailed instructions on page 24 and 25 of Asian Dumplings. See page 22 of Asian Dumplings for the basic dumpling dough recipe.

Related information:

What if you don’t have a tortilla press like I do?
Substitute some kind of heavy flat bottomed object, such as a 4-cup glass measuring cup, saucepan, or skillet.

Helpful how-to links:

Do-it-yourself Asian rolling pin: it is simple and cheap to make a bunch for a dumpling party!
Basic dumpling shapes: Half Moon, Pea Pod and Big Hug (video)
Advanced dumpling shapes: Pleated Crescent (video)
How to Shape a Rope Edge (video)

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

All Recipes, Asian Dumplings Cookbook, Chinese Dumpling Recipes, Chinese recipes, Cooking Tips & Tricks, Holiday Dumplings, Technique Videos and Photos

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?

Vietnamese Rice and Pork Pyramid Dumplings Recipe (Banh Gio)

All Recipes, Gluten Free Recipes, Rice Dumpling Recipes, Technique Videos and Photos, Vietnamese Dumpling Recipes

If you’re enamored by dumplings at all, you
probably have a list of comforting favorites. I’m partial to this Vietnamese
dumpling wrapped in banana leaf as it was part of my childhood. My mother
prepared dozens of these northern Vietnamese bánh giò (“baan zaw”) for our
family to enjoy for breakfast or an afternoon snack. Commonly found at
Vietnamese delis and sandwich shops, these dumplings are best when made at home
and eaten fresh from the steamer, when they are soft and redolent of the
tealike fragrance of the banana leaf wrapper. Inside, the firmish-soft rice
dough encases a savory pork, shallot, and wood ear mushroom.

After my siblings and I left home for college, my
mother stopped making them on a regular basis. I missed them dearly and last
month, I put in a request for a batch and a lesson. She obliged and the recipe
and video below showcase her nifty Viet-American technique that involves
banana leaf (traditional) with aluminum foil (New World). It’s totally simple
to master, even for novices.

Zongzi Wrapping Lesson from a Master

Holiday Dumplings, Rice Dumpling Recipes, Technique Videos and Photos

This Thursday, May 28 is the fifth day of the fifth moon according the Lunar Calendar. On that day, a good billion plus people around the world will be celebrating Duānwǔ Jié (端午節), a Chinese holiday that’s also known as the Double Fifth Festival in China and the Dragon Boat Festival in the West. What’s the deal with dragon boats? The story is that the holiday commemorates the drowning suicide death of Qu Yuan, a poet, scholar, and minister to the King of Chu in 278 BCE. A man willing to sacrifice his own life for the sake of his moral convictions, Qu was banished for treason when the king allied with a rival warlord. When the rival warlord over took the Chu state, Qu threw himself into the Miluo River in Hunan province.

The local people admired Qu so much that they attempted to preserve his body by throwing food into the river to distract the fish from eating his corpse. This is how the practice of making zòngzi , a.k.a. Chinese tamales, began. You have to paddle dragon boats out into the river and then throw the bamboo-leaf wrapped dumplings into the water. Pyramid-like zòngzi, made primarily of sticky rice and either a sweet or savory filling, becomes very heavy and hearty after its hours boiling so they’re bound to keep the fish busy for a while.

How to Make Shanghai Spring Roll Wrappers

Asian Dumpling Basics, Technique Videos and Photos

I thought that making Shanghai spring roll wrappers would be the hardest challenge to developing the recipe collection for the book. Few cookbooks offered instructions, and in Asia, they're made by professional cooks. With lots of research, practice and a little help from friends who provided photos, such as Robyn Eckhardt's Eating Asia blog posting on a popiah skin maker in Malacca, I figured it out. Actually, I became addicted.

It's not hard to do once you get the swing of it. The recipe is in the Asian Dumplings cookbook, in the "Thin Skins" chapter. Recipe testers from Los Angeles, to Bloomington to New York City tried out the instructions and contributed their thoughts. Lillian in New York suggested a flame tamer if your stove has high output burners, Candy in Indiana moved her skillet aside to control the heat, and Victor in Santa Monica used a simple cheap Teflon skillet. They all found this companion video to be extra helpful.

Hope you do too! Feel free to add your tips.