Mastering the Dumpling without burning down the house!

May 28

May 28 Mastering the Dumpling without burning down the house!

I found Won Ton wrappers and thought, “I think it’s time for me to make dumplings.” I used to buy turkey dumplings from a now closed place in Armonk, NY but have long craved them. Little did I know that dumplings can be quite challenging. I did some googling and found Kenny Lao from Rickshaw Dumpling Bar’s recipe as well as a few others and decided to combine elements from each.

The problem for me really arose when I cooked them. While the directions said to “be careful when you add water to the pan” they failed to mention that if you mix bubbling oil and water that you start a fire. Luckily I took the pan off the stove but holding a pan with a shooting flame four feet tall was pretty scary.

Have you ever seen the onion they make at a teppanyaki place when they make a tower and shoot some liquid in the center and a flame shoots our? I now know how they do that.

Luckily the flame went down when I took the pan off the stove. Having burned the bottom of my pan, I changed pans out and this time used a paper towel with oil on it to wipe the pan with just a little oil. When the dumplings started to stick, I used PAM (the spray) instead of more oil so that I obtain that crispy brown exterior I as looking for. I wasn’t happy with the first two batches but the last batch was perfect. I ended up making meatballs with the extra turkey mixture because I already had over 30 dumplings. Way too much for just me! You end up using very little of the turkey mixture for each dumpling so you can probably make 50 dumplings with a pound of turkey.

Net net? I would make them again now that I know how to cook them without setting my house on fire!

Enjoy!

Ingredients

One or two packages of Won Ton Wrappers

(most packages have 30 - 40 wrappers in them)

Turkey Filling

1 lb of ground Turkey

1 bunch of Scallions. chopped

1/4 cup of Soy Sauce

3 - 4 Tablespoons of ginger, minced

1 Tablespoon of Red Pepper Chili Flakes (optional depending on how hot you like them)

2 Tablespoons of Sesame Oil

1 egg, beaten

Vegetable oil for pan (REMEMBER THIS IS JUST A MINIMAL COATING!) or just use PAM spray

Kosher Salt and freshly ground black Pepper

If you have on hand, I added some spicy slaw that I’d already made to some of the dumpling mixture. It worked surprisingly well.

For the Dipping Sauce

1/4 cup Soy Sauce

1/4 cup Rice Vinegar

1 Tablespoon Sesame Oil

2 inches of Ginger, minced

3-4 Cloves of Garlic

1 Teaspoon of Honey

1 Teaspoon of Sriracha Sauce (if you like it spicy!)

Directions

Combine all the ingredients for the turkey filling. I (again) used my Zyloss easy pull food chopper to mince the garlic and ginger. You can combine with a spoon or with your hands. Defrost you wrappers while you mix the turkey mixture (the ones I found were frozen).

Set up an area with a cutting board and a bowl of water and a plate or another board to put the completed dumplings on. I laid out 9 wrappers at a time. Put a dollop of the filling in the center on the wrapper (you really don’t need a lot of the filling). If you are adding in the slaw, lay that on the won ton first and then put the turkey filling on top of that.

Dip your finger in the water and circle the wrapper on the outside. I tried any number of ways to seal the dumpling / make it look pretty but you basically want to make sure that the wrapper is sealed. Here’s the instructions from Kenny Lao:

“Fold the wrapper over to make a half circle and make a pleat at the top of the curve. Pinch in the sides then lift up the edges to meet the center, creating a pouch. Pinch the top together and bend out the sides slightly to curve.”

When you have a full set of dumplings, heat your pan with either the oil or PAM and place the dumplings in the pan. VERY carefully, pour enough water into the pan so that there is about 1/2 inch of water in the pan.

Cover and cook the dumplings until the water is absorbed. They may start to stick to the pan. Scrape them out of the pan and if you need, add a little more water to finish cooking them.

Make the next set of dumplings while the first set is cooking.

To make the dipping sauce, chop the ginger and garlic or throw them in your Zyloss and process them. If you’re using the Zyloss you can add the remaining ingredients and pull the cord. If not, combine all the ingredients in a mason jar and shake. Or you can just combine in a bowl.

Dip and enjoy!