gemini://makeworld.space/users/~atyrfingerprints/gemlog/2021-05-11-dumplings.gmi

heeello! a while ago i said that i wanted to try making some gyoza or similar dumplings, and finally the time has come! some of the ingredients took me a little bit to find, and i was nervous about the folding process but turns out it's pretty easy! so far i've tried a few different fillings in two types of dumpling wrappers:

this was the first type of dumpling i tried to make, after i found some wrappers that were made locally. i could have made them myself, but i suspected that would be tricky for my first time (proven in the next section, in fact).

my veggie and tofu filling consisted of cabbage, carrot, onion, shiitake mushroom, and tofu all chopped in a food processor at different finenesses so the texture wasn't too uniform. I sautéed that mixture with some oil, minced ginger and garlic, sesame oil, miso paste, and a fair bit of soy sauce until the cabbage released some of its water, and added salt and pepper to taste as well. this mixture turned out well, and i recreated it with just tofu and cabbage as the main fillings later and it was still great.

i also attempted a sweet potato and miso filling another day, which felt different but i still enjoyed it. just roasted and mashed sweet potato (ideally japanese sweet potato but i didn't have access to any) mixed with some melted butter, green onions, sesame seeds, and plenty of miso tasted pretty good if you're okay with a really smooth texture. i would also recommend pushing the mashed sweet potato through a strainer to get the stringy bits out.

ok, here's where it gets funky. i wanted to try to make some gluten-free (save for the soy sauce) dumplings, so crystal/transparent dumplings seemed like a good option, and i'd been wanting to make something similar to har gow for a while anyways. this meant making my own dough to wrap them in, though, and a few complicated ingredients. a more traditional crystal dumpling recipe will use something like tapioca starch and wheat starch, so i used this recipe as a guide for both the filling and the gluten-free wrappers:

i, uh, found out after the fact that wheat starch contains very little gluten, so maybe i'll use that next time. this worked well enough though, and i also ended up finding a mix for hagou/har gow/ha cao flour in an asian grocery store! it was just a mix of tapioca starch and rice flour, though, so i might try the recipe above with rice instead of the suggested corn/potato/arrowroot. i followed the dough instructions on the back of the packet for that batch, which were different than in the recipe, to heat and stir the flour and water over low heat until it's thickened and add a spoon or two of oil to smooth the dough out, so i would use this method next time as well.

the filling was simple enough as described in that recipe, just shrimp mixed in a certain way with much of the same seasonings as my gyoza. my one regret was that i bought those smaller shrimp they use in salads because they were on sale, but this made the dumplings not as juicy as i think they could have been, so i'll revise next time. overall the process of rolling out and filling the wrappers was fairly simple, though a bit tedious when dough would rip and i'd need to reknead and roll it. i'd still recommend this method and type of dumpling, though.

this was a lot easier than i imagined, i found that i kept watching videos and thinking "my hands won't do that" but they really did. just wet the edges of the wrapper (if you're not using fresh dough), fold, pleat 3-4 folds on each side of the dumpling, starting from the center, and press the edges well to seal. watching a video will make it much clearer than description could, but if you're really having trouble there's many alternative folds like the "triangle" method.

if you plan to freeze some dumplings to cook later, freeze them separately on a sheet pan before dumping them into a freezer bag so they won't stick to each other. don't thaw these before cooking, and in most cases you can just add a minute or two to the cooking times i mention below when doing it from frozen.

there are a few different options for cooking that i've had success with: steaming, pan-frying/steaming, and deep frying. a proper steamer would be ideal for the first method, but i just use a metal steamer basket in a pot with a lid and a cup of water, and with small pieces of parchment paper under the dumplings to prevent sticking. from fresh, both types of dumplings will only take about three minutes, you're looking for the wrapper to turn more translucent and if there's shrimp or other meat, that of course needs to be cooked through.

the next two methods will only work for gyoza/non-crystal dumplings as far as i know, and i don't have any experience with how homemade gyoza wrappers would withstand these. pan-frying and then steaming just means dropping the dumplings into a hot oiled pan for a few minutes to let the bottoms crisp up, then flip them to a different side and do the same before pouring in about a quarter cup of water and immediately putting a lid on. keep a close eye on them, and as soon as the water is cooked off, take them out if they're cooked or add some more water and repeat if they're not. this method is takes a bit of practice so you don't ruin your pan or overcook the dumplings, the last method is the one i recommend if possible. deep fried dumplings. are so. good. they're a nice crispy snack or appetizer, and will only need a few minutes in hot oil. if your dumplings have some holes they might explode though, so watch out.

dumpling adventures

gyoza

crystal shrimp dumplings/har gow

folding

freezing and cooking