I recently tried making dumplings for a fundraiser we held. I had never made them before but had always wanted to and thought a party would be a good time to try. While pork is obviously a more traditional stuffing for a dumpling we didn’t want to prohibit some of our non-pork-eaters from enjoying them. I tried cooking them two ways: traditional potsticker method and baking. The potsticker way method definitely leads to better dumplings but for making a big batch, takes a far amount of work. In all, these were quite tasty but admittedly a fair amount of work.

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 small white onion
• 1 carrot
• 3 scallion stalks
• 4 garlic cloves
• Ginger root
• Soy Sauce
• Sriracha
• Sesame oil
• Peanut oil
• Wonton wrappers

To begin, place the onion, carrot, ginger, scallion, and garlic into a food processor on chop. Make sure not to liquify the ingredients but they should be very finely diced and be in a smooth consistency.

Add the vegetables to a large bowl with the meat mixture. Stir in about 1.5 tablespoons of sesame oil, 2 tablespoons of soy sauce and as much sriracha as you think you and your guests would like.

At this point, I would recommend frying up a small batch of the mixture to check the seasoning. While you can serve the dumplings with a dipping sauce, the mixture should be strongly flavored.

To make a dumpling, fill the center of a wonton wrapper with just over one teaspoon of the dumpling mixture. Make very sure not to over-stuff the dumpling.

Dip the tip of your finger in warm water and spread around the edges of wonton wrapper. Fold the edges together and seal all the way around. There are then two cooking techniques we tried. First, to bake the dumplings, arrange them in a peanut oil coated baking pan and then brush the dumplings lightly with peanut oil. Place the dumplings in a 400 F oven for 8 minutes, flip, and cook for an additional 5-8 minutes.

Conversely, you can make traditional pot stickers, which is FAR more labor intensive but also much better. Heat a tablespoon of peanut oil in a pan. Place a few dumplings in the pan, making sure that they have full contact with the pan service. Fry the dumplings on that side for 3-4 minutes until they are browned on the bottom. Most recipes I saw then moved onto the steaming process but I would flip and fry for 30-60 seconds on the opposite side as well to get some texture.

Once that is done, add 1/2-1 cup of water to cover the pan. Place a lid over the pan. There will surely be a lot of sputtering and you might be concerned but it’ll be fine. The dumplings should steam in this process for a few minutes until the water is evaporated.

The dumplings should have a texture on the fried side but have a softish dumpling feel elsewhere. Serve them hot alongside a dipping sauce. I tried to make my own with garlic, soy sauce, ginger and scallions. It was fine, but it was honestly much better when we switched to used a teriyaki dipping sauce we had bought.

These were pretty fun to make. Most importantly, I’m now pretty comfortable cooking dumplings such that I’ll probably play around with different fillings and cooking techniques. Like learning to make pizza so you can try lots of different stuff, this is a good recipe to try just for the purpose of trying different combinations in the future.

- M

dpetc Appetizers, Asian, Recipes