Chinese Dumplings Cooking Lesson

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I'm Alison from the U.S. here in Lausanne with my husband, Howie, from Singapore. We love to travel, but I've never actually lived outside of the U.S. and I'm so grateful for the opportunity! This year for me is about both exploring Europe (I love all things art & architecture) and making new friends within IMD-land and doing my best to cook edible food for my hubby while he is working hard. And the best thing is... who knows where we'll all end up in a year?!

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Somehow, by offering my kitchen for a cooking class, I ended up volunteering to be the teacher as well! Our apartment has a very small kitchen but it is open to the living room which makes for a nice big space to have some cooking lessons. I decided we would make Chinese dumplings so that we could sit around the table instead of crowding around a stove. My husband is Chinese, from Singapore, and we usually eat “Asian food” most days so I’ve picked up a few of the simpler recipes from him. The lesson was great fun- I hope that the gals who attended will try this sometime on their own, but at least we had a blast cooking and chatting and sipping some wine. Honestly I’ve never cooked so much in my life (I’ve got a great husband who usually does the cooking!) but I’m starting to enjoy it and realizing that I know more than I thought I did. Looking forward to more lessons and recipes shared!

The lesson started with shopping. I am so lucky to be living just 100m from the best Asian (well… Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese) shop in the city! While many things can be bought from Co-op or Migros, some things are quite unique to the Asian store. Here’s my shopping list:

Dumpling insides:

dried shitake mushrooms

white mushrooms

chives

green onion

ground pork (I’ve only found this at the big Migros/Co-op)

shrimp (uncooked- frozen is good from the Asian shop)

Dumpling/Wonton wrapper (find these in the cooler at the Asian shop, or some other stores carry them as well. 2 packages fed 7 people)

Sauces/marinades:

Light/Normal Soy Sauce (not dark)

Oyster sauce

Sesame Oil

Dark Rice Vinegar (or Chinese vinegar- be sure its dark, not white!)

Ginger

White pepper

Cognac (if you have it)

You can use any combination of the above ingredients for the inside of the dumplings or add your own unique ingredients. Because we steam the dumplings, it won’t need to cook for very long so no need to cook the meat ahead of time. We did fry up the mushrooms a bit though, to ensure they were soft!

• Mushrooms: Soak any dried mushrooms for 20ish minutes in warm water. We cut off most of the stem on the dried mushrooms, but if they’re soft, its fine to leave them in. Cut all of the mushrooms into roughly 1cmx1cm pieces, or smaller. Heat some oil (I used sunflower oil… just don’t use olive oil as the taste with Asian dishes can be a little funny) and fry up some garlic cloves- add the mushrooms and fry until they start to brown. No need to cook all the way as they will cook in the steamer.
• Pork: For the ground pork its best to marinate it in the fridge overnight so it soaks up the flavor of the sauce. I used about 1 part sesame oil, 2 parts dark soy sauce (would be 3 for light soy sauce) and 4 parts oyster sauce. Put enough sauce in to coat the meat. It will turn dark, but you don’t want it to be soggy with sauce. Do not cook ahead of time…
• Shrimp: If frozen, defrost in a bowl of water. Take off any shell or tail parts. Cut the shrimp into 1cmx1cm or smaller pieces. You don’t need to marinate these, but you can if you want. Just a bit of cognac or soy sauce/sesame oil will do the trick. Do not cook ahead of time…
• Onions/Chives: Chop into very small pieces.

Assemble the dumplings: Put your ingredients into the middle of one of the square wrappers. I think its easier if you hold it so the filling doesn’t spill everywhere. Get a little dish of water and dip your fingers first into the water, and then spread the water onto the outer edge of the dumpling on 2 sides. Then fold from a diamond shape into a triangle shape (wet edges facing dry ones) and press together. Voila!

Now steam the dumplings (many ways you can do this- we used our rice cooker) approx. 5 minutes. It might help to flip the dumplings over ½ way through to get both sides of the wrapper equally moist. The wrappers become slightly transparent as they cook and the flour coating disappears. (Many recipes say to boil the dumplings- you can do this too but its better for soups. Pan frying will work good too, its just not as healthy as steaming!)

Dipping Sauce: Mostly soy sauce, a splash of dark rice vinegar and finely grated ginger.

Now you’re ready to dip and eat!

My guests also helped me make these apple dumplings, which were delicious! It was my first time making them but they were so simple to make and very yummy:

http://www.de

signspongeonline.com/2

010/03/in-the-kitchen-with-stacy-newgents-apple-dumplings.html

Alison