R2R: Dumplings

This month's Recipes to Rival was co-hosted by Temperance of High on the Hog and myself. We chose to make chinese dumplings. Instead of using pre-made wonton wrappers, the wrappers had to be made from scratch. One thing I wanted to do when it was my turn to co-host was leave the filling open to options. If you don't like what you make, what's the point in making it?

The first time I made the wrappers, I kneaded them by hand. I've always been a horrible kneader and this time was not any different. The flour never seemed to incorporate completely. The dough ball never became a smooth elastic ball. The wrappers were also easy to tear when I was rolling them out. I was afraid that I was going to end up with a bunch of stretched, useless wrappers so I held back on rolling them out too thin. They were probably a bit thicker than what they should have been but I decided to go ahead with what I had and make up a batch of the dumplings.

For this batch, I used the filling example that we listed with the dumplings. It was a shrimp filling that had an unusual twist. Ground Turkey. Not a normal filling for chinese dumplings but it gave it a little something extra tasty. I decided to steam the dumplings since that is how I usually how I order them in the chinese restaurants. I was able to use my bamboo steamer that I bought for the tamales we made last month.

Even though I put a lot of flour in between each wrapper, by the time I had the first batch in the steamer, the wrappers had already started to stick together. I was able to save some of them but after awhile they became one doughy mess. But I ended up with quite a few so I just threw it out and went with what I already had.

I was really surprised by the taste of the dumplings. They tasted just like pork dumplings. The wrapper was a little too doughy after steaming. Of course this is most likely due to me not rolling them out thin enough.

When I reheated them later, I pan fried them briefly to crisp up the bottoms and I liked them much better the second time.

For the next batch that I made, I used my kitchen aid to mix the dough.

This time the dough came out just like the recipe. I also didn't have any problems rolling out the dough. In fact, I think I rolled them out too much and I had really big wrappers!

For this filling, I went with a crab rangoon type filling.

As you can see, I failed miserably at the traditional pleating on the dumplings. Because I had so much extra dough (since I rolled them out too thin geez!) the top just sort of collapsed and fell over. Oh well! Just because its ugly doesn't mean it won't be tasty!

Instead of deep frying them, I pan fried them to get a crispy bottom. Of the two fillings I used, this one was my favorite. The crab was flavorful but wasn't overwhelming. The cream cheese gave was so good with the crab. Of course, cheese is always yummy! The only thing I would change is to hold back on the ginger. It was a little too much ginger for my taste.

I was really happy with this challenge. It wasn't that difficult but it allowed everyone to try and learn something new i.e. making wonton wrappers from scratch. These are easy to make and freeze wonderfully. In fact, I froze most of the ones I made of both batches (pre-cooking) so I could whip up a quick lunch or dinner later.

To see more dumplings, check out the other members of Recipes to Rival here!

For this months recipe, check out the post that Temperance put together for us here. Below is the alternate filling I used for my second batch.

Crab Rangoon Filling**
Adapted from Crab Rangoon 1 on Allrecipes.om

1 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 teaspoon minced fresh ginger root
1/4 teaspoon chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 teaspoon dried parsley
1 1/2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
1/2 pound crab meat, shredded

1. In a small bowl, mix together cream cheese, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, parsley, cilantro and crab meat.
2. Place 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of the cream cheese mixture into the center of each dumpling wrapper. Cook dumplings to your preference.

**I made half a batch of the dumpling dough and the filling. I ended up with about 24 dumplings.