Vegetarian dumplings

I love dumplings. I can't tell you how much other than to say that I believe my life would be poorer if I have never had a dumpling. One my most cherished memories was when I was 4 or 5, watching my mother make dumplings. Back then, she would make her own skins and it was mesmerizing to watch her hands work with the rolling pin and dough. Nowadays, she usually goes for the pre-made, store-bought skins, which can also be quite good. After all, as long as the skins are serviceable, the flavor is in the filling. My mom makes really delicious pork dumplings. When I lived at home, we would sit together in the kitchen and chat while we filled dumplings. Unfortunately, I'm trying to eat more like a vegetarian these days so pork fillings for my own dumplings are not ideal.

In my search for a good vegetarian dumpling, I've had some really bad ones. Most of the store-bought ones I've had fall apart when boiled, which actually angers me a little when I see it. To me, it's a sign of a poorly made and poorly sealed dumpling skin. The vegetable dumplings at restaurants are usually much better, but they always seem rather anemic. Restaurant dumplings tend to be more skin and less filling, and the fillings are generally not very hearty. Maybe this is because my mom always made ginormous dumplings and super-sized wontons. Anyways, I decided to make my own vegetarian dumpling fillings.

I combined leftover seitan (Mark Bittman's recipe) with softened mung bean vermicelli (chinese vermicelli or glass noodles), scallions, reconstituted dried mushrooms, eggs, sesame oil, soy sauce and corn starch. The seitan and mushrooms were supposed to give it a hearty, meaty flavor and texture. The problem with chopped up seitan and mushrooms is that they don't have the sticky elasticity of meat. So adding the egg and corn starch helps to bind the filling together. I may consider adding bread crumbs in the future to add to the effect of the eggs. I don't have any measurements handy since I eyeballed everything.

Once everything was chopped up (I used a food processor) and mixed together, I put the mixture in front of the TV along with store-bought skins, a bowl of water and an empty plate. While watching TV, I spooned the mixture onto the skins, dipped my finger in water and traced the edge of the skin to wet it. Then I sealed the dumpling and placed it on the plate. Don't stack dumplings on top of each other. Make one layer and put in the freezer. Once they're frozen through, you can toss them into a bag and they won't stick together. There are many ways to seal a dumpling. The simplest is to fold the skin in half and press. There are fancier ways of doing it, but I won't go into that here. Just make sure you're pressing as much air out as you're sealing. Lots of air in a dumpling can cause it to fall apart when boiled.

To boil dumplings, boil some water and drop them in. Turn the heat down to medium and wait for the water to boil again. When cooking meat dumplings, it is important to make sure the dumplings are cooked thoroughly, so once it's boiling again, add some more cold water to the pot. Wait for the pot to boil again and repeat with the cold water. Add water 3 times to be safe. I probably don't have to be this careful with veggie dumplings but I do it anyways out of habit. Cooked dumplings should float and look slightly wrinkly.

To pan fry dumplings, heat up a thin layer of oil in a pan. Place dumplings in the oil and let it fry for about a minute or so, then add some water. Don't drown the dumplings. Add enough that all the dumpling bottoms are boiling in a layer of water. Cover the pan and let it steam cook. I think for meat dumplings, it needs to steam cook for about 20 minutes. Add more water if the water boils away. If you added a little too much water, it's okay. Just keep boiling until the water boils away. Once the water boils away, uncover the pot and let fry for another minute or two. That last bit of frying is to get the bottoms crispy. The dumplings shouldn't stick too much to a well-seasoned wok or cast iron pan, but don't be surprised if some sticking occurs. They're not called potstickers in chinese for nothing!

Putting the initial effort into making a large batch of dumplings is totally worth it. Once frozen, they keep for many months and there's no need to defrost them to boil or pan-fry them. Having a stash of frozen dumplings means you'll always have an easy meal at your fingertips for those days when the most cooking you want to do is boil water. A well seasoned dumpling doesn't even require dipping sauce, but if you really want to, you can make an easy dipping sauce with vinegar, soy sauce and sesame oil. The main ingredient is really the vinegar so I always pour the vinegar first and then add the soy sauce. Add enough soy sauce to get it to the salt level you like, then add a tiny bit of sesame oil. Sesame oil is very powerful, so use sparingly. There are lots of dipping sauce recipes online, but the one I just outlined is the one I grew up with.

In conclusion, I can say that this mix of ingredients for veggie dumplings was pretty successful. I enjoyed eating these more than many other dumplings. I am also glad to say that the hubby enjoyed them too! It's not quite where I'd like it to be yet so there will probably be an updated version of this in the future.