Flashback Friday - Dumplings

This post originally appeared on Minxeats.com on April 10, 2013.

On one of the final episodes of that Food Network classic, "Worst Cooks in America," the worstcooktestants are tasked with making dumplings - Chinese siu mai and wontons and Japanese gyoza. As I was watching, I thought to myself, "if those mostly-incompetent people can make an edible dumpling, a mostly competent person like me can, too!" Honestly, they made it look very easy, right down to the little pleats on the gyoza.

Gyoza, or jaiozi, in Chinese, has been my family's favorite Chinese restaurant appetizer forever. No Chinese meal was complete without them. And they had to be fried. Potstickers, they're called. One can, of course, steam them, but my favorite part of the dumpling is the crisp bottom part of the wrapper. Mmm.

I recall making jaiozi with a friend some years ago, and it seemed like a huge production. She had made the filling in advance, so it was the dumpling-forming and cooking that were intimidating to me at the time. But now that I look back, vaguely remembering that she insisted on boiling them in a large pot of water before frying, I see that we made them incorrectly. Especially since many of them fell apart before they even made it to our mouths.

I think she was mostly paranoid about using raw ground pork in the filling, but she needn't have been.

A quick online search brought up myriad variations on that filling. Some used cabbage, some didn't. Some added shrimp. Bobby Flay's recipe (found in his Throwdown cookbook) called for hoisin, chile paste, 5-spice powder and allspice. No wonder he lost. I decided to go with a more simple combination of ingredients: ginger, garlic, cilantro, and green onions. I did borrow an ingredient from Chef Flay's dipping sauce: black vinegar. The result was interesting, but the slightly molasses-y flavor of the vinegar was a bit overpowering. Much better was a more traditional sauce made with soy, sesame oil, rice vinegar, and scallions. I've supplied the recipe for both; you may decide you like the vinegar sauce. Flay uses hoisin (and a thousand other ingredients) in his, in place of the sugar and soy, which may work better than my substitutions if you don't mind a thicker sauce.

In any case, dumpling making was much simpler than expected. The round wrappers are pre-made and sold in 12- or 16-oz packages at your neighborhood Asian grocer. If you can only find square won ton wrappers, you can cut them with a large round cookie cutter.

Potstickers

1.5 lb ground pork
1 T chopped scallions
1 t grated fresh ginger
1 t chopped garlic
1 t finely minced cilantro
salt
1 16-oz package round dumpling wrappers
oil for frying

In a medium bowl, combine pork, scallions, ginger, garlic, and cilantro, plus a generous pinch of salt. You can taste for seasoning by cooking a bit of the meat in a little hot oil. Remember that the dipping sauces contain soy and will be salty, so don't overdo it.

Prepare your area for dumpling assembly: have a clean cookie sheet or two covered with parchment, a Silpat, or a clean tea towel nearby, plus a small ramekin of water, the bowl of filling, and a teaspoon.

Take a dumpling wrapper and place it into your left palm (right, if you're left-handed). Dip a finger in the water and use it to moisten the edge all the way around. Use the spoon to place a blob of meat into the center of the wrapper, then fold the wrapper into a semi-circle. If there's too much meat, take some out at this point. Pinch the middle edges of the dumpling together and then make a pleat to one side of the middle using only the side of the wrapper facing you. (In other words, the dumpling is pleated only on one face.) Add another pleat or two (if they fit) to that end, then repeat the pleats on the opposite end of center. Gently squeeze the edge of the wrapper to make sure it's closed and that there are no air bubbles, and place it on the cookie sheet. Repeat until all wrappers and/or meat are gone.

(For a visual aid to pleating dumplings, check out this video of Chef Anita Lo doing just that. Dumpling making starts at about the 2 minute mark. Before that time, she demonstrates making the dumpling wrappers themselves. She's a bit fancy; I found it easier to pinch the wrapper closed in the middle and make 2 or 3 pleats on either side.)

To cook dumplings: Add a tablespoon or so of neutral cooking oil to a large skillet over high heat. When the oil is hot, add a layer of dumplings. You can fill the pan, but don't crowd it; the dumplings should not overlap. Cover the pan and cook for a few minutes, until the bottoms of the dumplings are a nice golden brown. If the pan seems to be getting too hot, turn the heat down a bit. Once the dumplings are brown - don't turn them! - add a quarter cup or so of water (more or less, depending on the size of your pan and number of dumplings). Cover the pan and cook until the water has evaporated. At this point, the dumplings should be shiny and somewhat translucent on the top (non-browned) side. If you're concerned about the pork being cooked, cut a dumpling in half and check. If they're not cooked, add a few tablespoons more water, cover the pan, and cook until additional water has evaporated.

Remove cooked dumplings to a plate and serve with dipping sauce.

Dipping Sauce 1

3 T black vinegar
1 T rice wine vinegar
2 T light soy
1 T light brown sugar
1 T chopped scallions

Combine ingredients in a small bowl, stirring to make sure sugar dissolves. Allow to sit for 15 minutes or so for flavors to combine.

Dipping Sauce 2

2 T light soy
1 T rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 T chopped scallions
1 t toasted sesame oil

Combine ingredients in a small bowl, stirring to make sure sugar dissolves. Allow to sit for 15 minutes or so for flavors to combine.

If you've made more dumplings than you can eat at one sitting, put the remaining dumplings, still on the cookie sheet, in the freezer for a few hours. When frozen solid, transfer to plastic bags and store in the freezer. When you cook them, you'll need to leave them on the heat for a bit longer.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Spinach Pie

Every weekend I try to make one vegetarian dish. It's not that we eat a ton of meat, but it's always a good thing to eat more vegetables. This particular weekend was going to be Greek Week. I planned to do something with octopus (perhaps not a traditional Greek preparation) but the grocery store we went to that week didn't have large tentacles, only whole baby octopi. They did, however, have proper ingredients for spinach pie--filo, spinach, feta--which was my choice for the second night's dinner.

I'm pretty sure I've made spinach pie at least once in the past. I've definitely worked with filo before, and have definitely made baklava. But it had been a long, long time ago. I'm thinking 25 years. (I find it hard to believe I'm old enough to have been cooking for over 25 years, but alas, I am.) I'm not Greek, so I don't have a go-to recipe, which led me to poking around the Internet for one. Not that I had to poke very long. A Google search for "spinach pie" brought up one by Ina Garten that sounded easy enough, and I knew an Ina recipe would be reliably tasty. It called for 30 ounces of frozen spinach and only 6 sheets of pastry, 6 extra-large eggs, and 4 ounces of melted butter. Kinda crazy, I thought. Not enough pastry, too much spinach and butter, and the eggs are a weird size that I don't buy. So, I did what I always do and modified the recipe to work for me.

She also called for it to be baked in an 8-inch oven-proof saute pan. I can't imagine that amount of spinach fitting well in a small pan, so I used a square 8" baking pan instead. The sides are much higher than on a skillet, to contain all the goodies. (Yes, I dare to question the Barefoot Contessa!)

I used a bit less spinach, smaller eggs, and more filo. I also changed the proportion of cheese a bit, as I had more Parm than Feta in the house. (This is what happens when I find a recipe after I've been to the store and not vice versa.) I also used far less butter, only about 3 tablespoons. There's no way her six sheets of filo needed a whole damn stick! I also omitted the pine nuts and the bread crumbs.

The result was simply gorgeous, and it tasted fab. You really have to like spinach to enjoy this pie, and I do. It was really really good, and something I might try to make more often. Though filo is a little fussy, as it dries out really fast, the overall recipe is pretty simple. Definitely worth the effort.

Spinach Pie (adapted from Ina Garten)

2 medium onions, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
2 1-lb bags frozen chopped spinach, defrosted
6 large eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon grated nutmeg
Pinch red pepper flakes
Dash garlic powder
8 ounces freshly grated Parmesan cheese
6 ounces feta, crumbled
3 tablespoons salted butter, melted
1 roll filo dough, defrosted

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Cook the onions in the olive oil in a large saute pan over medium heat until lightly browned, about 15 minutes. Add the salt and pepper and set aside to cool.

Place the spinach in a tea towel and squeeze out as much liquid as possible. Put the spinach in a bowl and add the eggs, nutmeg, red pepper flakes, garlic powder, parm, and feta. Stir well to combine.

Butter a 8" square pan. Layer 6 sheets of filo dough on the bottom, folding or overlapping them so they fit, brushing each layer with melted butter. Put on another two layers of filo, allowing some of the dough to hang over the top of the pan. (This will create sides to keep the filling from bursting out.) Fill the pan with the spinach mixture, then fold over the filo ends. Top with another 4 layers of filo brushed with butter. Brush the top with melted butter.

Bake for about an hour. Allow to cool for at least 30 minutes before cutting and serving.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Homemade Pizza

Gluten and I do not have a good relationship. I don't have any sensitivity to the stuff :::knocking on wood::: but I do seem to fight with it when I am handling a yeast-raised dough. I have never been a fan of wrestling, professional or otherwise, and would much rather have Mr Gluten surrender to my whims. Oh, he's under control when I bake bread, since I use the fabulous no-knead technique found in Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, but he still gives me a fit when I attempt pizza. Most of the time, I'll use a ready-made crust such as Mama Mary's (but never Boboli - yuck) or a flatbread, but once in a rare while, while feeling feisty, I'll buy a blob of pizza dough from Trader Joe's and then the fighting begins anew. An attempt to stretch it into a circle causes it to bounce right back. Sneaking up on the dough after letting it rest a few minutes doesn't work, either - Mr Gluten isn't stupid. The next time I want pizza, I find myself cozying back up with the much more-friendly Mama Mary.

Despite my comfortable relationship with Mama, it's pure stubbornness that makes me want to try again with Mr Gluten. The next time I had the urge to make home-made pizza, I made the dough completely from scratch, using a recipe from my favorite bread book. For some reason, this home-made dough was much more willing to acquiesce to my will and seemed positively happy to be manipulated into a baking-sheet sized rectangle.

Thus tamed, the beast was topped with some leftover Italian cold cuts (bresaola and sopressata) sundried tomatoes that had been rehydrated and roughly chopped, red onion, fresh mozzarella, and several varieties of basil from the garden. After spending around 20 minutes in a 475F oven, the resulting crust was thin and crisp, but not cracker-y, and the cornicione (crust edge), while not obviously bubbled, was hollow in areas, making for extra crunch.

My ideal pizza has a softer bottom crust that is fold-able, yet still crisp (a la New York style), but this one was pretty damn good. And obedient. The only issue with making pizza from a wet dough recipe is that I need to think ahead and make the dough the day before. But since a batch can last in the fridge for well over a week, I already have dough waiting for my next pizza urge.

Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.