Home Made Chinese Dumpling Episode I

Lamb Dumpling, originally uploaded by Afulki.

We had to bring food over to friends' place for dinner and I was wondering how I could bring all the ingredients easily to feed two families as well as making the dishes quickly? Dumplings!

So I showed up with below ingredients for the evening meal. And we immediately started a pre-dinner party - to make the dumplings together:

A) Lamb filling mixed in a big bowl:
1 pound ground lamb;
3/4 pound grated squash;
* to marinate the ground lamb 1 hour in advance, you need below items and then give it a gentle good stir. Keep refrigerated:
2 table spoon five spice powder;
2 table spoon Sichuan pepper corn juice;
Salt and Chinese soy sauce to taste;
2 finely chopped spring onions;
1 ounce grated ginger;
Approx 6 tble spoon of Olive oil;
3 tble spoon Sesame oil;

B) Two packs of dumpling wraps. (Most Asian grocery store stock these.)

C) Dipping sauce:
According to taste, you can just dip each dumpling in any vinegar lightly before eating. Or if you find the filling doesn't taste strong enough, you can make a dipping sauce to compensate the flavour with: vinegar, soy sauce; ground garlic; sesame oil; or even chili sauce;

D) Chinese liquor for drinking; (Caution! Caution! Very strong stuff! For sipping, not drinking!)

Time for the wrapping party!

The principle of wrapping was to enclose a tea spoon size of filling inside the pastry securely. When I say securely, I mean it, do a QC check before placing them in the boiling water. Otherwise, you might end up with a giant meat noodle soup instead.

How to wrap the dumplings? The above sample (made by Zakia, chef of Simply Moroccan Cuisine) is a great sample. This is her first time making dumplings and it looks very close to a classic Chinese home made dumpling. Creativity is also welcome! With Lina, a three-year-old girl's help, we had so many kinds:
Little sofa; sun flower (with two wraps); half moon; star; flag (it was Scottish and she didn't tell me how to make a Chinese flag dumpling.); Christmas gift box; and gift envelopes!

Boil, drain, and enjoy!

The Chinese "Pyramids" (小窝头)

Pollenta Bun， 宫廷式窝头, originally uploaded by myviaggi.

Wo Tou － Polenta Bun， these days are like sand turned to gold.

Back in the old days, when flour was not sufficiently supplied, corn flour was considered as a replacement. It was cooked exactly the same way as flour was. It can be steamed, baked, roasted, fried or used as a wrapping for dumplings. The poor days were often referred to as 'Wo Tou's Days'. Some people from the baby boomer generation simply do not want to hear this name again. At one point, when life was improving, these golden pyramid shaped buns were forgotten.

However, Wo Tou even in the old days were not only for poor people - during the Qing Dynasty, the royal family had quite a different way of appreciating them. Made from chestnut flour, the buns almost looked the same, except they were in miniature size and served only as a snack.

Then, at one point in the 90's, people were reminded that not only did this grain save the Chinese in the past but when consumed the same way as refined flour, it contains much more vitamin, mineral, protein and fiber. Eating Wo Tou then became fashionable again.

Today royal recipes are widely available and the royal delicacies have become a Beijing retro lifestyle. I just had some Wo Tou in a Beijing cuisine restaurant where Beijing snacks are the specialities.

The little buns are so delicately made there. Each is about the size of a thumb, the flour is a mixture of chestnut and corn flour, and a tiny pitted date is hidden at the bottom of the pyramid. The sweet osmanthus syrup dip is also an option. We had so much fun tasting those!

Beijing Traditional Snacks 1

Prince Gong's Garden, Beijing, 北京恭王府花园, originally uploaded by myviaggi.

Harsh sun pushed the temperature up to 35 degrees over the last weekend. But I didn't care. It was one of the only weekends for my dad and I to have some quality private time together. And what did we do? Among the favourite of the Imperial Resorts to visit, we picked Prince Gong's Mansion. The Imperial remnants are the biggest tourist attraction besides the Great Walls. Dad and I never forget to treat ourselves whenever we get a chance.

Prince Gong's residence is one of the most famous and well constructed private residences, where lived two of the most influential politicians in The Qing Dynasty. One is Emperor Qianlong's adviser, Mr. He Shen. Later, it became the residence of The Emperor Daoguang's sixth son, Prince Gong. The garden, said to be the best presenting Chinese garden design, is now open to the public.

After the visit, it was already early afternoon. Some Beijing traditional snacks seemed to be the best thing to have. So we stopped at a snack dinner, which offers nothing else but Beijing traditional fare. We chose Green Bean Soup and some Sweet Butter Puffs with tea afterwards.

Green Bean Soup

Many people don't like this. The soup looks greyish green and is sour tasting. But it is something you should not miss because it is available nowhere else but in Beijing. Made of ground green bean paste mixed with water, it is full of vitamins. The soup is served with a pastry ring and some pickles.

Butter Puffs

If I must give up fried food, I still have to eat this. It is my guilty pleasure since I was little. The puff dough is made of flour, butter, herbs and a little bit of sugar. The flour is mixed with boiling water so it is sticky inside after it's fried. The puff itself isn't sweet and needs to be dipped in sugar before eaten.

Egg Crepe

Egg Crepe, originally uploaded by myviaggi.

I am often amazed how easily we can adapt to a new life-style: cars, coffee, pizza, music and Hollywood. The new airport terminal in Beijing just wowed me again yesterday. Are we getting so spoiled with all the latest and greatest these days? Not all! It is certainly frustrating to me whenever my niece cries on the floor asking for McDonalds or KFC.

Gladly, I have found that our breakfast has not changed much. At least not this one - the Egg Crepe. It is my favourite and a Beijng and Tianjing local delicacy.

From the picture you can see how many ingredients are on added to this crepe: eggs, spring onion, coriander, and sesame. Actually more than these... The base is a mixture of flour and green bean flour with a raw egg spread on top. When the crepe and egg are almost cooked, the above ingredients are sprinkled over it. Then, the large round crepe is flipped over for sauces such as sweet soybean paste, or chili. Finally, a very thin, fried, crispy pastry is placed on the crepe. I say very thin because when touched the crispy pasty easily breaks into pieces. It needs to be carefully placed on the crepe before wrapped by the crepe. The entire wrap is then folded into a hand-sized shape.

The mouthful of flavours might be a bit too much for a breakfast and I wonder why I like it so much. I think I know: it is not the food but the retrospect of the making. Generation after generation, kids stand in front of the venders watching the crepe being made, rolling their eyes when a spoonful of thick liquid turned into a thin round-shaped pancake, being amused by every ingredient added at each step, and feeling desperate for a bite of the multiple layers of tastes wrapped in this hot, flimsy and filling little pancake. It is a sophisticated fast food that is irreplaceable by McDonalds.

Tofu Salad

Tofu Salad, originally uploaded by myviaggi.

Contributed by BF:

The first time I tried this dish was soon after we met. I had eaten Tofu before, when i used to live in Singapore, but only in soups or hot dishes. When she served this small chunk of fresh tofu, I gingerly tried, and found it was delicious! I couldn't stop grabbing them with my chopsticks and eating them with extreme gusto. The soft cool tofu texture was balanced wonderfully with the combination of the sauces and the crispness of the raw vegetables on top. The next time GF made this dish, i urged her to teach me its simple recipe. And now even she she is not around, its a dish i make regularly by myself.

HOW TO PREPARE:

* Half pack of fresh tofu (medium firm to firm), rinse and dry;
* After placing it on the serving plate, slice it into small cubes;
* Season with salt and pepper, finely chopped sweet green pepper, spring onion and cilantro;
* Dribble some sesame oil (or chili sesame oil) on top; serve chilled;
(Add roasted sesame, soy sauce, or Japanese fish flakes to taste)

For a Western version of this dish, try to replace sesame oil with olive oil and green vegetables with chopped olives and add basil.

Garlic Scapes

Garlic Scapes, originally uploaded by myviaggi.

I was very surprised to see these in New York. Coincidentally, the weekend after I discovered them at a street market, The New York Times published an article mentioning them. Apparently, most of people are not familiar with garlic scapes, nor how to cook them. In China, this vegetable is simply stir-fried in the same way as many other vegetables. It is a "quick fire" dish with a bit salt and light soy sauce with omelet or thin pieces of beef. Fresh garlic scapes are very fragile and age quickly even more so than asparagus.

While I myself had never been keen on these (cooked in the Chinese way), I was so impressed by the taste brought out by the Western way. I think our soy sauce method might have overwhelmed the freshness of this unique vegetable. Last weekend, we grilled them as a side dish for our BBQ.

HOW TO PREPARE:

* Trim off the soft tip from each stem; if the bottom end is yellowish, it means they are aged and need to be trimmed too.
* Chop or break them to pieces about 4-5 inches long.
* Marinade the vegetable with olive oil, salt, pepper and some Provence herbs for half an hour.
* Grill them on a flat pan on the BBQ until the green color deepens slightly.

It is almost the same way as how asparagus would be grilled. Garlic scapes however are much crunchier. Instead of a bambooish taste, garlic scapes carry a hint of garlic without being 'garlicky'. A perfect companion for a beef burger.

Three-Green Salad

Three-Green Salad, originally uploaded by Robin "Evil Bob" A.

Something to chill you down in the exhausting hot summer days. This green salad is flavourful and easy to make.

HOW TO PREPARE:

* Three types of green vegetable combined to your taste. (All are easily available at the local stores.)
* Sweet green chili pepper;
* Coriander (cilantro);
* Cucumber (Asian cucumber preferred; if not available suggest seeding the cucumbers)
* Add a few slices of spring onion; cut or slice the vegetables to approx 2 inches (or 50mm) long. Season the salad with a pinch of salt, a pinch of sugar, dabs of sesame oil (or olive oil), lime juice. At the end, I also added a tea spoon of sweet soy paste (the same kind of paste to dip Peking Duck in). This is just a start, add more seasoning if you would like to have stronger flavours.

Serve after chilling the salad for five minutes in the refrigerator. Every mouthful of this dish is exotic and refreshing.

Baby Boi Choy with Shrimp

Baby Boi Choy with Shrimp, originally uploaded by Robin "Evil Bob" A.

GF:
As soon as I told my BF I was cooking stir fry, he asked me what kind of meat I would have. He is a meat guy and I am a vegetable girl. When I thought of doing a stir-fry, I was trying to take him off meat for an evening. In the end, we settled on adding shrimps to some Boi Choy. This kind of vegetables are now quite commonly seen in most of the grocery stores in the US. I thought: 'great!' with the shrimps, perhaps I could give the Boi Choy dish a Thai touch.

Here is what we had for the evening with steamed rice.

Recipe:
* Break large Boi Choy leaves from the stem and rinse the sand from each leaf inside.
* Rinse the headless (8-15) shrimps, dry and get ready for frying.
* Heat a table spoon of the oil (I used olive oil) in a small frying pan, add shrimps and gently stir.
* Add a table spoon of oil in a wok, then add chopped garlic and spring onions (approx a teaspoon each),
* When sizzling, add vegetable in the wok and start to stir. (Don't stir constantly, just make sure vegetables are evenly heated in the wok)
* After about 3 minutes, add a bit salt, one tea spoon of Thai garlic chilli sauce(optional), one tea spoon of fish sauce and some sugar.
* The shrimps should have turned red by now, so pour them into the wok, stir gently for a couple of minutes.
* When the Boi Choy stems have absorbed the heat and don't look as pale as before, and the shrimps have been well mixed with the vegetables, the dish is ready.

BF: The dish was a resounding success except when the fish sauce was added to the wok; the resulting cloud of "steam" really irritated my throat, and I had to escape outside for some fresh air, dropping all my chores as a sou chef! GF laughed at my lack of fish sauce experience. But aside from that small drama, the dinner was quickly finished, accompanied with some hot Sake. Lovely!!