CNY Special: An Engineer's Guide to Dumplings Pt. 2
On DIY dumpling fillings (with a little science), assembly, and how to cook 'em.
Hi friends, hope you are having an awesome start to the year of the Ox!
Welcome to Part 2 of my guide to dumplings. This week we will be completing the puzzle of DIY-ing dumplings by covering the missing pieces, namely:
Practical tips on making fillings
Assembly
How to cook/serve
Storage
The first section is the longest, because there really is A LOT to think about if you want delicious dumplings!
I will talk through some practical tips plus science behind them, so that your homemade ones will be generously filled and juicy as store-bought ones, if you follow my notes that is.
If you just want a recipe though, I do provide one in the appendix for the classic pork and cabbage, just scroll through the bottom to find it. I will also provide some notes on vegetarian/vegan filling variations in the appendix.
Let’s dive right in.
The Filling
In my opinion, you could pretty much go to the end of the world with some creativity on this subject, but in essense, there are 2 parts that requires thinking/planning: 1) deciding on the flavour profile; 2) prepping your ingredients properly.
THE BASICS: RATIOS
Getting the flavour profile and then the ratio of ingredients right is crucial.
In China, most dumplings are meat-based. The meat will make up about 2/3 or ~ 70% of the initial ingredients weight, but ultimately the precise ratio is up to personal taste. However, no matter how much one loves meat, it is rare to have plain meat fillings because vegetables add flavour and texture too.
Below is a tables showing some common pairings for protein and vegetables:
Then, when I think about ratios, I imagine a triangle built from the bottom up: first you decide on the main protein, then the complementary vegetables, and finally, based on these, you choose the additional flavourings to include.
Exceptions of this rule does apply, especially when a strong flavoured vegetable — such as Chinese chives in egg and chives — is the main ingredient. For vegetarian or vegan variations, glass noodles are sometimes used for additional texture. As a result, the quantity of egg and tofu is lowered.
PREPPING YOUR PROTEIN
If you are making a meat-based filling, or if you are using a meat-substitude, it is best to marinate them with your aromatics, before adding vegetables, for at least 30 minutes. This allows the protein to absorb as much of the flavour as possible.
The marinade would depend on the meat and vegetables you use so it’s best to follow specific recipe guidelines. However, below is a table summarising common spices/flavourings, with some notes on whether you can skip or sub them, and in general how to prepare them. Spring onions and ginger should be added with your vegetables at the end, but all other spices tend to be added during the marinating process.
Another very important concept here is ‘beating water 打水’, in which you add water into the meat filling.
The process is simple: add water that is roughly 0.5 times the weight of your meat, in small stages, stirring in ONE DIRECTION ONLY until all the liquid is absorbed. This should happen after marinating and before adding vegetables, otherwise the salt in your marinated meat will draw out the water that you have just added.
OK. You may think this is stupid. But it is actually THE secret to making the most tender and juicy dumplings EVER, and here is some science. (Regrettably, I have not tested or researched this method for vegetarian substitutes.)
According to this article by The Australian Woll Education Trust:
Juiciness in cooked meat is due to:
the first impression of wetness produced by the rapid release of meat fluid
the stimulatory effect of fat on salivation
Thus, to maximise juiciness, we want a higher fat content in our meat, and we want to introduce extra fluid into the meat by adding water.
You might want to ask: why does the water not ooze out? In short, this is because proteins in meat are negatively charged (mostly) and binds onto the bi-polar water molecules. The ability of proteins to do so is known as the water holding capacity (WHC). Different proteins have different WHC; differences in pH, genetics, and composition of the meat you buy will affect how much water you can beat into it. 0.5 times the weight is a safe amount for general purposes in most cases.
Note that plant proteins tend to have lower WHC than animal proteins, meaning they will taste less juicy, and this is a common challenge in manufacturing good ‘fake meat’.
VEGETABLES
If you are using a watery vegetable, such as cucumber or cabbage, you will need to dehydrate it first.
The steps are simple: roughly chop, then salt and leave for at 15-30 minutes on a strainer/sieve. Half of the water will drain out automatically, however, you do need to squeeze the vegetables by hand before adding. Here, you would want to salt generously: don’t need to worry about the dumplings beeing too salty — most of the salt will leave with the discarded water.
For less watery vegetables, some online recipes call for grating them before adding. I personally don’t recommend this because it removes most of the texture you can get from the different types of vegetables. My preferred method is to slice and roughly chop into the size of pine-nut kernels, or petit-pois, see below.
If you are using things that already come in small sizes, e.g. canned sweetcorn or peas, they are perfect in size already. So just add directly to the mixture. Or you can mash up the peas and add.
If you are adding vegetables to a marinated protein-based filling, this should happen right before final assembly, so that the added salt in the protein will not draw out too much moisture from the vegetables.
MUSHROOMS
Similar to their role in soups, rehydrated dried shiitake mushrooms are a frequent addition to dumpling fillings because they add tonnes of umami and texture. Wood ear mushrooms are also very common as they add a delicate crunch.
In general, however, mushrooms can be fresh or dry, though I prefer the latter for more flavour and a firmer texture. For fresh mushrooms, I would advise against chestnut or button as they are too watery. From the standard supermarket, fresh shiitake and king oyster would be the best.
Assembly
The filling can be premade — I would recommend up to 1 day — and kept in the fridge until assembly, whilst the dough can be made in the morning for assembly at lunch or dinner.
To assemble, you should first get your worktop set up with the following: dough, filling, lots of flour to dust, spoon, rolling pin, plates to put your finished dumplings, and a cup of water that will act as glue for your dumpling wrappers.
For shaping, again, there are multiple ways to do so. There are also enough tutorials online — this one is particularly insightful — so I won’t dive into the depths of all the different folds you can have. The simplest and most forgiving method I know is in the grid below.
One of the key points here is to not be overly ambitious in adding too much filling. Otherwise your dumplings will explode either in the process or during cooking.
After shaping each dumpling, cover the bottom of the dumplings and sit them on a plate. The hallmark of a well-shaped dumpling is that it will stand up on its own.
Once you have around 10-15 dumplings per person, it is best to cook the dumplings straight away, or freeze them for the future.
Cooking
There are 3 ways to cook dumplings: boil, steam, and fry.
The latter two are essentially the same except one has a crispy bottom, while boiling is a slightly more different because the moisture level of the cooking environment is much higher.
When eaten at home, northern dumplings are mostly boiled, sometimes pan-fried, while steaming is usually reserved for dim-sum style dumplings (with differences in dough composition and fillings). If you have made delicate dumplings or worry about your dumplings exploding, it’s best to steam or fry them.
Boiling dumplings is similar to cooking pasta, but with less salt. You bring a large pot of water to boil, add a pinch of salt, then add the dumplings.
To steam, first you have to either oil your plate, or add a layer of parchment paper. Then you add the dumplings to the steamer after the water has boiled.
Frying, on the other hand, is slightly more involved. For this, I would really recommend a non-stick pan, and it involves 3 steps:
Browning the bottom with oil: around 2 minutes
Add water, lid on, steam the dumplings to cook them: 6-8 minutes
Lid off, evaporate all the water and re-crisping the bottom
The amount of water you add in step 2 doesn’t need to be precise. A good metric is that it should cover the base of your pan, but you can add more if it evaporates too fast. Always evaporate all of the liquid in end, unless you want soggy dumplings.
To add a crispy lace skirt, simply dissolve about 1 tablespoon of cornflour or flour in to the water you add in step 2 above.
In all cases, the dumplings should be cooked for around 6 minutes, until the skin is semi-translucent, and the dumplings look plump and glossy. (The precise time depends on whether from frozen, and what is in the filling).
Storage
If you want to store the dumplings, freeze them before cooking. The key here is to let them sit outside for 15 minutes to dry out the wrappers slightly, then dust the dumplings. Semi-freeze the shell by laying them flat on a plate, separate from each other.
After 30 minutes, the dumplings should be able to hold their shape even when you apply slight pressure. Dust generously again, then store them in a zip-lock bag in the freezer.
To cook, they do not need to be thawed beforehand — simply follow the steps in the ‘Cooking’ section above, but add a couple more minutes to the cooking time.
Afterword
In a way, writing these two newsletters has encouraged me to learn more details about dumpling making. It also helped me to formalise some concepts/tips that I have previously seen here or there, but never thought about it in depth.
I hope this is a relatively thorough guide that will help you too, even though it is by no means exhaustive.
Good luck, and let me know if you find it helpful!
As always, thank you for reading :)
Appendix 1 - Pork and Cabbage Filling
Bold is for dehydrating cabbage as mentioned, and italic indicates quantities that can be adjusted to suit personal taste. I have quite a light palette so I have kept the seasoning light.
The steps should be:
Marinate pork with everything in italic except ginger and onion
Dehydrate cabbage
Beat water into pork
Add cabbage and shiitake mushrooms to pork
Assemble and cook
Appendix 2 - Vegetarian/Vegan Tips
The most commonly used non-meat protein in dumplings is eggs. To prep, the egg is beaten and fried as you would an egg crepe, then roughly cut into small pea-size chunks. An alternative is to scramble the egg and then tear into pieces. In both cases, use a neutral oil.
Tofu is your friend if you want a vegan recipe. To add, cut into 1cm cubes, or use fork to roughly mash.
I have never tried adding other plant alternatives, but I imagine quorn mince would work well when substituting for texture, but you will need to account for differences in fat content and taste.
This is not traditional, but — if you want additional umami, try including seaweed or miso paste.
I absolutely LOVED this! Now I am desperate for dumplings.