This weekend was lunar New Year! Happy year of the rat. To celebrate, I decided to make dumplings. I made a whole package worth of dumpling wrappers, so I froze most of them. To freeze uncooked dumplings, you just put them on a tray in the freezer for a couple hours, then put the frozen dumplings in a bag.
One recipe note - this was my first time using a steamer basket and you'll see in the picture I tried putting a piece of parchment underneath to prevent the dumplings from sticking. While this did work, it also prevented the steaming function from working properly, so I will not do this in the future. If you really want to use parchment, I think you can put a small square directly under the dumpling/bun, but honestly I'm just going to try putting a little cooking spray on the basket next time.
Finally, I used a tool similar to this do-dad for folding the dumplings. It made the process really fast, so I would recommend it (you can even get smaller versions that take up very little drawer space). Overall, I thought making dumplings would be a much more arduous process than it actually was, so I'd recommend it!
Ingredients
- 1 block of firm tofu
- 1 bunch minced scallions
- 2 tbs minced ginger
- 1 tbs sesame oil
- 1 tbs soy sauce
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder (or actual garlic, I was just lazy)
- 1 tbs sesame seeds
- salt and pepper
- 1 package dumpling wrappers
Process
1) Crumble up firm tofu in a pan and add minced scallions and ginger, sesame oil, and soy sauce. Cook on medium heat, stirring occasionally for ~5 minutes. Add garlic powder, sesame seeds, and salt/pepper and cook another minute.
2) Remove tofu mixture from stove and allow it to cool until you can touch it.
3) Prepare your dumpling making station - I like to have a small dish of water handy, a tray, a damp towel for covering my unused dumpling wrappers, and my filling close by.
4) Put a dumpling wrapper in your press and use your finger to lightly dampen two of the four edges (watch this quick video if you haven't done this before). Put ~1-2 tsp of filling in the center and close the press to finish. Repeat with the remainder of your dumpling wrappers, placing finished dumplings on a tray to avoid sticking.
5) When you're ready to cook the dumplings, place an inch or so of water in a pan that can fit your steamer basket (just make sure the water doesn't reach the lower level of your steamer basket). Spray some cooking spray into the steamer basket to prevent sticking and put the dumplings in the basket so they don't touch each other. Once the water is boiling, put in the steamer basket in the pan and steam for ~10 minutes. (I'm sure you'll need more time if you cook your dumplings from frozen, but I'm not sure how much more time - maybe an extra 3-4 minutes?)
6) Enjoy dumplings immediately with dumpling dipping sauce (I make this with 1 tbs rice vinegar, 1 tbs soy sauce, and 1/2 tsp sesame oil).