Chinese Vegetable Dumplings – 2 Ways
In honor of Chinese New Year last month and due to the fact that since moving to Belleville, I’ve been hoping to find a dim sum spot with vegetarian options, I decided to embrace my inner Chinese and make Homemade Chinese Vegetable Dumplings (Dim Sum). My true love of Dim Sum came when I was still living in California. My brother is also a fan so with my parents, we’d cross the Bay Bridge to go and eat dim sum in Chinatown. I always felt a bit transported when I’d go for Dim Sum. Crossing the bridge as a little girl always felt like we were going on an adventure. The menu made it easy – check the box and keeping checking! At the time, I wasn’t a vegetarian so there were more options, but now it’s more challenging to find good and inventive vegetarian options.
Over the years, our “spots” have come and gone, but our latest favorite is Yank Sing in the Financial District downtown. With over 100 varieties of dim sum and 60 on the menu at any given time, they are one of the only places I’ve been to that has true vegetarian options – Snow Pea Shoot, Spinach, Mushroom and Savory Vegetable, among others!
I want to share two of those recipes, for which I’ve created my own versions – Shiitake Mushroom & Green Garlic Dumplings and Snow Pea Shoot Dumplings. The Snow Pea Shoot Dumplings are my favorite at Yank Sing so I wanted to try their recipe out. I made a few modifications, but the beauty of each of these vegetarian fillings is that you can easily substitute based on what’s in season. I hope you enjoy these Dumplings as much as I enjoyed making them. Thank you also to my dear friend, Delphine Bertrand, for helping me shoot some of these photos!
Dumpling Wrappers
INGREDIENTS
3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup water
METHOD
Put the flour in a large mixing bowl. Gradually add the water to the flour and knead into a dough. This process should take about 10 minutes. Cover with a damp cloth and let the dough rest for an hour.
Shiitake Mushroom & Green Garlic Dumplings
INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons vegetable oil, plus 3 tablespoons
4 small green onions, finely chopped
2 green garlic, finely chopped
4 oz. chopped fresh shiitake mushrooms
6-10 dried wood ear mushrooms, reconstituted and chopped
2 teaspoons sesame oil
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1/8 teaspoon white pepper
1 teaspoon sugar
3-4 tablespoons Shaoxing wine
METHOD
In a small bowl, add enough hot water to cover the dried mushrooms. Set aside until water is absorbed. Chop mushrooms into small pieces.
To a large frying pan, add oil, green garlic, green onions, shiitake mushrooms, hydrated mushrooms and let cook for 5-10 mins. Add sesame oil, soy sauce, sugar, white pepper and Shaoxing wine and let cook for another 5 mins. Let cool.
Refrigerate the filling until ready to wrap. It will keep overnight.
To wrap, place 1 heaping teaspoon of filling in the center of one wrapper and fold in half. Bring the edges together, making small folds along one side and pressing into the other edge, which remains flat. Sealing is more important than perfect folds. (You can freeze the dumplings at this point.)
Steam dumplings on cheesecloth in a bamboo or metal steamer over a wok half-filled with boiling water for 10 minutes. Yields about 30 dumplings.
NOTE: For the dumplings shown in the photos, I ended up pan frying them with a bit of vegetable oil and tablespoons of water every minute for about 10 minutes.
Snow Pea Shoot Dumplings
Adapted from San Francisco’s Yank Sing
INGREDIENTS
1 pound snow pea shoots
1/2 cup roasted pine nuts
1 tsp fresh ginger, minced
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon white pepper
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons onion oil (see note)
METHOD
Wash the snow pea shoots in cold water. Bring water to a boil in a large pot. Add snow pea shoots and blanch for a few seconds until just softened, not cooked through. Quickly remove the shoots and place them in a colander under cold running water until cool; allow to drain.
Place the shoots in a piece of cheesecloth or paper towels and gently squeeze them dry, then cut into 1/2-inch lengths. Set aside.
In an empty frying pan, roast pine nuts on medium heat until toasted. Let cool and coarsely chop.
In a bowl, mix together the salt, sugar, cornstarch, white pepper, sesame oil and onion oil. Then add the pea shoots and mix well.
Refrigerate the filling until ready to wrap. It will keep overnight.
To wrap, place 1 heaping teaspoon of filling in the center of one wrapper and fold in half. Bring the edges together, making small folds along one side and pressing into the other edge, which remains flat. Sealing is more important than perfect folds. (You can freeze the dumplings at this point.)
Steam dumplings on cheesecloth in a bamboo or metal steamer over a wok half-filled with boiling water for 10 minutes.Yields about 30 dumplings.
Note: Onion oil can be hard to find, even in Asian markets. It’s easily made by cutting one yellow onion into eighths and simmering it in 1/2 cup of corn oil for about 20 minutes, or until the onion is caramelized. Strain onion pieces out of the oil before use.
