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Shrimp dumplings

Time1 hour 20 minutes
YieldsMakes enough for 3 dozen dumplings, about 6 servings
Shrimp dumplings
(Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)
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On Saturday, amid the cacophony of firecrackers and other pyro-noise, most of China will be up all night to welcome in the Year of the Tiger. Here in the north, that will mean televisions blaring, watermelon seeds cracking, mah-jongg tiles clacking and, most important, people wrapping and eating dumplings. Northern Chinese eat dumplings on New Year’s the way Americans eat turkey on Thanksgiving (southerners have a whole different set of New Year eating traditions, relying more on sticky rice things).

Dumplings resemble the ingots that once were China’s currency, so eating them brings hope of an auspicious and fortunate year. Some cooks even stuff a lump of sugar in a dumpling to ensure sweetness, and sometimes, a coin is hidden inside. If you don’t break a tooth, you’re considered lucky for the year.

Dumplings seem to have been around forever -- visitors can see fossilized dumplings found in an ancient tomb at the Turpan Museum in Xinjiang province. However, their origins remain shrouded in folk tales. During the Han dynasty, it is said that Zhang Zhongjing, one of China’s most revered doctors, treated patients with frostbitten ears with a tonic of medicinal herbs and lamb wrapped in dough. He also fed his patients a soup containing two dumplings that were said to resemble a pair of ears. If you’ve ever seen a boiled dumpling with all its funny folds and wrinkles, just add some imagination, and the story takes on multiple meanings, like so many things Chinese.

Though a lot of delicious tradition gave way to modernization and construction for the 2008 Olympics, small eateries serving dumplings remain plentiful in Beijing. Here, boiled jiaozi are called shui jiao (water dumpling) and are served with black vinegar, sometimes spiked with chile, sesame oil or soy sauce.

Just about every restaurant in Beijing makes its dumplings to order and at ridiculously low prices, $1 or less for a full plate. Dumplings are sometimes sold by the half-dozen, other times by weight and with a dizzying array of fillings such as lamb and pumpkin, or pork and fennel, tomato and egg and the Beijing classic: pork and cabbage. Why would anyone make his own?

Customized filling

To find out, I go to Wang Ming Jun’s apartment in Haidan, the western part of Beijing. She is nicknamed Lao Yi, which means “Old Aunt,” but she is the youngest old aunt anyone might meet. She’s 50 with the energy of a 20-year-old and has made dumplings since she was a little girl. Lao Yi tells me with her sharp R-studded Beijing accent that the reason you make dumplings yourself is so you can customize your xianr (filling).

Choosing her own stuffing is important to Lao Yi. Unlike many Chinese, her husband and son eschew pork, preferring beef instead. And because local beef -- raised on the grasslands of Inner Mongolia -- tends to be so lean from grazing and moving around, she adds oil to the filling mix to ensure it isn’t dry. A splash of rice wine counters any gaminess, and a considerable amount of water or broth keeps the meat juicy and moist.

Lao Yi whips the meat in one direction with chopsticks, essentially emulsifying it, the way you’d make mayonnaise. All the ingredients, including liquid and fats, are suspended with no binders. Some recipes call for starch or egg, but there’s really no need. The filling becomes very wet and soft. The final addition of chopped leeks and ginger or other vegetables gives texture, flavor and more moisture.

When it comes to wrapping, the pretty pleated folds that I grew up with go out the window at Lao Yi’s house. Her boiled dumplings are not pretty things; they are all about the texture of the dough and the flavor of the filling. Although steamed dim sum can be works of sculpted art, a plate full of boiled dumplings in Beijing is like a plain girl with a wonderful personality.

In China, the flour for making dumplings and noodles is a special blend that’s fine as talc, softer than American flour. I find the Chinese flour makes a whiter, smoother dough, but in the end, both will work well. Using bleached American flour, my dumplings remain a grayish color, but that’s nothing more than vanity, like whitened teeth. Both have great chew and flavor -- the things that really matter.

Not like home

While growing up in my household in southern China, we drizzled soy sauce on our dumplings, sometimes a dusting of white pepper and maybe some chile paste, but Beijingers dip theirs in black rice vinegar, often by itself. I personally like a little heat and I also find soy sauce tones down the sharpness, which I’m still not used to.

What I don’t find in Beijing is my mother’s dumplings. She came from the seafood-abundant south, and her pork and shrimp filling was all I knew as a child. But her dumplings were actually huntun, sometimes called yuntun and better known as wontons. Over the years, I’ve graduated toward an all-shrimp filling laced with crunchy fresh water chestnuts.

And that’s the reason to make your own dumplings -- so you get what you want. That and getting the perfect dumpling skin. In the U.S., most store-bought wrappers are too thick for wontons, but too thin for dumplings. Worst of all, they’re devoid of all the characteristics of a great homemade wrapper, something worth making at least once in your life.

Food has a greater meaning than just sustenance, and that’s particularly true in China. It’s one of the few ways to express love and sincerity in a society where emotion and affection are rarely displayed. And in a country where parents are often separated from their children for better work opportunities, the New Year’s reunion takes on an even deeper meaning.

For many, the humble act of wrapping and eating dumplings for the start of a new year is much more than a meal, it’s a family celebration that shares joy, love and togetherness.

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Dumpling dough

1

Put flour in a large bowl. Make a well in the center and pour in one-half cup cold water. Slowly stir with chopsticks or a wooden spoon, moving from the center toward the rim, to work in all the flour. (Add more water by the teaspoon until most of flour is incorporated.) Keep stirring as a ragged, soft mass forms. Then use your fingers to gather and pat the dough together into a ball. Transfer to a work surface and knead for about 5 minutes, until smooth, fingertip-soft and slightly elastic. (You shouldn’t need any additional flour on the work surface if the dough was properly made. Keep kneading, and after the first minute or two, the dough shouldn’t stick to your fingers. If it does, work in a sprinkling of flour.) Press your finger into the dough; the dough should spring back, with a faint indentation remaining.

2

Transfer dough to a plastic bag and seal and let stand at least 10 minutes, covered.

3

If not using immediately, cover and refrigerate the dough until needed up to 1 day.

Filling

1

Finely chop the shrimp until it is almost reduced to a paste but still has some chunks. Place the chopped shrimp in a medium bowl.

2

Sprinkle over the salt and rice wine and stir well. Add the soy sauce and vigorously stir until mixture is emulsified. Stir in the sesame oil. Stir in the water chestnuts, cilantro and green onion until well combined.

3

Use the filling immediately, or wrap and refrigerate until ready to use, no more than a few hours.

Assembly

1

To wrap the dumplings, divide the dough in half, keeping half wrapped. Transfer the remaining half to a work surface and gently roll into a 12-inch log about three-fourths inch in diameter.

2

Cut the log crosswise into 18 (two-thirds inch) pieces, rolling the log gently between cuts to keep it round. Generously dust the dough with flour to keep the pieces separate, and gently flatten each round piece into a circle using the palm of your hand.

3

Roll each piece into a 2 1/2 -inch round wrapper (this is easiest using an Asian dowel-style rolling pin), rolling the outer one-half inch edge very thin, like a tortilla (the center of the circle -- a little more than 1 inch -- will remain slightly thicker). Use 1 hand to roll the dowel back and forth while the other hand rotates the circle, like a steering wheel, to form the wrapper. Repeat with the remaining pieces, loosely covering each wrapper to keep it from drying out and dusting the wrappers to keep them separated. Repeat with the remaining dough half.

4

Form the dumplings: Hold a wrapper in a slightly cupped hand. Use chopsticks, a dinner knife or spoon to center about 2 teaspoons of filling on the wrapper, pressing down gently and keeping one-half to three-fourths inch of the dough clear on all sides; your hand will automatically close slightly.

5

Use the thumb of the hand cradling the dough to push down the filling while the fingers of the other hand pull up the edges and pinch the edges together. (Pinch the center of the dumpling first to seal, then pinch the remaining edges to enclose the filling completely.)

6

Position the dumpling so the sealed edge rests against the palm and along your first finger. Cup your other hand around the dumpling hand and bring your thumbs together and press firmly to seal the edge.

7

Place the dumpling, pinched side up, on a floured baking sheet or tray. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Repeat with the remaining wrappers and filling, covering and refrigerating them as they are made.

8

Boil the dumplings: Bring a large pot of unsalted water to a boil over high heat. Add half of the dumplings and slowly stir, using the back of a ladle or large spoon to gently release any dumplings stuck to the bottom of the pot. When the water comes to a full boil, add a cup of tepid water to the pot, gently stir and return to a boil. Repeat twice. The dumplings are ready when they have boiled 3 times and float in the water.

9

Carefully lift the dumplings out with a slotted spoon into shallow bowls. Boil the remaining dumplings in a second batch. Save the dumpling water to serve with the end of the meal.

10

Serve the dumplings with black vinegar seasoned as desired with soy sauce and hot red pepper. Serve each guest a bowl of the cooking water at the end of the meal.

Bread flour with a moderate amount of gluten, such as widely available Gold Medal, works best to yield tender, yet slightly chewy dough. Unbleached flour produces terrific flavor, but bleached flour imparts a brighter finish that some Asian cooks like. Chinese black vinegar is available at most Asian markets.

Chinese rice wine and fresh water chestnuts are available at most Chinese and Asian markets. When buying fresh water chestnuts, choose firm, clean ones and buy extra. Peel and wash them well, discarding any yellow or brown bits.