Cooking lessons, Day Two: Dumplings at Black Sesame Kitchen

With the turn to Saturday came another chance at cooking. My afternoon session at Black Sesame Kitchen would focus solely on dumplings, and how to make them from scratch. Our fearless chef was Chairman Wang, a lovely older woman who has made a ton of dumplings in her time. She has the routine down pat.

For these dumplings, there are three main steps:

(1) Make the wrapper

(2) Make the filling

(3) Make the dumpling (then cook it...)

Taking them one at a time, wrapper production was first up. We got our bowl of high gluten flour. Then, we each made a small indentation in the center of the flour (very similar to pasta making), into which we poured a bit, but not too much water. This was swirled around with two fingers until it clumped a small bit of flour, which was moved to the side. Repeat this process six to ten times, and you have an ungainly blob of dough. The tricky part is this: the goal is to produce dough with "three cleans": clean bowl, clean hands, and clean dough. This means that there is not sticky dough everywhere and you end up with a nice rounded loaf. Harder said than done! I under-watered, then under-floured, then, with some hands-on assistance, approximated a decent ball of dough. This requires practice!

Next, filling making. Today, we were focused on two types of dumplings: a pork and pumpkin variety and a vegetarian version. The vegetarian version included smoked tofu, re-hydrated winter mushroom, grated carrot, and chopped rice vermicelli. On each of these I practiced my nascent cleaver knife skills. The vegetables were julienned, rotated 90 degrees, then finely diced. The knife has some great weight for cutting, it just takes some getting used to.

The pork mixture was demonstrated to us. About a kilo of fatty ground pork was put in a large mixing bowl. To it was added white pepper, salt, and chicken powder. Then, bit by bit, portions of water were added and it was mixed, always only in one direction (you can choose clockwise or counterclockwise). This resulted in a pork mash that was sticky to itself, smelled great, and demanded to be put into dumplings.

Finally, we were ready to wrap dumplings. We grabbed our balls of dough, and cut of a third in a long strip. This was rolled until it was about one third the diameter of a normal rolling pin. Then, using a fun pinching method, we plucked little dumpling balls off of the cylinder. these were flattened first with the middle of the palm, then rolled in quick 30 degree turns. Voila, dumpling wrapper. Place one in your hand, add some filling, and close into a semicircle. Now is where it gets fun. To make a crescent, push up one end, and seal one of the y strands that you see. The other, fold into the pinched closing. Do the opposite on the other end, and you have your dumpling!

The last step was the quickest: cooking. To boil, simply plop in boiling water and remove when done. To pan fry, get a little bit of oil in a pan. Insert the dumpling into the middle of the pan to get some oil cooking it, then slide to the outside. Finally, add water to about half the dumplings' height and cover. Remove when ready. Eat immediately, dipping in chilli and vinegar sauce. Yum!

Though not a quick or easy process, it is a fun one. And highly social, as it gave me three hours to chat with a group of strangers from all over.