As a food lover, I’m always reading about food. Wednesdays are pure gold when the newspapers typically do their food sections but on a day-to-day basis it’s all about blogs. Truth be told, I rarely make things that I see on other blogs. Usually I just get inspired by what I see and either make it my way or find another recipe to riff off of. BUT every once in awhile something will catch my eye and I just HAVE TO MAKE it. Like this Pork Dumpling Soup that I spied over at The Kitchn. The recipe is from Bee at Rasa Malaysia who is a new-to-me blogger but is apparently super popular and has a great site.
During the winter months I’m all about making soup and I have an obsession with dim sum so dumplings are always top of mind with me. So how could I resist dumpling soup?
I had all sorts of grand plans of making the dumplings one night and then making the soup the following evening. But alas laziness kicked in and I was “forced” to make everything in the same evening… for dinner that night. Let’s just say that making 30+ dumplings from scratch on a Tuesday night was not one of my finest moments. It’s not that dumpling making is hard (especially when you buy the wrappers) it just takes time AND you can’t even snack because your hands are covered in raw pork. Needless to say every time I boiled up another batch I snatched one out to eat.
The dumplings themselves were a revelation. I’ve made dumplings before (maybe once or twice) and they turned out well but these dumplings had all sorts of touches that made them extra special. These were pork and shrimp dumplings but then you also add in wood ear mushrooms, water chestnuts, ginger and green onion. As for seasonings you get to add in sherry, chicken bouillon, fish sauce and other goodness. The flavor combination was so good and made the dumplings so official… they literally tasted like dumplings from a Chinese restaurant (and isn’t that the goal?). I’m totally inspired to start making dumplings all the time. Plus on a lazy, snowy (if we ever get snow) Sunday afternoon it’s the perfect activity. And you can make a bunch and freeze them.
The soup itself was super simple. We’re talking chicken broth and water. I had homemade broth in my freezer that I used and was perfect. The broth is almost a bit too simple, next time I’d consider throwing in a piece of ginger or something to give it another note. It wasn’t bad it just could’ve used a lil’ sumthin sumthin.
This soup is high on my list of things to make over and over and over again. It’s inexpensive and really not that hard to make. If you can rope someone into helping you with the dumplings it will go by in a flash.
Pork Dumpling Soup
Makes 12-20 dumplings or serves 4-6 as part of a multicourse meal
20 Siu Kow or wonton wrappers
4 cups (1 liter) water
Filling
1 small wood ear mushroom
6 oz (175 g) ground pork
4 oz (100 g) shelled and deveined raw shrimp, cut into small pieces
2 peeled fresh or canned water chestnuts, minced
1 tablespoon finely chopped green onion (scallion)
1 tsp finely chopped ginger
Seasonings
1 1/2 teaspoons oil
1 teaspoon Chinese rice wine (Shaoxing) or sherry
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
3/4 teaspoon chicken bouillon powder
1/2 teaspoon fish sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 dashes white pepper
Soup
1 3/4 cups (425 ml) Homemade Chicken Stock (page 00) or 1 can (14-oz/400-g) store-bought chicken broth
1 cup (250 ml) water
3 dashes white pepper
Salt, to taste
Garnishing
1 green onion (scallion), trimmed and cut into small rounds
1. Soak the wood ear mushroom in warm water until soft, about 15 minutes, and then cut into thin strips.
2. To make the filling, mix the mushrooms, ground pork, shrimp, water chestnuts, green onion, ginger, and all the Seasonings ingredients. Chill the filling in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
3. To assemble the dumplings, place a piece of the wrapper on your palm and spoon about 1 tablespoon filling onto the wrapper. Wet your index finger with water and circle around the outer edges of the dumpling wrapper. Fold the dumpling over and seal by pressing the edges with your thumb and index finger.Place the dumplings on a floured surface or baking sheet and cover with a damp towel so that they don’t dry out.
4. Bring a pot of water to a boil and slide the dumplings in. Cook until they float to the top, about 3 minutes. This may take several batches. Remove dumplings with a slotted spoon or spider and set aside.
5. Bring to boil the chicken broth and water in another pot. Add the white pepper and salt to taste.
6. To serve, put a few dumplings (4-5) in a bowl and ladle on some of the soup and garnish with green onions.
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i know what you mean! i have all these ideas for snow day cooking/baking projects…and we haven’t had any snow!!! this winter has been so weird.
ha! what winter?