Asian Dumplings

Asian Dumplings

Steaming-hot dumplings are popular snack foods all over China. Asian dumplings probably originated in Central Asia as peasant foods as far back as 600 A.D. They vary widely, but all consist of a filling wrapped in a thinly rolled flour and water dough, sealed by pressing or crimping the edges, and then boiled, steamed or pan-fried. They can be stuffed with pork, mutton, beef, fish, shrimp or thin noodles, usually with vegetables, commonly cabbage, scallions and Chinese chives. Accompanying dipping sauces are made with soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, ginger, rice wine and/or chiles.

The Chinese name dumplings based on the type of dough and cooking technique. Won tons have a thin skin of wheat dough folded over a filling of minced pork and green onions and are fried, steamed or commonly added to broth. Small, semicircular jiaozi, the most-popular dumplings, have fillings of minced pork and green cabbage surrounded by thick dough. Dumplings made with glutinous rice-flour dough include savory tang t’uan and yuan hsiao, with a sweet filling of sesame paste, nuts and sugar. Steamed dumplings are called zhengjiao. Boiled “water dumplings” are shuijiao. Dumplings pan-fried and then steamed, or pot stickers, are known as guotie and also called dryfried dumplings, or jianjiao.

Jiaozi, dim sum standards, are usually steamed and stuffed with shrimp, scallops, chicken, tofu and/or vegetables like mushrooms, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots and/or green cabbage. Today’s delicate shrimp dumplings, called har gau, can also have many exotic fillings like lobster, crab or beef seasoned with corn, bamboo shoots, beans, paprika, teriyaki, satay or curry.

Asian cultures create dumplings in many forms. In Japan, the most-popular gyoza is yaki-gyoza, which is panfried or grilled and then steamed. Others are boiled (sui-gyoza) or deepfried (age-gyoza). Fillings include shrimp, duck, miso and sweet potato. Korean dumplings, mandoo, are similar to jiaozi and gyoza with fillings that include pork, clear rice noodles, kimchi, mushrooms and/or mashed bean curd. Tibetan momos feature potatoes or yak meat, onions, mushrooms, yak cheese, cilantro, black pepper and paprika. The Thais savor chor lada, with minced pork, shrimp and peanuts wrapped in colorful, blue-tinged rice-tapioca dough.

Many sweet, steamed dumplings made from glutinous rice, tapioca or sago-flour dough are sometimes flavored with coconut milk, palm sugar or infused pandan-leaf juice. The Japanese enjoy filled sweet rice cakes (mochi), from steamed sakuramochi filled with sweetened azuki paste and wrapped in cherry-blossom leaves to mochi-wrapped ice cream. Onde onde are sweet dumplings from Indonesia and Malaysia made with glutinous rice and filled with brown sugar, boiled, then rolled in grated coconut. The Burmese enjoy rice dumplings with palm-sugar filling and rolled in grated coconut, as well as lentil-coconut-milk dumplings. The favored Vietnamese dumpling, banh goi, consists of mung bean, infused pandanleaf flavor and coconut milk wrapped in banana leaf and topped with toasted sesame seeds.