The Food That Made Me

Kids, when cooking something for the first time, please read the recipe. More like read it like 3 times.

Don’t rush. Dinner can be a little later. It will be worth it!

So, I’m preparing for my first dinner party. I’m switching my dumpling recipe to be vegetarian so that Auntie Blueberry muffin can have them. It is ok Auntie Blueberry can cry for having such a thoughtful friend.

Recipe

So, I was looking through this recipe and chopping up all of the ingredients. Ginger, mushrooms, water chestnuts, cabbage, carrots. Threw it all into a bowl. Poured in all of the sauces and let it marinade for a bit. Wrapped them and then boiled them. Many things went wrong. I have lots of tips.

Tips

1. Pan fry the ingredients first before using it. If I had read the recipe beforehand, I would have seen that the recipe told me to cook the ingredients beforehand. I could have avoided eating really crunchy and undercooked dumplings. Whoops.
2. Lessen the amount of ginger and pepper. I added more for flavor, but it can get too spicy.
3. Lessen the amount of liquid. It is hard to wrap soggy ingredients. Or, strain the liquid out beforehand.
4. Improve on wrapping technique. You have to keep all of the ingredients inside. They cannot escape. How do the Asian grandmothers do it?
5. Use a bigger pot. Don’t let them crowd because they will come apart easier and even stick together.
6. Be aware of the starch level of the water so that it isn’t all sticky.
7. Strain as much water out as possible so that the sauce isn’t diluted.
8. Place them on a big plate and don’t let them touch because they will all stick into a giant dumpling if stacked together. Mommy didn’t really like that.