When I was in Hmart, the largest Asian grocery store in town, yesterday to eat lunch with my mom, sister, and my girls, I noticed the Chinese food menu had homemade dumplings. These were new to the menu so I had to give them a try and share my opinion. I ordered the fried dumplings. For some reason I expected pan-fried dumplings even though the sign said fried dumpling. Here is my criteria for delicious dumplings.
Filling: great flavor, nice texture, healthy balance of meat and lots of vegetables
Skin: thin! It’s the wrapper for all the delicious goodness inside
The dumplings came out hot. They were greasy but that is expected because they were deep fried. It was a nice treat to eat the crispy skin.
The dumplings came with Ja Jang Sauce, a black bean sauce you can also buy here. It has some chopped green onions in it. This is the first time I’ve tasted Ja Jang sauce.
The Filling: Filling is pork, cabbage, onion, and chives. Distinct chives taste. A little too peppery for my taste.
The Skin: Not as thin as I like, but very crispy.
Summary: The filling is too peppery for me and I don’t usually like to eat fried dumplings because they are greasy. The Ja Jang Sauce was plain but complimented the dumpling flavor nicely. I won’t be ordering these dumplings again.
Star rating: 1 out of 5.
Mama on a mission to find the best restaurant dumpling,
Chrissy xoxo
Though I prefer that my family eats the dumplings I make from scratch, sometimes I don’t have time and my homemade stock in the freezer is gone so I like to have some store-bought dumplings as backup. Everytime I’m at a grocery store, I checkout their frozen dumpling selection for something to try. I wanted to share my thoughts with you on this blog. This is my personal criteria and preference for dumplings and I base all my judgement on these traits:
In looking at the ingredients list, I really liked there are no preservatives and artificial flavoring.
The dumplings are good size with flat bottoms and closed tight.
I pan fried the dumpling and followed the instructions to first sear the bottom and then add water to steam cook.
The bottoms seared nicely.
The filling:
I made two changes to the recipe to fit my family’s eating style. I switched the pork belly to pork butt because it’s a little bit leaner, and the white sugar to agave sweetener because it’s less processed.
I minced the garlic and put together the Chinese rice wine, soy sauce, agave sweetener, hoisin sauce, five-spice powder to create the marinade.
I have to double the recipe because my husband and little ones love this so much and it is great to make Barbecued Pork fried rice the next day. I bought a 2 pound pork butt and cut it in half, creating two long pieces.
After a few hours marinating, I put the pork in the pan and covered it with honey.
The pork comes out of the oven and is the perfect combination of crispy and juicy. The air is filled with this amazing smell of barbecue sweetness.
I cooled the pork and then cut it into slices. I poured some of the marinade from the pan over the pork. This picture makes my mouth water.
Start with 1 pound of ground dark meat chicken. I ground my own chicken so I can use organic chicken meat.
Chop 1 cup of some scallions, about 3 to 4 scallions.
Rehydrate 1 cup of dried shiitake mushrooms and then chop. You can find these at any asian market.
Peel 3 to 4 fresh water chestnuts and then chop. My mom says the water chestnuts with the dirt on the outside are fresher then the clean ones. You will find more rotten chestnuts in the cleaned batch.
Chop up the napa cabbage.
Mix the chicken meat, scallions, mushrooms, water chestnuts, napa cabbage, corn starch, salt, sesame oil in a bowl.
Mix thoroughly. Don’t be afraid to use your hands.
Get out the dumpling skins. Twin Marquis is my favorite brand.
For the filling, scoop a heaping teaspoon for each dumpling.
(1) Place the filling in the middle of the dumpling skin, dab your fingers in the egg wash and coat the edge of the skin, then fold in half but do not press shut (2) You will make three pleats at the edge of the side closest to you. To make a pleat, pinch the skin in between your thumbs and then press firmly to stick to the back side of the skin. (3) Repeat two more times (4) Evenly space the pleats and place firmly on a flat surface to make sure the dumpling “sits” on its own. Pinch the edge firmly to make sure the dumpling is completely sealed.
If you are making more then you can eat at the moment, place a sheet of plastic wrap or parchment paper over a tray and as you wrap the dumplings, line them up one after another. Make sure the dumplings do not touch and are all “sitting” by themselves.
For the dumplings you want to eat, coat the bottom of a non-stick pan with oil. Fill the bottom of the pan with dumplings. Line them up snug. Cover the dumplings half way with water, put a cover on the pan, and cook on medium heat.
After fifteen minutes check the dumplings to make sure most of the water has disappeared. Wait another five to ten minutes and the dumplings should be done. Check to make sure the bottoms are brown and crispy. Cook until they are.
To get the dumplings out of the pan you can: