Making dumplings yourself: rewarding and sociable!
I’ll be the first to say that you should always have a bag of frozen dumplings in the freezer. Perfect for steaming as a quick party snack, but also ideal for turning instant noodles into a spontaneous dinner – especially if you scrunch in a jammy egg and some edamame. But for some occasions I really do say: make them yourself!
Making or folding dumplings or gyoza is not difficult (although you can make it as complicated as you like) and the most fun part is doing it together. Because folding fifty dumplings by yourself can be boring (unless your aim is a lovely therapeutic meditation session), but with two people it’s an entertaining task that you can also have a conversation during…
Fun to do together
And that’s why it’s ideal to do with a drink while catching up with friends, or while trying to coax a teenager into a dialogue. Get the basic folding techniques under your fingers together, and then craft away until you have a bowl full of goodies.
Cheers, and start folding
Recently, I made dumplings with a friend with two different fillings: a vegetarian version with kimchi and tofu, and one with half-and-half ground meat, white cabbage and (lots of) spring onion and ginger, plus a dollop of sambal. I simply got ready-made frozen gyoza wrappers from the Asian supermarket, made the fillings myself and, after a little hour of ‘assembly line’ work, we had a counter full of dumplings, had happily caught up, and had even managed to enjoy some Chinese Tsingtao beers in the meantime. It was such a lovely time! And, thank goodness, delicious too…
-
- Samen aan de vouw terwijl de rijst in de rijstkoker gaart
-
- Checken of de onderkant mooi goudbruin is gebakken…
-
- … en dan gaarstomen met een scheutje water!
You’ll get the hang of it in no time
Tim Anderson’s instructions (I also followed his kimchi-tofu filling recipe) from his cookbook Vegan Japaneasy are excellent, so you can definitely get started with those. But if it helps you to see visual examples, there are plenty of video tutorials or photo instructions to be found online! This dumpling-folding guide from Bon Appétit, for example, is truly fantastic. So round someone up, open a cold beer or brew a pot of jasmine tea, and get folding!
Also read:
- Recipe: Rendang Dumplings
- These are the best international supermarkets in Amsterdam
- Help! How do I survive the Asian supermarket?
