Gratitude Post 29 - Chinese Dumplings

After gorging ourselves with Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes over the last several days, the entire family enjoys a little change of pace - Chinese Food! But not just any Chinese Food - they want Fried Dumplings.

I don't know if this is a tradition in every Asian family, but whenever my family gathered with our extended family, we always made Dumplings. From scratch. The process is lengthy and requires lots of manpower (probably why it became an extended family gathering tradition) - making the filling, making and rolling the dough, filling the dumplings and finally cooking them by boiling (easy) or frying (more time consuming, but, oh, ever so tasty!).

No, we didn't have any extended family visit us over Thanksgiving, and no I didn't undertake the process of dumpling making on my own (I have in the past, and it is exhausting!). I simply drove to the local Asian Market (SO thankful we have a good one in town) and bought 4 packages of frozen dumplings (and a whole lot of other stuff, of course).

I did pan fry the dumplings - the kids complain if I simply boil them. This is done by heating a skillet, adding enough oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Once the oil is good and hot, place the dumplings, flat side down in the pan. Let sit until the bottoms are crispy brown. Get some sort of vented cover ready (I use a sheet of aluminum foil that covers 99% of the pan), and pour in 1/2-3/4 C of water into the pan. Cook until all of the water has evaporated away, as this will finish cooking the dumplings.

While searching for an image of dumplings to include in this post, I stumbled upon a blog devoted to Asian cooking. Wow - it reminded me of all the yummy things my grandmother (Nai Nai) made, and many things my mother makes. I've included it in my Blog list and hope you take some time to visit The Asian Grandmothers Cookbook.