A culinary celebration of the Year of the Snake
It is the Year of the Snake, and I am the lucky girl getting a front-row seat to the makings of a Chinese New Year celebration at the Baton Rouge home of Fahui and Lei Wang. In advance of the festivities, in my forward fashion, I inquired about a private tutorial, which began with a leisurely stroll through the Asian Supermarket on Florida Boulevard in the Sherwood Plaza. Experiencing the abundance of authentic Asian ingredients with a tour guide was a whole new level of wow—a maze of exotic flavors from across the Asian continent, all housed under one roof.
My introduction to the Wangs occurred early in my Louisiana tenure; a mutual friend shared the delight of shopping for traditional ingredients followed by cooking in their home and the ease with which Lei demonstrated the techniques. I hung on every word, hoping for a similar experience. Ask, and you shall receive.
In the market, we gathered fist-sized knobs of shiny fresh ginger and a bundle of scallions and a bouquet of cilantro from a floor-to-ceiling wall of brilliant greens before moving to the open freezers. She explained we would need round wrappers for the dumplings that are the centerpiece of the celebration. “They’re not super good compared to the fresh dough you make, but you know, you live with that,” she noted.
We wandered up and down the aisles of noodles and sauces, selecting a jar of spicy chili crisp, an industrial-sized tin of sesame oil and a bottle of brown vinegar, all elements of the signature dipping sauce. We found the red paper lanterns for decoration, prompting Lei to think aloud that Fahui could paint a festive banner for the occasion.
Some days after our shop-a-thon, I arrived at the Wang residence to find Lei at her kitchen island working with bits of dough she tore off from a long rope and expertly rolling each walnut-sized piece into a paper-thin circle. With a miniature rolling pin, she rolled the perimeter of the dough while gently rotating the circle with her other hand. Within minutes, she had a shingled collection of ready-to-fill homemade dumpling wrappers and not a sprinkle of flour on her elegant blue blouse.
“My training of watching cooking shows paid off,” she joked, adding, “I watched a guy on YouTube making crispy potstickers.” She included this new technique in her repertoire and demonstrated the more approachable option of the thawed frozen wrappers.
Lei’s daughter Jackie joined the dumpling assembly, waiting to have her shapes audited by the head chef. In the spirit of “many hands make the work light (and a lot more fun),” a first grader from Baton Rouge FLAIM, who is in the Mandarin immersion program, also joined the shaping party, impressing everyone with his adopted language skills. His response upon tasting, “these dumplings are blowing my mind!”
“It’s never just about the meal. It’s the experience and who you are enjoying the meal with,” Fahui said with grand enthusiasm and then asked, “How did you make it taste so special?” Lei replied, “I mixed in a little bit of old-fashioned love.”
The dumplings were hurried to the table and served not with Champagne but with little glasses of Moutai, a distilled Chinese spirit, the perfect way to celebrate the Year of the Snake.
“In northern China, dumplings are the staple food for Chinese New Year gatherings. Eating dumplings is a traditional part of Chinese New Year celebrations because they symbolize wealth and prosperity in the coming year because the shape of dumplings resembles ancient gold or silver ingots. You can buy frozen pre-made dumpling wrappers from an Asian grocery store, or you can make dumpling wrappers from scratch which taste so much better for sure.” – Lei Wang
Start by making the dough.
Dumpling Dough
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups water, room temperature
Punch table salt
Mix all ingredients together by mixer or hands to form rough dough. Dough is supposed to be a little stiff. You can add flour or water to adjust (you can shape it into a rope without it being too sticky. Also, keep in mind additional flour will be worked in on the rolling surface).
Rest dough in covered container for 20 minutes. Put it on floured surface and hand knead the dough for 5 minutes to make it smooth.
Rest for at least 1 hour before use.
Makes 30-40 dumplings.
Dumpling Wrappers
Divide dough into 4 pieces and knead each piece to a 1-inch diameter rope.
Take one rope out and keep the rest in a covered container to prevent drying out.
Cut rope into 1/3-in. thick pieces on a floured cutting board.
Use rolling pin to roll the piece to a 2 1/2-in. diameter thin circular wrapper.
Use flour to prevent wrappers from sticking to the cutting board.
Continue to filling.
Ground Pork with Green Onion Filling
1 lb. ground pork (or chicken or beef if preferred)
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup minced green onion
1 Tbsp. minced fresh ginger
1 Tbsp. soy sauce
2 Tbsp. sesame oil (optional)
2 tsp. table salt to flavor
Place raw ground pork into a large mixing bowl. Drizzle chicken broth slowly into ground meat and mix in one direction (clockwise or counterclockwise, but do not change direction) until broth is fully incorporated into meat.
Mix in the green onion, ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil, and salt.
Refrigerate filling until ready to use (up to 1 day ahead).
Vegetarian Dumpling Filling
3 Tbsp. cooking oil
3 eggs, whisked in a bowl, ready to scramble
2 cups Napa cabbage
1 cup mushrooms
2 Tbsp. minced green onion
1 cup thin-boiled glass noodles, drained well and finely chopped
4 Tbsp. sesame oil
1 Tbsp. soy sauce
Salt to flavor
Scramble eggs in large skillet in cooking oil. Chop into small pieces and transfer to large mixing bowl.
Blanch cabbage and mushroom in boiling water for 1 minute, squeeze dry and mince, and add to the cooked eggs along with the green onion, chopped glass noodles, sesame oil, and soy sauce. Add salt to taste.
Cook the dumplings.
Make Dumplings
Put 1 Tbsp. filling in center of wrapper. Fold to form half-moon shape and seal filling securely. (Homemade dough will stick on its own. Store-bought wrappers will need a little water around the edge to seal).
Cooking:
For boiled dumplings, use 6- to 8-qt. stock pot, filling water halfway and bring to boil. Put raw dumplings in boiling water and make sure they do not stick to the bottom or to each other. Bring water to boil again, then drip cold water in boiling pot to tame down boiling 2 to 3 times until dumplings float to the top. Use mesh drainer to remove cooked dumplings onto plates. The total cooking time is about 7 to 8 minutes.
For fried dumplings (pot stickers), add 1 Tbsp. cooking oil to large nonstick skillet on medium heat. Put in dumplings to have space in between them. Add 1/4 cup of water into pan and cover with lid. Water will create steam. Cook dumplings in steam with lid closed for 5 minutes. Open lid to let water evaporate completely until bottom of dumplings turn golden color and are crisp.
And finish with the sauce.
Dipping Sauce
As Lei swirled these ingredients together in a glass measuring cup, she said, “Let’s do a little sauce. Let’s taste this and test it out!” These are suggested ratios and can be tweaked to individual tastes.
4 Tbsp. Asian brown vinegar
1 Tbsp. sesame oil
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
2 Tbsp. chili crisp (Lei’s favorite brand is Laoganma)
Minced cilantro leaves or green onions (optional)
Pour vinegar into a small bowl and swirl in sesame oil, soy sauce, chili crisp and cilantro/green onions (if using). Make a big batch for lots of dumpling dipping.
