Recipe: Steamed Ginger, Mushroom and Chicken Dumplings

The majority of my clients like to have an appetizer or hor d ourves before dinner. So when I prepared today's an asian menu, I made some dumplings and a few dipping sauces to enjoy them with.

Recipe: Ginger, Mushroom and Chicken Asian Dumplings
(serves 2-3 as appetizer)

• 6 oz. ground chicken
• 1/8 c. diced onion
• 2 garlic cloves, diced
• 1 - 2 inch knob of ginger, peeled, diced
• 5 shiitake mushrooms, stemmed discarded, julienned
• 3 T. chopped cilantro
• 3 T. sliced green onions (scallions)
• 1 T. oyster sauce
• 1 T. sesame oil
• 1 t. hot chile oil
• 1-2 egg whites
• 1-2 whole eggs, whisked for eggwash
• wonton skins (little 2x2 inch squares)

Make Filling:

1. Saute garlic, ginger, onion.
2. Add mushrooms.
3. Add chicken until 90% cooked.
4. Add cilantro, scallions, oyster sauce, sesame seed oil, hot chile oil, mixing completely.
5. Remove from heat and let filling cool completely.

Get ready to make dumplings:

1. Whisk egg wash and set aside.
2. Whisk egg whites and set aside.

Make Dumplings:

1. Take completely cooled filling and add 1/3 of egg whites. Mix completely. *TEST MIXTURE.
2. Lay out wontons on your cutting board and brush each with eggwash.
3. Spoon into center of wonton about 1 1/2 tablespoon of mixture.
4. Fold up dumlings.** Lay constructed dumplings on oiled sheet tray/cookie sheet. And continue making wontons until all the filling is used up.
5. Heat pot with bamboo steamer. If you don't have a bamboo steamer, Place a sieve in a pot and fill the pot with water - leaving about 1/2 inch of space between the sieve and the water in the pot. Place cabbage leaves in the sieve and place the dumplings on top of the cabbage leaves. Cover the pot with a lid and bring to a simmer.
6. When water comes to a simmer, almost boiling, remove lid and place dumplings in steamer or on top of cabbage leaves. Replace lid and steam dumplings for 10-15 minutes until cooked through.

*TEST MIXTURE: If you take about 2 tablespoons of the filling into the palm of your hand, closing it and forming a ball, does it stick together easily? If not add another egg white and mix the filling and test again. A good rule for dumplings is that you will only need 1 large whisked egg white for every 5-6 oz. of protein, be it ground beef, chicken or pork for dumplings.

**There are so many ways to make the shapes of dumplings, derived from cuisine styles, you can do just about anything. I don't want to take up to 5 pages writing how to fold and construct all the different types of dumplings you can make - so I'll just say to 'google' a few terms to come up with a couple of great websites that discuss the ins-and-outs of process. fold a few websites that I found that go into quite a bit of detail on how to construct them.

• Dumplings for Dummies: Website Post
• Cooks Illustrated, Nicole Routhier (Sept/Oct 1994): Article in pdf form