Clean Out the Fridge Dumplings

This recipe appeared in the May 2020 SFDC newsletter. It comes from the cookbook, Double Awesome Chinese Food, which was featured on a recent Slow Food Live event. You can watch the event here for step-by-step instructions.

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour, plus a few TBSP for rolling out dough

• 1 cup just-boiled water

• 2 cups or so of whatever filling you have around, mashed or finely chopped, such as...

  -cooked shrimp or shredded pork with mushrooms and scallion

  -mixed veggies with ginger and garlic

  -leftover fried chicken with hot sauce

  -mashed potatoes with cooked onions and shredded cheese

Instructions

Use a wooden spoon to combine flour with 3/4 cup hot water in a medium bowl. Stir until most of the flour comes together into a crumbly dough, adding more hot water as needed, 1 TBSP at a time. Once it is cool enough to handle, gently knead it with your hands until it forms a soft ball. Cover the bowl with a damp kitchen towel and let dough rest for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, gather/chop/cook your filling.

After your dough has rested for the requisite 30 minutes, divide it into 4 sections. 

On a lightly floured surface, roll out one section at a time into a fat tube, keeping the remaining sections of dough in the towel-covered bowl to keep them moist. 

Cut each dough worm into 6-8 little marshmallow-sized blobs. 

Roll out each marshmallow until it is a thin, roughly circular pancake -- say 3-5" in diameter. These are your dumpling wrappers. Roll out one or two at a time, so they don't start sticking to your counter or cutting board.

Holding one dumpling wrapper in one hand, use a spoon in your other hand to scoop a teaspoon or two of filling into the center of your dumpling wrapper, Fold the two sides together, as if making a taco, and pinch the edges together. You may need to wet the inner edges of the dumpling to get them to stick. 

To cook, heat just a splash of oil in a heavy pan until it shimmers, over medium heat, and add a half dozen dumplings. Once the bottoms have browned, carefully pour in 1/2 cup of water and quickly cover. Check after a couple of minutes -- if the water has all evaporated, let the dumplings cook for another minute or two to crisp up the bottoms.