PrintChinese Dumpling and Soup Technique
My daughter's friend visited us for dinner the other night. It was great fun, because she brought some dumplings she and her mother had made (Chinese dumplings - the family is from Southern China) and wanted to show us how to cook them, as my daughter had mentioned how much she loved dumplings.
As I seem to not be able to keep this within a 1500 character message, this will be continued in the next post. :)
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12 Comments:
These were dumplings that were tiny and shaped just like tortellini - adorable little belly-buttons they were.
Our cooking lesson began, and my daughter's friend was nervous. This was the first time she had done this all by herself. :) (The girls are fifteen.)
I stood back and smiled as the instructions began, only letting out a single word here and there when the going got flustered. She was a fantastic teacher, though - and one of the things she most insisted upon was that when the water with the dumplings came to a boil, it must be lowered from that boil three times by the addition of a cup of cold water.
The technique being - that this rising and lowering of temperature would stretch the dumpling dough enough to shock it into making a broth of the water, which would be eaten after the dumplings were consumed. (She did not know the reason for the water being added but held it closely as a very important thing nonetheless - there was a sense of magical rune about it which I loved.)
One of the few online sources I found describing this technique added the following note:
As the Chinese saying goes, “it is much better to drink dumpling soup than to take medicine.” So be sure to drink some soup.
I'm curious whether there are any other uses known for this cold-water adding technique aside from dumplings - particularly whether this technique is used in other cuisines for specific dishes.
Karen Resta at 12:11PM on 04/21/08
Ah yes, this is how I always cook dumplings too. :)
mrsbao at 12:17PM on 04/21/08
The adding water thing? There is a reason? I guess I just never asked, we just always do it so the water doesn't boil over or maybe it's just habit.
I admit I am surprise that some people use the water used to boil the dumplings in for the soup. We always make a separate good quality broth to serve with wontons & "soup dumplings". We might boil the broth & dumplings together for a little bit after the dumplings is cooked, but we don't serve the dumpling boiling water.
gnomatic at 1:20PM on 04/21/08
I have worked in a chinese restaurant recently for almost 2 years and loved learning as much as I can about the customs and food. They always like to have hot liquid like soup for breakfast. The liquid from vegetables cooked is usually drank. Especially asparagus & artichokes. I learned how to make pork dumplings and make a batch and freeze them every couple of weeks.I also make a batch of the dipping sauce(soy sauce, rice vinegar, sugar, garlic,& red pepper flakes cooked 2 or 3 min on the stove)and store it in a glass jar in the fridge. As far a serving a dinner as we would eat in courses such as appetizer, soup, salad, entree they would eat it served all at once.. There aren't a lot of green salads they eat like us. Anyhoo... It was a good experience and I learned a lot working there.
joanpieroni2 at 7:12PM on 04/21/08
yeah that is how we normally cook dumpling
i just didn't know there was a reason behind it
but in my family, we don't drink the "soup" of the dumpling
we normally make a different and more flavorful soup to go with it
mochateri at 8:22PM on 04/21/08
Artichokes at a Chinese restaurant, joanpieroni2? That kind surprises me, actually...
Yes, Chinese dinners are typically "family style" as in, a collection of several dishes in the center of the table and everybody takes servings from there.
I've also never tried that technique with cooking dumplings! A separate broth is usually made from chicken or pork bones. I think I'm going to have to try this...
fuuchan at 2:23AM on 04/22/08
Not artichokes in the restaurant but the chinese cooks use them at home cooking the stems and drinking the broth. I always brought the cook my home made soup he said his son loved "American" soup. I'm guessing because it wasn't just broth.
joanpieroni2 at 8:13AM on 04/22/08
fuuchan - the broth made from the dumplings was light and surprisingly delicious. She added a touch of sugar before we ate it - and it was eaten after the dumplings. Her recipe for the dumpling dipping sauce was simply soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar and vinegar. I had put out an assortment of other things she could add if she wanted to (scallions, hot pepper flakes, chili sauce, garlic) but she was firm about not adding any of them. :)
I tested the three-cup-of water-added technique later with more dumplings, against simply cooking the dumplings (which were frozen ahead of time per her directions) in a different way (lowering the heat from the burner rather than adding the cold water) for a longer time to assure proper done-ness - and the broth from the last method was nowhere near as rich. It basically remained water, more or less.
I'm guessing that this is a method used maybe in certain areas of China? Or alternately it is a method falling out of favor as being demonstrative of a level of economic necessity that is no longer required . . .
The method is (as so many of the techniques and equipment used in the cookery through the ages of China) very creative, and very respectful of each bit of food placed before one to use. There is a good use for everything, nothing is discarded. That, to me, is as close to attaining perfection in the kitchen as can be found - there is much art and much technique to be found in this way of thinking, as well as something that is both a moral imperative while at the same time providing perhaps even a spiritual connection to the food, the kitchen, and those who eat as well.
Ah yes. It is all to be found in a bowl of light soup wished into existence by three cups of cold water tossed in "just right". :)
Karen Resta at 8:34AM on 04/22/08
Karen, I think the dumpling cooking/broth style, indicate not so much a large geographical region of China, it could be just a village/family "touch", or at what time the family left China.
My family is Cantonese.
My mom makes some very common cantonese dishes, but often adds the dried citrus peel to it...it's something people from her families village does.
My dad sometimes mentions the starvation during the cultural revolution in mainland China, and they would result to drinking the vegetable water as soup for nutrition (It was something they didn't do before, or after). They would even boil leaves from trees. To this day my dad still hates potatoes because that's all there was at that time to eat (he was lucky, as his family had a fish farm so they always had protein). While visiting SF Chinatown, my dad said it was the restaurant food as they used to make it back in the 1960's, 1970's (immigrant population much older in SF), different from the Toronto restaurant styles (more modern, reflecting new immigrant population).
I grew up liking "american soups" too, because Chinese soup isn't so much about good taste, but it's all about being healthy for you...and many of those ingredients taste (too be nice) like dirt..if not worst (ginseng....eeek!).
IMHO, there is nothing mythical or spiritual about Chinese home cooking. There isn't a lot of asking WHY we do certain things when we cook (probably because the reason behind it is long lost), it's just always been done, it works, it tastes good, just do it, don't question it. Many of us learned at a young age in our mother (or grandma's) kitchens ....just do as you are told, hurry up because people are waiting! Hell, even now when I make things on my own, I do it as I was taught because 1) it wouldn't taste as good if I did it differently 2) mom would frown upon it if she found out..even though I am not going to tell her...but you know she will just KNOW...
gnomatic at 1:55PM on 04/22/08
Mmm. The word "spiritual" was a stretch when I wrote it, gnomatic. :)
I realized that - but also realize that learning how to cook things that go back generations perhaps - and learning how to cook things where not only just the taste or the look is considered (that being pretty much the way in the US: look and taste) but also including in thought just as a matter of course seasonality, availability, waste, and sometimes even health as when the concepts of heating or cooling foods is invoked - gets much closer to something "spiritual" than when things are just done for look or taste or for the celebrity chef status of the recipe.
There's been a lost connection to our pasts in the US, with many of us. If there even was a past - some of the inherited cuisines were not something "to write home about" in the first place ha ha!
The mythic part sort of attaches itself to any ritualized thing. Children do this - try to invoke magic through ritualized play. There's something magical in this whether it really works or not, to me. It's partly just about the song that's sung, not about the "results". :)
It's about the story.
Karen Resta at 2:14PM on 04/22/08
Of course in this case it was also about the broth.
Heh heh.
Karen Resta at 2:41PM on 04/22/08
I was recently invited to a Taiwanese friend's house for cooking lessons. It was one of the most enlightening days of my life! She gave us tips and tricks for cooking many dishes. Like the boiling/cold water broth "trick".
Often when making a "stir-fry" I cut the vegetables in different sizes to make it have a nice appearance. My friend told me the veggies and meat should be the same size to cook at the same time and look nice. She also said my cutting was that of a 5 star chef...
I love learning new techniques and the reasoning behind them!
watchforbears at 11:42PM on 04/22/08