I’m writing this post from a hotel room in Salt Lake City. Tomorrow we’re off to California, and down the Baja Peninsula from there for a few weeks of exploring in Mexico. The car is packed with bikes, camping equipment. cooking gear, and boatloads of snacks. There are many adventures ahead. But tonight, I’m content and my belly is full of these great golden dumplings.
The past two weeks were a whirlwind of preparations and planning. The last night at home was no exception; I spun around the kitchen, packing our little travel cooking kit, double-checking the myriad lists I’d made about every single thing you can think of and turning the meager contents of the fridge and pantry into epic road trip snacks. These dumplings were the highlight of my tweaking and crafting.
The dumplings actually began as a holiday bender. I loved whipping them up for guests over the holidays, stuffing them with whatever happened to be hanging out in the fridge (lentils! pumpkin! broccoli and cheese!) We had a few wrappers leftover when it came time to clean out the fridge, along with a handful of shiitake mushrooms, some little scallions, a few stalks of celery and one last knob of ginger. And you know, golden dumplings are so much more intriguing than a gas station sandwich from somewhere in Nevada!
So, these golden dumplings. They’re my take on a potsticker, and I’m not that far off save for fresher ingredients inside. I cook up a veggie-forward filling, then use a small amount of avocado oil to sear them up, and some water to steam the tops, so they aren’t the grease balls you’d find at a restaurant. Dumplings like this get a bad wrap for being tricky to shape, but I think you’ll all be in my camp where desire trumps artistic ability, and that’s all that matters anyway.
Hot, fresh dumplings are one of life’s great joys. (So eat these that way if the opportunity arises!) But eating dumplings on a plane, or as a ride snack (it’s true and its possible!) or in the middle of Nevada with your feet on the dashboard while listening to a podcast is pretty awesome too.
I’m working on a dumpling dough of my own design…but it’s going to take longer than I’m willing to go without dumplings in my life. SO, I use store-bought dumpling wrappers here and if you’re fancy/lazy like me I suggest you do too. There are lots of dumpling wrappers to choose from, and I try to pick the ones that have the shortest ingredient list, all things I can recognize, and it’s a bonus if they were made near where I live. Typically you can find them at an international market or Asian grocery store.
For the filling, I love this combination of flavors, particularly when you deglaze with beer. SO good. And it wouldn’t bother me at all if you upped the mushroom quantity a bit over the celery quantity – again, bomb. But, if you don’t have one of these ingredients, you can use any ingredients you like so long as they aren’t too watery…which will leach out of the dumplings as they cook. Cooked lentils, roasted pumpkin, carrots, herbs, hummus….all of those things have made for some great golden dumpling successes in my opinion.
I’ve found that the dumplings seal best when I just use the cornstarch they’re coated in to close them. Other dumpling makers I know use a dusting of flour. You do you. I also find that they seal most easily when you allow the water to soak into the starch a bit, so I’ll lay out a few wrappers and swipe them with water, then fill and shape (as you see in the header image of this post.)
One last note on shaping: don’t fret if your dumplings don’t look “perfect.” The dumplings don’t know the difference, and neither will your taste buds. Just get those babies closed and tightly. Make sure they have a “bottom” so they can rest in the pan and brown up. Then enjoy them!
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