Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Mushroom, Tofu and Coriander Dumplings (or Vegan Gyoza)


The other night I made mushroom ramen soup, which was very good, but that is only the beginning of the story, and the recipe for the Ramen is not in this post (if you are interested you can read it here on the Only Recipes' blog)



The thing is that to make the mushroom stock I used a lot of mixed dried Asian mushrooms, and I had a bit leftover, so I decided to use them to make dumplings.

So the ingredients are:

Cooked Asian mushrooms (about a cup)


Dumpling pastry (50 pieces, round)


Tofu, 1 block


Coriander (a few leaves and stalks)


Soy sauce, to taste (I always use Japanese soy sauce)

There are two more ingredients which I didn't photograph, one is
Sesame oil, 1 tsp
(I didn't take a photo because my bottle is too greasy and you cannot read the label)
and the second is
Bread crumbs, 1 or 2 tbsp
(I didn't take a photo because I was to busy mixing the filling)


Place the mushrooms, tofu, coriander, soy sauce and sesame oil in a food processor and pulse until you get a fine texture. Add the bread crumbs a little at the time to reach a workable thickness (the other ingredients have high liquid content). I add bread crumbs also because they give the filling a nice and balanced taste, bringing out the Umami in the other ingredients.
I didn't add salt: the mushrooms were cooked in a light vegetable stock, and the soy sauce is salted. But you do what you like :-)


Here my 11 years old daughter took over the camera for the first step by step pics.

Place a little filling on each pastry circle

Lightly wet the borders with water

Gently fold the pastry

Pinch the ends well and make sure that there are no air bubbles inside

If you can, try to make them look pretty!

Done!

Now Arantxa has a go! We had 50 dumplings to make, so it is good to do it with someone, or it gets boring!

To cook them:

Personally I really like steamed dumplings, or cooked in a soup, but we had soup the night before, and my family really liked them fried... but I didn't want to fry all those dumplings (too greasy) so I opted for a half-way. In Japan they make Gyosa, also called potstickers, you cook them quickly in a hot pot with very little oil.

Place them in the hot pot standing up so that the bottom get golden and lightly crunchy, then turn them on both sides (I did 25 at the time and it was hard work!!!). At the end you are supposed to put a lid on and let them simmer in their own steam for a few seconds, but because I had so many dumplings I pan fried them in two batches, then put them all back in the pot and added just a little water to create more steam. Lid on for a minute and they were ready and piping hot. We ate them with sweet chilli sauce and soy sauce, very filling, 50 between 4 people and our bellies were round, and satisfied!

Photos by Alessandra Zecchini and Arantxa Zecchini Dowling ©


13 comments:

  1. Ma che belli!Solo che qui la pasta mi sa che non la trovo..dovrei farmela da me...Sai che in Jamaica i dumpling erano delle frittelle di pasta?

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  2. In alcuni posti i dumpling sono pure gli gnocchi!

    A Milano ci sono tanti negozi cinesi, forse la trovi...

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  3. Agreed; dumplin making is not a job for one. When it's communal it's fun though, glad you guys had some nice bonding time ^_^

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  4. mamma mia che delizia....ma la pasta...una volta ho fatto dei ravioli al vapore ...mi sa che riciclo la ricettina con quel ripieno...slurps

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  5. Great dumplings! That filling must be very flavorful.

    Cheers,

    Rosa

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  6. Lo, e' anche dietetico, quasi solo proteine e niente grassi (a parte pochissimo olio).

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  7. What a neat preparation of dumplings.I never thought of using mushrooms as a filling..so I will steal :) your idea once I make them nxt.
    Thanks for stopping by dear!

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  8. Thank you so much for this. I am always happy to see the pictures of the process, it is so useful! :) You have won me over, and have a new follower!

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  9. Ooooooooh, dumplings! I never met a type of (vegetarian/vegan) dumpling I didn't like and these look fabulous. But seriously, didn't it take you for ever to make those 50 dumplings?

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  10. Mary-Laure, yes it took a while, but you get faster with practice, and it was worth it!

    Vic, your deli slice is great!

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  11. I love dumplings, Alessandra. These look delicious - and so many!

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  12. Adoro i ravioli fatti così! Mi segno la ricetta, tempo fa ho fatto un esperimento con il ripieno di verdura, ciao

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  13. Your dumplings are so pretty and they look delicious too, Alessandra :)! I am not vegetarian, but I've tried vegetarian dumplings and I love them too :)!

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