Ming made this Vegetarian Dumpling in the South Arm Community Kitchen. She made it based on Vanessa’s description of the dish which Vanessa had in a restaurant. Since Ming came from Beijing, she is good at making dumpling and noodle which are the staple food of Northern China.
The dumpling is steamed and the vegetarian filing tasted pretty good.
Ingredients
For the dumpling skin:
- self rising flour
- warm water
For the filing:
- vermicelli
- cloud ear
- fried tofu puff
- shiitake mushroom
For seasoning:
- salt
- soy sauce
- sesame oil
- chicken powder
Ming made her dish by eyeball and filing, often, she cant give me the exact amount of the ingredients.
Click on the link below for the instructions.
Instructions
 Ming prepared the filings from home. She told us the filings are made up of vermicelli, cloud ear, shiitake mushroom and fried tofu puff which she fried with a little oil. All the ingredients were chopped to small pieces. She seasoned the filings with salt, soy sauce, sesame oil and chicken powder. |
 She also prepare a dough from home using self rising flour and warm water because the dough need some time to rise. Ming is still not familiar with flour in North America and she often does not get the right consistency she wanted. She did make extra dough in the kitchen using all-purpose flour and hot water. We are not sure it’s due to over steaming or the flour, some of the dumplings were split open. |
 To make the dumpling, on a floured surface, roll the dough into a log of 1″. Divide the log into small pieces. |
 Roll each small pieces into a thin dough. |
 Fill the dumpling skin with the filing. This filing is quite hard to handle to the it’s loose nature. It takes skill to make the dumpling. |
 It looks easy for Ming to make the dumpling. I’m sure I’ll have a hard time trying to pinch together the edges. |
 Steam the dumpling over high heat for 15 minutes.
Ming, thank you for sharing the technique of making dumpling again in the kitchen. |
I like vege dumplings…I should try making it, great post you got!
What exactly is cloud ear?
Hi Minka, cloud ear is a fungus, greyish colour and sold in dried form. It is good for it’s crunchy texture. You can find them in Chinese groceries stores.
I would really appreciate if you could email me the recipe for the steamed red beans bun ie. the recipe for the dough. Looking forward to your reply, thanks.
linda
Hi Linda, the recipe of the dough for the red bean bun is in this blog: http://chowtimes.com/2008/06/15/napa-cabbage-and-pork-steamed-bun-choy-yoke-pau/
Since when has ‘chicken powder’ (in the seasoning) been vegetarian?????
my wifes family have a take away in Tokyo, they call these Gyoza, they are very nice. You can usually buy the skins in packs. They are easy to cook and very good as snacks with beer.
Also after steaming , drain the water away and add a little olive oil to gently fry them to make nice and crispy.