Flavorful, yet fairly simple dumplings you can make at home to stave off your cravings for take-out.
I have a coworker who absolutely hates it when cabbage is used in dumplings. She says that it takes up room for more meat! This recipe is partly to spite her and because I like cabbage in my dumplings…. The inspiration for this recipe came from YouTube shorts of all places, one of my favorite chefs I follow, Chris Cho, made some tasty looking dumplings that I just had to try!
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I had to alter the recipe just a bit due to what I had on hand vs. what was available to me, but these bad-boys still turned out delicious! One thing you will need is an accurate kitchen scale for weighing out your ingredients. I have a very simple model that I got on amazon which has helped me immensely throughout my cooking journey. You can pick one up like it HERE.
While we are on the topic of things you will need for this recipe, I can’t forget the nut-milk bag. What the heck is a nut-milk bag? Well, it’s like a very fine mesh bag that is used for squeezing out moisture from various things, but mostly used when making milk out of various nuts. In this recipe we will be using it to squeeze out the moisture from both the cabbage and the tofu. I didn’t have one of these magical bags when I made this, and I really wish I had. My make-shift cheese cloth bag worked fine for the cabbage but didn’t really stand up to the pressure required to rid the tofu of it’s extra moisture.
In his video, Chris mentioned his experience as a young boy wrapping dumplings with the waitresses at the restaurant. They would sit around talking trash and generally have a good time while they shared the responsibility of making the dumplings. I wanted to have a similar experience when I made my dumplings, considering I was planning on making over 80 of them! I enlisted the help of my friends with the promise that we would be eating tasty dumplings once they were finished.
This group of friends is quite used to my cooking at this point, and they don’t seem to mind ducking under my massive studio light to get to the table. They have helped quite a bit in the past year and a half and have always been there when I needed some taste testers. This is a rare post where I will be sharing pictures of them in my process photos. We gathered round the bowl of filling and all took turns filling our dough discs and wrapping them in our own fashion. If it weren’t for Laura’s artistic flair, all the dumplings would have been a simple pinch-closed design. She took the initiative and created a more appealing folded pinch edge that worked out great for my pictures, thank you Laura!
One other friend that helped to improve this recipe would be my buddy Nick, he had the suggestion to pan-fry some of the dumplings instead of steaming all of them. I have a bamboo steamer that I love using for things like this, but I have to be honest, the pan-fried version just hit different and really brought out the flavors in ways steaming falls short. The pan-fried version also looks really pretty in my opinion.
When it comes to dumplings, the filling makes all the difference, however sometimes the dipping sauce can really highlight the flavor profile you are going for. I think we tried about 4-5 different things to dip our little guys in but found that fried chili crisp/hot chili oil was best. Coming in close second and third was dark soy sauce and hoisin respectively. Feel free to try what you have on hand and be the judge yourself.
One last note for this recipe is that I had 4 others at my house when I made this, we only ate this for dinner and still had leftovers a plenty! Feel free to freeze these and save them for later. The best method for this would be to lay the dumplings flat on a baking sheet covered in wax/parchment paper spaced evenly. Freeze for a few hours, then transfer to a large Ziplock bag and return to the freezer for an easy snack in the future.
Beef-Tofu Dumplings
Simple yet delicious dumplings filled with beef, tofu, and lots of onion!
Ingredients
- 100 grams scallions finely chopped
- 50 grams chives finely chopped
- 150 grams Hmong bean sprouts blanched then finely chopped
- 250 grams onion finely chopped
- 150 grams cabbage finely chopped
- 1 tsp salt
- 200 grams tofu firm
- 470 grams ground beef
- 1 tbsp flour
- ½ tsp ground black pepper
- 20 grams soy sauce
- 5 grams sugar
- 30 grams garlic minced/pureed
- 7 grams ginger minced/pureed
- 2 egg yolks save the whites for wrapping the dumplings
- 2 packages pre-made dumpling wrappers 44ct each, thawed
Instructions
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Blanch Hmong bean sprouts for about 1 minute in boiling water, then transfer to a bowl of ice water to rest, drain and then chop.
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Finely chop all remaining vegetables, place chopped cabbage in a small bowl with 1 tsp salt added, then squeeze out extra moisture once it has sat for about 2-3minutes.
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Using either cheese cloth or a nut-milk bag, squeeze the tofu to remove excess water.
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Combine scallions, chives, sprouts, onion, cabbage, tofu, and ground beef in large bowl and mix with a large spoon.
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Add 1 tbsp flour, ½ tsp black pepper, 20g soy sauce, 20g sesame oil, 5g sugar, 30g garlic, 7g ginger, and 2 egg yolks, stir to combine.
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Making one at a time: use your finger to lightly apply a thin layer of egg white to the outer ¼ inch of the dumpling wrapper, then using a small spoon (about 1 tbsp) scoop up some filling and place into the center of your dumpling wrapper, then fold over and use your fingers to pinch the edges together. Repeat with the rest of the wrappers.
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Steam for 8-10 minutes in a bamboo steamer (18-20min from frozen) or pan fry with 1 tbsp oil until golden brown. Enjoy with your choice of dipping sauce or on their own.