Happy Lunar New Year of the Ox Everyone!
As little kids visiting Aunties, Uncles, cousins, and friends, we would say "Gung Hay Fat Choy" and "Sun Neen Fay Lok" during the Lunar New Year before holding out our hands for those coveted red envelopes filled with crisp new dollar bills. It's the Cantonese dialect to wish them a prosperous new year and a happy new year, respectively.
And even as adults, every Lunar New Year, I still say these phrases to relatives.
But in writing this blog post, I googled the phrase "Gung Hay Fat Choy", to double check that I was translating the phrase correctly; and I was really surprised that one of the first articles that popped up was this one from 2010, educating that this phrase is outdated, and could be viewed as an INSULT! And then more recently, in Asian Weekly, this editorial was written on whether we should be saying the phrase "Gung Hay Fat Choy" at all.
Whoa!? Really?
It's one thing to be outdated-- I was never the fashionista, so I'm OK with that. But I certainly don't want to be insulting. Now, I will certainly be more cognizant of who my audience is before using the phrase "Gung Hay Fat Choy" so as not to be offensive.
Luckily, good food made with love is never offensive. And during the Lunar New Year, there's lots of yummy symbolic dishes to make and eat. There's noodles for long life. Lettuce for life. A whole fish and chicken for abundance and family unity. Sweet glutinous rice cakes for a "higher year". A special hairy-looking seaweed ("Fat Choy") for wealth. And my absolute favorite-- DUMPLINGS!
I could eat a lot of these...
Dumplings are symbolic for prosperity because each dumpling looks like a coin purse. I was inspired to make these golden yellow dumplings after picking up bags of plain white frozen ones at Kingdom of Dumplings in SF because the golden color would be so much more festive for the Lunar New Year. Even my little 4 year old niece helped out. See the beauty in the upper right hand corner?
Here's how to make these golden yellow dumplings for your own delicious pockets of New Year prosperity. (You can totally freeze these uncooked for enjoyment later too.)
Make the Dough
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| Flour, salt, sugar, turmeric |
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| Add water and mix |
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| Add oil. Knead and let dough rest for 1 hr |
Make the Filling
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| Chop all the mushrooms |
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| Chop all the veggies |
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| Saute Mushrooms |
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| Add veggies and seasonings |
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| VARIATION#2 Filling just has added scrambled eggs |
Stuff and Fold Dumplings
Cook Dumplings
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| Arrange in single layer to an oiled nonstick pan |
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| Add water. Cover. Cook til water evaporates and bottom is crispy |
Yields approximately 48 dumplings
(You can totally freeze these uncooked for enjoyment later too.)
Ingredients for Dough:
- 3 ½ c all purpose flour
- 1 t turmeric
- ½ t salt
- ½ t sugar
- 1 ¼ c warm water
- 1 T oil
Basic Vegetarian Filling Ingredients (Variation #1):
- 1 c reconstituted and chopped wood ear mushrooms
- 1 c reconstituted and finely diced shitake mushrooms
- 2 c chopped fresh button mushrooms
- 1 ½ c green cabbage leaves, finely shredded (about ¼ head of cabbage)
- 1 ½ c shredded carrots
- 1 c chopped garlic chives
- ½ c chopped green onions
- 3 T dried chopped onions
- 3 cloves garlic, finely minced
- ½ t salt
- ½ t sugar
- ½ t ground black pepper
- 1 T sesame oil
- 1 T mirin
- 2 T soy sauce
- 3 T oil for stir frying
Vegetarian Filling Ingredients (Variation #2):
- Vegetarian filling ingredients from above Variation #1
- 4 eggs
- ¼ t salt
- 1 T water
Procedures for Making the Dough:
1. In a large bowl, add the flour, turmeric, salt, and sugar. Gradually add in warm water.
2. Mix with a utensil. The dough won’t come together yet. Add the 1 tablespoon of oil. Use clean hands to knead the dough until it forms a non-sticky dough. You may need to add a bit more water depending on the humidity of your home.
3. Cover with plastic wrap and let the dough rest for 1 hour.
Procedures for Making the Filling (Variation #1 and Variation #2):
1. Reconstitute the shitake and wood ear mushrooms in some warm water until they are soft. Rinse and drain. Remove stems from shitake mushrooms and discard. Chop all your mushrooms. Set aside.
2. Shred the cabbage and carrots, and chop the chives and green onions.
3. In a pan, add 3 T oil and minced garlic. Heat the pan to medium high and stir fry all the mushrooms for a few minutes until the fresh mushrooms have released their water and cooked down a bit.
4. Add the cabbage, carrots, chives and green onions, and all the seasonings and continue to stir fry until the cabbage has wilted down. Turn off the heat. Taste, and add more salt and pepper as needed. This is Variation #1 of the vegetarian filling. Set aside.
Note: If you want to make Variation #2 Filling for variety, so you can have filling for two different kinds of dumplings, then just take half of the above Variation #1 cooked filling and mix it together with 4 beaten eggs that have been scramble cooked with a bit of salt and a tablespoon of water. This will be the Variation #2 filling. It's minimal work to create some variety in your dumplings. A two for one deal! Ha ha
Procedures for Wrapping Dumplings:
1. Dust your work surface with some flour. Roll the dough out into a log and divide into 4 equal parts, and then divide each part further into 12 equal pieces. You should have 48 mini pieces.
2. Working with a few pieces at a time while keeping the remainder of the dough pieces covered will prevent the dough from drying out. Flatten a piece of dough with the palm of your hand and roll into about a 3 inch circle. The skin should be thin, but not paper thin such that the skin can tear.
3. Put a tablespoonful of the filling in the center. Fold in half and pinch the dough closed to seal the filling. Push the edges toward the center to create some pleats so the dumpling can stand up on a flat surface. (See photo) Tapping the dumpling on the work surface to slightly flatten the bottom helps. Repeat until the filling and dough are used up.
4. Place dumplings on a freezer safe tray in a single layer and freeze for 2 hours. When frozen, transfer them to a labeled gallon zip lock bag and store in the freezer until ready to use.
Procedures to Cook Homemade Frozen Dumplings:
1. When you are ready to eat, heat a non-stick pan with 1 T oil under medium heat.
2. Place the frozen dumplings (or fresh dumplings if you chose to not freeze your dumplings) in a single layer, flat side down, on the pan without crowding. Drizzle about ½ to 1 cup of water (depends on the size of your pan and number of dumplings you are cooking) into the pan and cover quickly with a lid.
3. Allow the dumplings to steam for about 6 to 7 minutes.
4. Uncover the pan and reduce the heat to medium low, and continue to cook until the water evaporates and the bottoms are browned and crunchy (about 2 minutes).
5. Serve hot or warm with your favorite dumpling dipping sauce which can be as simple as just soy sauce, or a mixture of soy sauce plus hot sauce and vinegar.