Dumplings Nabe in Chicken Soup

Dumplings Nabe in Chicken Soup

   December 26, 2018       Lyn Alina

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I love to eat dumplings.  Especially chicken and prawn dumplings.  The homemade one, of course!  I mean it!

I know, the preparation to make dumplings requires a lot of patience and lots of passion! Hihi..😍😍
Starting from making the dumplings skin until the final step, which is cooking the dumplings.  It is quite a time consuming process, to be fair..before we can enjoy eating juicy, fresh and tender dumplings to satisfy our palate!

I have made my own dumplings for few times back in the day before we moved in to our new house.  I prefer to make my own dumplings skin rather to buy the ready made dumpling skins from the store.  The taste and thickness of homemade dumplings and store bought dumplings skin is totally different!  You can try making your own dumplings skin  and compare'em with the store bought one!  Trust me, your homemade dumplings skin would hundred times taste better!  It is definite!

Dumplings are also called "Gyoza", a Japanese term to describe a dish with ground meat, seasoning and vegetables wrapped in a thin, disc shaped dough.  According to history, dumplings were first invented in the Nanyang City in China during Han Dynasty by a physician known as Zhang Zhongjing.  It was said that the physician, on his way back home during winter after retired from being a government official.  During his journey, he found a lot of people with frostbitten ears.  So, he decided to invent a dish by using a dough skin filled with meat and traditional herbs to cure his patients suffering from frostbites.  He shaped the dumplings with ear-like shape and boil them in a large pot and serve them with a bowl of soup. (ref 1, ref 2)  Nowadays, dumplings are iconic dish in not only Chinese culture, but also in Korean and Japanese.

Dumplings was invented for more than 1800 years ago with ear-like shape as the trademark of the dish.  But nowadays, dumplings are well known for their crescent shaped features,which is similar with the shape of golden ingots, a currency used in ancient China.  So, dumplings were once said that these crescent shaped dumplings can bring prosperity and happiness for the new year as dumplings were a trademark dish prepared before the midnight of chuxi, or the Lunar Chinese New Year Eve in Northern China.

I made these lovely dumplings last week.  Actually, I love to eat dumplings with a bowl hot soup and variety of vegetables and instead of having dumplings as side dish, I made dumplings as our main dish!  That is why I prefer to eat them with soup!  They are more fulfilling by eating this way! Yeah!

This time I cooked my dumplings in Japanese style, so it is called as dumpling nabe.  Nabe is a variety of Japanese hot pot, which means a one pot dishes.  Everything we cook in one pot. 

For the dumplings skin recipe, I am referring to the dumplings recipe by Dumplings Sister.  Their recipe is much simpler from the dumplings skin previously I used to follow because they only used all purpose flour.  And as for the filling, I used minced chicken.  You are free to use any kind of meat you wish for the filling.  No restriction. 😁😁😁

Lets dive out for the complete recipes.

Dumplings Nabe Recipe

To prepare the dumplings skin:

Ingredients:

300 gm all purpose flour

200 ml of hot water

1/2 teaspoon of salt

Methods:

1. Mix all the ingredients in a mixing bowl.  First, you need to stir to mix the ingredients by using a wooden spatula.  Then, use your hand to knead when the mixture starts forming crumbles.
2. Continue kneading in the bowl until a rough dough ball is formed.
3. Dust your work surface with generous amount of flour.  Transfer the dough on your floured work surface, and continue to knead the dough for about 10 minutes until a soft and smooth dough ball is formed.
4. Transfer back the dough in the mixing bowl dust with little flour, cover the dough with a damp towel and let it rest for about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, you can start preparing the filling.

To prepare the filling:

Ingredients:

3 pieces of boneless chicken (minced)

1 teaspoon of salt

1/2 teaspoon of sugar

1 tablespoon of corn flour

1 teaspoon of white pepper (crushed)

2 tablespoons of dark soy sauce

2 tablespoons of light soy sauce

2 spring onions (chopped)

2 inches of carrot (minced)

2 cloves of garlic (minced)

1 cm of ginger (minced)

Method:

Combine and mix well all the ingredients.  Set aside.

After 20 minutes you can start working to shape the dumplings.

Making the Dumplings:

Methods:

1. Remove the rested dough from the bowl and transfer it on your floured working surface.
2. Divide the dough into 2 portions.
3. Shape each portion into a ring or a doughnut shape.  Cover them with a towel and let the doughnut shape dough rest for another 10 minutes.
4. After 10 minutes, cut both doughnut shaped dough with each equally into 16 small pieces.  So you will get 32 pieces all together.
5. Lightly floured each small dough pieces with flour and flatten them with your floured palm.
6. Roll each piece into a thin, disc shaped skin.
7. Place about 1/2 tablespoon of the filling into the center of the skin.  Fold the skin into 2 and place your thumb in the middle, on top of the filling.  Cradle the wrapper in one hand and use another hand to make pleat along the dumplings edges.  Pinch the 2 edges together after each pleat to create a crescent shape.  Be sure to pinch firmly to make a good seal. 
8. Place the dumplings on floured baking tray.

Cooking the Dumplings:

Methods:

1. Bring water to boil in a large pot or pan.  Once the water boiled, add in a little amount of cooking oil, approximately 1 tablespoon to prevent the dumplings from sticking together during the cooking process.
2. Cook the dumplings in 2 to 3 batches and once the dumplings are floating on the water surface, transfer the cooked dumplings immediately into the prepared plate or bowl.
3. Keep the boiled water for the soup.
4. Heat a non stick frying pan into a medium heat.  Add in a little cooking oil.  Fry the cooked dumplings for a while until golden patches appeared and the dumplings turn to golden brown in color.  Set aside.

Dumplings Chicken Soup:

Ingredients:

Dumplings stock (the boiled water for cooking the dumplings earlier)

1/2 cube chicken stock

Salt

Crushed white pepper

Sliced ginger

Method:

All in all the ingredients together and bring them to boil.  Set aside.

Making the Dumplings Nabe:

Ingredients:

Dumplings soup

Carrot (sliced)

Cauliflower (cut into small pieces) - can replace with cabbage

Enoki or beech mushrooms

1 piece of soft tofu (cut into cubes)

spring onions (cut into long slices)

1 tomato (slice into wedges shape)

Fried dumplings

Methods:

1. Bring the dumplings soup to boil in a small pot (I used individual small claypot).
2. Once boiled, add in carrot followed bu cauliflower, soft tofu, mushrooms and sliced tomatoes.
3. Lastly, add in fried dumplings and spring onions.
4. Braise them for a while and serve immediately.

Spicy Soy Sauce

Ingredients:

3 pieces of bird eye chilli (sliced thinly)

1 cm ginger (sliced thinly)

light soy sauce

Method:

Combine all the ingredients together in a small bowl.

I have prepared a video for more detail on how to make your homemade dumplings nabe.