![]() Chinese new year begins tonight at midnight. An integral part of the celebratory feasts are meat and vegetable stuffed dumplings. Called jiao-zi in northern China, they are typically eaten right at the start of the new year. Their crescent shape is reminiscent of the shape of ancient Chinese currency, silver and gold ingots, and eating them at the birth of the new year is thought to bring wealth and prosperity. When I first moved to New York City in the mid-nineties, I had my first taste of really authentic chinese dumplings. It was love at first slightly-burned-tongue. More of an obsession, to be honest, as I would devour as many as I could afford, as often as I could justify. Three years ago, my husband and I celebrated our honeymoon in China. I had the wonderful good fortune of being able to learn a tremendous amount about the cuisine, with trips to many local markets, tremendous meals, and some cooking lessons at the Cloud 9 cooking school in Yangshuo on the banks of the breathtaking Li River. One of the dishes we cooked in class were dumplings. Here is one of our lovely teachers explaining how to fold the rounds of dough into the crescent shape. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aphirz7wcbM So below are my recipes for both pork and vegetable dumplings. I have adapted them through the years from what I learned in that class, what I've learned from a big assortment of great cookbooks, and most definitely from what I've learned from eating this favorite of any food I can think of. On a desert island, these are what are coming with me. I am sure there are Chinese grandmothers who will find unauthentic hues in some part of my recipes. But they are as authentic as I've been able to learn through every best effort, and when I burn my tongue with that first divine chewy bite, send me back to China and Chinatowns I've loved, and make me feel very fortunate.
![]() | ||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() my station at the Cloud 9 Cooking School in Yangshuo, China. The Chinese New Year, the Year of the Rabbit, begins its fifteen day celebration this Thursday, February 3rd. In observance, I'll be cooking lots of chinese dishes this week--many of which I learned during my three-week honeymoon in China three years ago. But to start off, below are some of my most loved Chinese cookbooks. They contain particularly wonderful recipes, photography, and an abundance of basic information on the cuisine itself to help you start to get a grasp of "its most basic rules of grammar." The Breath of a Wok by Grace Young Chinese Village Cookbook: A Practical Guide to Cantonese Country Cooking by Rhoda Yee Land of Plenty: A Treasury of Authentic Sichuan Cooking by Fuchsia Dunlop (I also adored her memoir, Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China My China by Kylie Kwong Chinese Peoples Cookbook by Mai Leung The Asian Grandmothers Cookbook: Home Cooking from Asian American Kitchens by Pat Tanumihardja ![]() | ||||||||||||||||
|
{ welcome! }
![]() { get in touch }
{ what's new }
September 12, 2015
August 19, 2013
August 15, 2013
August 13, 2013
August 1, 2013
{ favorites }
{ archives }
Appetizers / Breads & Pastry / Breakfast / Cakes / Canning / Condiments / Dinner / DIY foods / Drinks / Fall / favorites / Grains / Holidays / Local / Noodles & Pasta / Pies & Tarts / Poultry / Salads / Seafood / Snacks / Soup / Spring / Summer / Sweets / Techniques / Vegetables / Vegetarian / Winter /
{ currently reading }
|