Chinese people like to eat lucky foods on New Years Day. One of them is dumplings, because they look like gold or silver ingots. To be really lucky, make your dumplings with lots of pleats, and arrange them in lines, rather than (bad luck) circles. Circles are interpreted to mean that your life will go in circles, and you won’t go anywhere.
Young Chefs followed our friend Pat Tanumihardja’s recipe from her cookbook, “The Asian Grandmothers Cookbook: Home Cooking from Asian American Kitchens.“ We tried making the dumpling dough, and we also tried round dumpling wrappers available in the freezer case of Asian markets. Both were delicious!
Enthusiastic student chef literally ‘dives into’ making dumpling dough from scratch during her Young Chefs Cooking Club class.
Young Chef student chefs practice the dumpling pleating technique.
Student chefs arrange dumplings in a skillet in preparation for the steam-fry cooking technique.