What Goes Into A Dumpling.
There are three parts to all our dumplings. All are made by hand. I thought it would be fun to take a quick dive into how each are prepared.
The Dough!
Perhaps the simplest yet most important, Our dumpling dough is made from high gluten flour, water and rice starch for added chew. The flours are mixed with hot water to activated the starches and make a dough that can be steamed, boiled or fried. Once cooled, it is then passed through the pasta machine to form the shape that corresponds with the style we are making.
The Filling!
Most of our dumplings are made with pork. We buy whole pigs weekly so the process starts there, with breaking down the pig, utilizing what we need for other menu items and the setting aside the best parts for grinding. We also use beef when we have grinding cuts from other uses. We try to utilize and highlight fillings that use the seasonal produce we are getting in at the time. Things like hard squash in fall, zucchini in spring, roasted peppers in the summer, you get the picture.. All the fillings are seasoned by hand and tasted as a group in the kitchen to check for quality
The Sauce!
This is specific to the dumpling but some do overlap. We try to make a sauce that highlights the rest of the dumpling (i.e. the filling and how we are serving it) Chili oils are great tossed with boiled dumplings. We normally toss them with raw garlic and soy as well if they are served tossed. Vinegar and ginger based sauces are great with our crispy beef dumplings or gyoza to cut the oiliness of the preparation. Currently we are serving a spicy Yuzu broth with our boiled shrimp and pork dumplings. It is ramen broth based and is the perfect foil to the big fresh chunks of shrimp in them.
