Chinese New Year Dinner - Dumplings

With all the snow that hit the Midwest, I've had more time and reasons to cook. Instead of visiting the school cafeteria, Taco Bell, or just going home for meals, I've actually had to fend for myself and cook. This was exciting, until I realized Chinese New Year was on Thursday. And I had virtually no access to a regular grocery store, let alone the Asian grocery store. (I have friends who trekked through the snow to the nearest store to buy food, but I'm not that hardy. I've inherited a lot of Campbell's soup from a roommate; if I ever finish all of it and still can't drive to the store, I will probably die in my apartment.) I had to whip up a Chinese New Year's dinner with only things in my kitchen.

Fortunately, there was one fish filet in my freezer - I could still have the traditional fish dish, even if there was only one piece. I had some leftover rice, so I could make some fried rice. My mother insisted on giving my a bag of vegetables before I left for school at the beginning of the week because she was worried that the impending snow storm was going to cut off all of my food lines. While that was a bit of overkill (the school cafeteria remained open), I had some fresh bok choy for a Chinese dinner. My mother also gave me some instant udon noodles. While not ideal for a Chinese New Year noodle dish, I figured it was ethnically closer than the spaghetti noodles I had - noodle dish solved. Later, I remembered I had a box of instant teriyaki-flavored noodles in my cabinet, but that can be dinner for another night. Teriyaki chicken served over a bed of teriyaki noodles, anyone?!

The final coup de grace involved making dumplings from scratch. I had no ground pork or Napa cabbage, the usual fillings I eat in my dumplings. Instead, I had a chicken breast and the bok choy. I didn't have any dumpling wrappers, but, fortunately, wrappers made from scratch only require flour and water. I relied heavily on this recipe from my favorite food blog to make the dough. I halved the recipe, only to make another half batch to finish wrapping the filling. I wasn't able to roll the dumping dough as thin as I needed it to be, so I ended up with less than 56 wrappers. I partially blame by poor gluten-handling skills, but I also apportion blame on the fact that I don't have a rolling pin at my apartment and had to use this:

My Nalgene bottle

 and

Another water bottle.

I definitely think the wrappers could have been thinner, especially after they were boiled. Some of the thicker-walled dumplings had a starchy, sticky kind of mouthfeel after they were boiled.

Even though the rolling part was kind of suspect, we ended up with filled dumplings.

Note the wonton interloper on the tray. And how only one of them is pleated correctly.

The filling for the dumplings came out surprisingly well, especially for something that was thrown together from only on-hand things.

Keeping everything small for easy filling.

Snowed-In Chinese New Year Dumplings
Served 3, with other food, plus leftovers. So maybe 4-ish?

• 1 chicken breast, diced into small pieces
• Bok choy stems, diced (I used enough to equal the volume of the chicken breast.)
• Ginger root, diced (I ended up with about a teaspoon or so of ginger. Most of the ginger was going to the fish)
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• Dumpling wrappers, as needed

Combine everything except the wrappers. Mix until all the liquids are evenly dispersed. You'll know when this is.
I used a small spoon to dump the filling onto the wrappers, which ended up being around 1.5 teaspoons of filling per dumpling. But use your best judgment; if you managed to roll your wrappers thinner and larger, use more. Or maybe you like a high wrapper to filling ratio; use less. Keep filling until the chicken mixture is gone.
Depending on the kind of wrapper you used, the closure method will differ. In my experience, store-bought wrappers need a little liquid to help them seal, but for the homemade wrappers I had, I just pinched them shut without additional liquid. Try pinching the wrappers shut. If they don't stay shut, use a little water or cornstarch slurry to seal them.
Once the dumplings are sealed, boil or steam them to cook. I boiled these by dumping them in a pot of boiling water. Once they float to the top, I let them cook for a minute or two more, and then I take them out. I also fried some of them after they had boiled.

Boiled only.

Fried afterward in a wok with some oil.

We served these with soy sauce and sesame oil - yum!