Dumpling fillings must be delicious. Regardless of whether they are meat or plain, they must satisfy one thing: they must have a little juice to make them fragrant.
The filling is dry and loses its flavor no matter how much seasoning is added.
My children love to eat dumplings. My family makes dumplings at least once or twice a week.
I have pondered some experiences and tips on preparing stuffing.
1. Regardless of whether the meat filling is vegetarian or not, do not chop it too finely.
Too fine and you will lose texture and umami.
Especially when the older generation chops stuffing, the meat must be minced and minced very finely.
2. Don’t squeeze the water out of the vegetables too much.
Not only will it lose nutrients, but it will also lose its taste, become dry, and lose the deliciousness of the vegetables.
I remember when I was a child, every time my mother made dumplings, she would squeeze them hard with a cloth bag to squeeze out all the water.
3. Meat-filled dumplings will be fragrant only if the meat filling is fully flavored.
I usually marinate it for a while before preparing the vegetables.
(1) It is best to chop a little bit of onion and ginger into the meat filling, so that the aroma of onion and ginger can penetrate.
(2) Pour some light soy sauce into the stuffing while chopping it.
(3) Chop the meat filling, add an appropriate amount of light soy sauce, five-spice powder, minced green onion, minced ginger, sesame oil, and pepper water, stir evenly, and marinate for a while.
We must add a little sesame oil to enhance the flavor.
4. Add more light soy sauce and pepper water as appropriate, pour in several times and stir until the meat filling is fully absorbed.
There should also be a little more oil.
The dumplings cooked in this way are juicy and fragrant.
5. Unless it contains pure meat, the proportion of vegetables should be at least half or more.
It tastes soft and delicious.
6. The meat should be fat and lean to match the taste.
Look at the dumplings I had for breakfast. They were stuffed with pork and bell peppers. The fillings were fresh and full of flavor when you took one bite.
We always eat dumplings in our daily life, and even more so on many festivals. I remember there was a joke before: "Why are many mooncakes not delicious, but we still have to eat mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival?" The answer was: "Just a few.
You don’t have to eat dumplings during the festival, just change the taste.”
The types of dumplings are generally distinguished by their fillings. Let’s first talk about the common dumplings stuffed with pork.
Generally speaking, the fatness of pork is best to be 2 to 3 points for fat meat and 7 to 8 points for lean meat. In this way, the texture will be rich and the meat can be tasted without being too greasy.
Supplemented with vegetables with more fiber, such as cabbage, sauerkraut (actually still cabbage), celery, etc., each family has its own taste.
I personally prepare the meat filling very simply, basically light soy sauce, cooking wine, oyster sauce, and a little water soaked in pepper, green onion, and ginger (I don’t really like the taste of ginger in the filling, it’s purely personal)
used to it), then put it in the refrigerator for more than 2 hours to marinate.
I think this process of "tasting" the meat filling is quite important, and you must test the taste when adding the filling. Just dip a chopstick into it and taste it a little.
There are also some shrimp, croaker and other seafood dumplings, which are not commonly made at home except for shrimp.
It’s not much different from ordinary dumplings, but you don’t need to pickle the fillings. I think the freshness of the ingredients and the deliciousness of the seafood are the highlights of this kind of dumplings. If the seasoning is too heavy, it will take away the taste of the seafood. Just cooking wine, green onions
, ginger and the like to remove the fishy smell and add a little oil to make the filling "moist".
There are also some people who don’t eat meat or seafood.
You can add some dried tofu, eggs, tofu, fungus, leeks, etc. to make a good dumpling filling.
As for the "trick" or "secret recipe" for making dumpling fillings, I really can't tell you. If you want the filling to be richer, you can also add some stock to it. If you don't mind the trouble, you can chop up the chicken stock cubes and mix them in.
For us Chinese, dumplings are far more than a simple delicacy, but more of an emotion, such as reunion and longing.
Anyway, I think my mother makes the most delicious dumplings no matter what time of the day. In some places in the north, there is a saying of "get the dumplings on the bus, and get the noodles off". Every time I leave home, my mother will make dumplings by hand to see her off. It's really good.
Eat it, it warms your stomach and heart.
Excellent food is not just delicious, the culture and emotion behind it are even more precious.
If there is any key secret ingredient, it is the love of parents for their children.
If it is filled with vegetables, it is better to keep the original flavor. Just add some MSG, salt, and thirteen spices for the seasoning. Too much seasoning will cover up the original fragrance of the vegetables, especially the ones with leeks, eggs, and shrimps.
Usually just add salt and MSG, and the taste will be particularly fresh.
Some vegetable buns need to be blanched beforehand, and the time must be mastered. The time should not be too long. Over time, the color of the vegetables will not be good, and a lot of nutrients will be lost. The same goes for meat fillings, especially beef fillings. Water must be added to blanch the meat.
Tender, otherwise the dumplings will taste very hard and unpalatable. When seasoning the meat filling, you can add appropriate cooking wine and oyster sauce, and in order to make the dumpling filling form a ball after it is cooked, you can add appropriate amount to the dumpling filling.
Beat two eggs, and then use chopsticks to stir clockwise. All the meat fillings should be stirred in one direction with chopsticks. This will make the dumpling fillings chewier. We call it "enhancing" the dumpling fillings.
And if you are from the Northeast, chopped green onions are essential in the meat filling, or you can use green onions instead.