I’ve always been fond of Chinese dumplings, often venturing down to my local Asian supermarket of a Saturday afternoon to pick up a box for lunch; with their pillow-soft dough filled with spicy, perfectly seasoned vegetables, they are the ideal weekend treat.
I’m not skilled at baking (or anything that requires dough) so I was quite nervous when signing up for this soup dumpling class via Airbnb – but I was determined to at least attempt recreating my favourite Asian snack at home. With this Shanghai-style dumpling class taking place on a Sunday at 12pm, it was the ideal brunch activity.
Creating The Dumpling Filling
This class required quite a good deal of preparation ahead of time; I was to be making vegan mushroom soup dumplings, while carnivorous participants would be creating a pork filling. To create the soup that magically filled the dumpling without making it soggy, we were asked to make a jelly ahead of time, which would melt during the cooking process to form a soup. This was probably the most intricate and time consuming part of the process.
The ingredients list called for three different types of mushroom: white, shiitake and king oyster. I was able to find these in Tesco, while I ordered the slightly more obscure (to me) ingredients online; this included vegetarian oyster sauce and Agar Agar – which, for the uninitiated, is a kind of powder that when stirred into hot water forms a jelly. (The idea being that I could create a vegetarian jelly without having to resort to pork gelatine, which no offense, but ew.)
Making The Jelly for Chinese Dumplings
Luckily, my helpful host Cici had sent an informative email ahead of time containing an instructional video on how to create the mushroom filling and jelly. I set up the video and began getting to work in my kitchen. First, I cut the mushrooms up into small pieces. Next, I heated up some water in a large pan and added the mushrooms, bringing the pan to the boil.
Once my mushroom-y concoction had been boiling for 2 minutes, I used a slotted spoon to transfer the mushrooms to a bowl. (The instructions actually called for a small sieve, but I’m in the process of systematically destroying every utensil in our kitchen so didn’t have one to hand, what can ya do.)
I then left the mushrooms to cool (which took a good while!) and once they had reached room temperature, I used a thin tea towel to squeeze the liquid out of them and into a bowl. This was quite a workout, and I’m still not sure I got out as much water as I could have done. By the time I’d squeezed out most of my mushrooms, I had just about enough water for the next step, which was making the jelly.
I heated up the mushroom water (not a cute phrase) and gradually stirred in the pre-measured Agar Agar until it melted into the mixture. I then left it for half an hour to set. To my amazement, when I came back to the kitchen and looked down at my strange gelatinous creation it had indeed hardened into a thick jelly. I prised it out from inside the pan (very satisfying) and put it in the fridge with my dried mushrooms. All in a day’s work for a dumpling chef!
Live Virtual Chinese Soup Dumpling Class
The following afternoon, I joined the live Zoom class with Cici and the other participants. We were a relatively small class, but it was fun to see people join from all over the world, from England to Germany to America. (Dumplings have the magical ability to unite people.)
Cici began with a brief introduction, and we each introduced ourselves before getting stuck into making our dumplings.
We seasoned our mushroom filling with oyster sauce, cut up our jelly and mixed it in a bowl before getting started on the dough.
Creating The Perfect Dumpling Dough
Besides the intricate process of creating the dumpling, the dough itself was probably the most challenging bit of the class for me – mostly because (despite another early-morning frantic rush to Tesco) I didn’t have a rolling pin, so was improvising with a flour-covered vodka bottle. (A cameo from an at-home cocktail making class.)
We had to get the dough the perfect consistency, before forming it into a long sausage and cutting that up into smaller pieces. The smaller pieces would become our dumplings. After forming one of the small pieces into a short, squat cylinder, we were instructed to place it down and SLAM! onto it with the flat of our palm, creating a flat, thin, round piece of dough.
Then came the forming of the dumpling itself. After a few practice rounds with more dough in place of filling, we began filling our dough-circles with the real filling to form our dumplings. This involved a complex folding of the dough using thumb and forefinger to create a kind of accordion effect, before twisting into a peak.
I will admit I was far from skilled at this, and it required several attempts and oversight from Cici before I created a passable dumpling.
Steaming Soup Dumplings
We then placed our dumplings into our bamboo steamer, and heated them through while Cici took us on a short virtual tour of some of her favourite dumpling spots.
They say you always throw away the first pancake, and apparently the same is true of your (very first ever) dumpling. However, once I had filled and folded a few more dumplings and heated them through, they came out a lot less wonky. My dough still wasn’t perfect, but the filling tasted incredible; sweet, spicy and meaty despite being vegan.
I enjoyed eating the fruits of my labour while Cici showed us more clips of her favourite dumpling shops. I will admit that my creations paled in comparison to Cici’s – but she reassured us that she makes them every single day, so we shouldn’t compare ours to hers.
It was obvious she was incredibly skilled and passionate about this dish and food in general, and it was amazing to see how quickly she worked with the dough, perfectly forming it into a neat little professional dumpling each time.
I hope to one day be as skilled as Cici – but it’s safe to say that I have a long way to go!
At Home Soup Dumpling Class Review
All in all, this at-home cooking experience is a must-do for fans of Chinese cuisine or anyone looking to try something new from the comfort of their own kitchen.
It is quite a time commitment, so be prepared to set aside a couple of afternoons to create your dumplings with the help of expert chef Cici.
