“So on that day, Hulan and I did not criticize each other. We did not complain about others. We did not have to be careful to make only polite conversation. All our words naturally spilled out from our good thoughts. I told Hulan, ‘Look how fast you work. With your hands, we could make ten thousand dumplings if we wanted, no problem.’”
— The Kitchen God’s Wife, Amy Tan
When this week’s theme was announced — Dumplings — I knew immediately I wanted to make potstickers. They are one of my fiance’s favorite things to order when we get Chinese food, and I’ve always wanted to try making them from scratch.
Finding a book to pair with them was easy. I reread The Kitchen God’s Wife by Amy Tan, which has a prominent scene featuring dumplings.
The book
The Kitchen God’s Wife is a book with a happy beginning and a happy ending, and so much tragedy in the middle. At the threat of having her worst secret exposed, Winnie tells her daughter, Pearl about her past, beginning with her life in Shanghai in the 1920s, through World War II and the pain and happiness that led her to America afterwards. War, poverty and a bad marriage cost Winnie so much — her dignity, her children and her family’s money. Though she does not say it, I think her friendship with Hulan/Helen is one of the reasons she makes it through. I also enjoyed Winnie’s love story with Jimmy — a bright spot in so much strife.
The food
Dumplings feature prominently in a dinner scene in the middle of the novel, a scene where both Helen and Winnie are happy.
Making dumplings from scratch is time-consuming, hard work in the novel, and I knew even with modern kitchen equipment, it would time-consuming for me as well.
But even with making my own dumpling skins, the process wasn’t as arduous as I thought.
The dough is simple — flour, water, salt — and once I got into a rhythm with rolling and turning the dough, the process of making the dumpling skins went easy.
Filling and pinching the dumpling skins closed took a little more finesse, but I think I did pretty well with the accordion folds for my first time making potstickers.
I fried these for 2 minutes, then added the water and steamed them for 2 minutes, then let all the water boil off. The skins got perfectly crispy and didn’t stick to the pan at all.
The verdict? Making potstickers from scratch is definitely a weekend project, but it’s doable, and delicious.
Next week: Midnight Snack