EXTENDED DESCRIPTION:The fade-in finds Joyce Chen behind the kitchen
counter. Today, she is going to make dumplings or, as they can be called,
Chinese ravioli. She begins to mix flour and water. (Here, there is a jump
in the existing print of the episode 47 seconds in. The jump takes us from
her combining the ingredients to actually kneading them together.) Kneading dough, Chen observes, is a way of waking up the
ingredients in it. It is strenuous exercise but, as she declares to the
viewer, "we love you and work hard for you." She
combines ground pork, soy, sherry, sesame oil, and MSG for the
filling. There is, as she says, an "authentic,
traditional, best" way to make dumplings but that might be a bit hard for
American viewers so she will propose an easier way. However, to succeed at
the dumplings, she admonishes, the viewer needs to follow her instructions
exactly. If things don't turn out right, she declares, it's "not my
fault." Celery cabbage should also be added to the
filling. One shouldn't grind it as that causes too much loss of water.
Instead, one can cut up the cabbage with a cleaver and then cover the shreds
with a bit of salt to pull a little water out. She has already pre-prepared
a bowl of cabbage this way and she shows it off to the viewer. Wrapping the
cabbage in a clean diaper and then squeezing it is a clever way to drain off
some water: one's goal is to get about one cup's worth of water out of the
cabbage. Chen now proposes to demonstrate
stretching out the dough in the easy fashion she alluded to earlier. Taking
a rolling pin or a dowel bought at a hardware store (about 3/4" in
diameter), one rolls out the dough. In China, they use a more complicated
combination of hand motion and dowel, turning the dough and flattening out
sections in a circular pattern. In close-up, she
demonstrates how to fold the dumplings with the mixture inside. The result
should look a little bit like a mini-armchair with the ability to stand up
at one end. One's folding technique can always be improved, she
says. It is recommended to add a pleat around the
dumpling's edge, just like one would put a pleat on a skirt. Smiling, Chen recommends that dumpling making is "for the
husband" in one's family since their big hands can well engage in the effort
necessary to make the dumplings. The dumplings can
either be boiled or pan fried. For boiling, it is recommended to use a glass
pot as one can keep track of the cooking time. But it is important to keep
children away at this dangerous part of the operation. Alluding to the cabbage she had pre-prepared, Chen
laughingly declares that she has "also already" made up dumplings for pan
frying. She starts cooking up a batch, making sure there is enough room in
the pan. The dumplings in the pan look, she says,
"very pretty, like a flower" and she declares wistfully that their cooking
"reminds me of when I was a little girl [in China]." Making dumplings in the
pan makes her feel young again, she declares. If
one has boiled dumplings, the liquid from the pot can be used as a
soup. Chen explains that the traditional way to
eat dumplings is in a vinegar dipping sauce. Dumplings are so good that it
is no wonder, she says, that Marco Polo brought them back to the West. They
are really great for garden parties where they can be cooked on an outdoor
electric frying pan. Fade-out.