EXTENDED DESCRIPTION: The fade-in finds Joyce Chen behind the kitchen counter.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION: Today, she is going to make dumplings or, as they can be called, Chinese ravioli.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION: She begins to mix flour and water.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION: (Here, there is a jump in the existing print of the episode 47 seconds in.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION: 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.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION: 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.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION: 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.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION: However, to succeed at the dumplings, she admonishes, the viewer needs to follow her instructions exactly.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION: If things don't turn out right, she declares, it's "not my fault." Celery cabbage should also be added to the filling.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION: One shouldn't grind it as that causes too much loss of water.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION: 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.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION: She has already pre-prepared a bowl of cabbage this way and she shows it off to the viewer.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION: 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.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION: Chen now proposes to demonstrate stretching out the dough in the easy fashion she alluded to earlier.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION: Taking a rolling pin or a dowel bought at a hardware store (about 3/4" in diameter), one rolls out the dough.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION: In China, they use a more complicated combination of hand motion and dowel, turning the dough and flattening out sections in a circular pattern.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION: In close-up, she demonstrates how to fold the dumplings with the mixture inside.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION: The result should look a little bit like a mini-armchair with the ability to stand up at one end.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION: One's folding technique can always be improved, she says.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION: It is recommended to add a pleat around the dumpling's edge, just like one would put a pleat on a skirt.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION: 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.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION: The dumplings can either be boiled or pan fried.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION: For boiling, it is recommended to use a glass pot as one can keep track of the cooking time.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION: But it is important to keep children away at this dangerous part of the operation.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION: Alluding to the cabbage she had pre-prepared, Chen laughingly declares that she has "also already" made up dumplings for pan frying.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION: She starts cooking up a batch, making sure there is enough room in the pan.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION: 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.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION: If one has boiled dumplings, the liquid from the pot can be used as a soup.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION: Chen explains that the traditional way to eat dumplings is in a vinegar dipping sauce.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION: Dumplings are so good that it is no wonder, she says, that Marco Polo brought them back to the West.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION: They are really great for garden parties where they can be cooked on an outdoor electric frying pan.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION: Fade-out.