Sohla Makes Lamb & Scallion Dumplings at Home

Once you learn how to make a dumpling,

you can, like, dump anything.

Anything can be your dump.

I don't know.

Right?

Hello.

Here is a test shot.

Let me know what you think.

BA at home, Sohla makes dumplings, take one.

No wait, you can see it.

Wait, I think I moved the camera,

wait, let me send you this to make sure it's okay!

Sorry guys.

We're, oh, okay, so here we are back in my kitchen.

And today I'm gonna show you how to make some dumplings.

I'm using lamb and scallion

but the original recipe's for pork.

But the weird thing about dumplings

is you can kind of put whatever you have in there.

So if you don't have the exact ingredients

I'm using today, don't worry about it.

It's more about like learning the technique

and then you can stick anything in your dumps.

How's that?

Okay, so if you don't wanna make your own wrapper,

store-bought wrappers work really well.

They come out really good.

You can find them in most freezer sections,

not just in an Asian grocery store.

I'm gonna start by measuring out my flour

so I'm doing a half batch of Claire's

pork dumpling recipe, oops, oops, oops.

Whoa.

That was messy.

Hold on.

I have to fix this.

This is my flour container.

There's no Cornflakes in here.

I just like vintage containers and stuff.

[retro music]

Marshmallow Crispy Treat, that's a good one.

187 grams of all purpose flour.

Which is one and 1/2 cups. Oh my god.

What's going on?

[Director] There's an ice cream truck at Dan's house.

Isn't this the dream, guys?

So I'm just mixing it until it comes together

in a shaggy mass.

The dough's not gonna really come together in a ball

but all the flour's gonna get moistened.

Shaggy mass.

And I'm just gonna cover this

and let it rest for 15 minutes.

How's it going guys?

Good?

So I'm gonna start making my filling.

I'm gonna be using ground lamb

because it's what I had in the freezer.

You can do this with whatever ground meat you have.

Lamb is nice and fatty, it's like pretty similar to pork

which I think it's a nice sub.

[Director] Can we talk about this knife selection?

[laughing]

This is a vegetable knife.

It's a Shun.

It has a delicate blade.

It's not a cleaver, it looks like a cleaver

but if you tried to cleave something with it,

it would, the knife would break.

It's not meant for to be used that way.

Here I'm slicing up one scallion.

I'm gonna put this into this bowl

and it's gonna be for my dipping sauce.

[Director] I didn't realize that cleave was a verb.

To cleave?

I assume to cleave means to...

[ominous music]

Cool.

So I'm gonna continue cutting these scallions.

This looks like a whole lot of scallions, and it is.

I'm gonna run my knife through it.

I want it to be a bit fine.

Ah!

I lost a scallion.

I feel like I need a bigger bowl.

[kitchenware clanking]

Pork's going in.

I need about an inch of grated ginger.

About 1/4 teaspoon of salt, uh,

about a quarter teaspoon of pepper.

Okay I'm adding 3/4 of a teaspoon of kosher salt

and a couple teaspoons of soy.

You know what, I'm gonna stir it with this choppy.

They make it look so easy to stir with a chopstick

and then you get back in there and you're like,

Nah, I want, I want a spatula in here.

Lamb filling.

[crowd cheering] Huh?

Check it out.

Okay, so my dough, wait I'm talking to that one. [laughs]

Okay, so my dough's-- It's definitely

recording right, you see the red light?

It's recording.

So my dough has rested for 15 minutes.

It doesn't look very different,

but I'm gonna go in to knead it now.

It's not open.

[sighing]

I broke it.

Just a little bit.

To make the dough softer.

Where's the lid?

I guess I'll find that later.

So we're gonna knead this until it comes together

until it's soft and supple and smooth.

So you can see, it's like really soft.

Nicely come together.

It's not like a perfect smooth ball,

no window pane but that's totally okay.

And the dogs are here. [laughing]

I can hear them.

Should we cut for the dogs?

They're down here, there's dogs here.

Ham's there.

Today was my first day being actually alone,

'cause Ham is volunteering making lunch for doctors.

Lunch for hospitals.

Healthy lunches,

today's dinner was-- Healthy lunches.

What was today?

Turkey Salisbury steak with sweet potato mash

and minted peas.

So healthy.

After this point, it needs to rest for about an hour.

Okay.

So this is the one that has rested for an hour

and look at how it's like smooth

and soft and supple it is.

This is the other one, like this one's really soft

and it came together nicely, but after it sits for an hour,

it's gonna look like this.

Now that we are ready to roll, we are gonna dust.

Cut this in half.

Each one of these, we're gonna roll into a 12-inch log.

I'm gonna cut it off every one inch

and then I will have uniform pieces of dough.

You wanna make sure the balls of dough

that you're not working with you keep covered

under a damp towel, or it will dry out and get really gross.

So you have like a cut side.

You're gonna put the cut side down

and smoosh it with your thumb,

just to get the round shape started.

And we're gonna dust lightly with flour.

And start rolling.

Oh will you cut that? [siren wailing]

I normally like a French-style rolling pin for everything.

But these little dumplings, it kind of just puts

too much pressure and smooshes them.

You could totally stop here, four-inch dumpling,

perfect, ready to work.

But I like to cut them out just because

I think it looks a little bit,

your final crimped dumpling will look a little cleaner

if you take the time to cut them out like that

but it's totally, totally optional,

like, nobody does that, that's just a me issue.

If you're gonna use these right away,

you don't have to dust them with cornstarch,

you can just lay 'em on a sheet tray with parchment.

The cornstarch helps keep them separated

without drying 'em out.

So I'm gonna throw this under the towel too.

And the next dump!

That looks so pretty, guys.

That's like, so-- You win the award.

Worth the effort. I agree.

Okay.

Now we're gonna form.

I got, I went a little crazy with my starch

so I'm gonna dust it off as I go through.

I like to have more than I need

because I wanna make sure they don't stick.

Next I'm going to add about a big teaspoon of filling,

right in the middle.

And I kinda like it to be a bit of a football shape.

So I've got my wrapper with my filling

kind of on my fingertips on my nondominant hand.

Now I'm gonna use my other hand to moisten half of the edge.

Now, we begin to crimp.

You don't wanna overfill, because then

you're not giving yourself any room to crimp.

I, hold on, I'll do another one.

It's just you know, once I get started, I can't like stop.

When this steams, the filling really plumps.

It's gonna look like it's not a lot of meat in there

but then after you cook it you'll be like,

Yeah, that was enough.

I feel like Ham should do it because he's better than me.

[Director] He can jump in.

We'll swap after this.

How to describe crimping.

This is difficult. [laughing]

Pinch together, pinch it sealed.

And then you wanna make a pleat.

Over, and then pinch it sealed, make another pleat.

Yeah, you can't think about it so much,

we're just makin' dumplings.

You just wanna put stuff in there and seal it shut, okay.

I got my wrapper.

Wool filling.

Moisten.

Okay, this one's gonna be good.

Nope, I tore it.

This is the worst one yet, Ham.

You know I think this'll be good.

It'll make it really approachable to people, right?

[Ham] Watching you fail?

Yeah! [laughing]

[sad music] Oh boy.

It's gonna be okay.

I'm mostly convincing myself at this point.

But you know what, even though they suck,

look at how many bad dumplings I have already.

They're gonna be delicious!

[Director] Will you tell us who this is, Sohla?

[Sohla] This is Ham, my husband.

Show the people your secrets.

Oh, oh!

You're doing center first,

then side folds like we were doing before.

Yeah, that's probably better for this wrapper.

[Ham] Since these wrappers are super soft

and they're really delicate,

I'm making a focal point in the middle

by pressing it together in the center, first.

[Sohla] Whoa!

That looks really good,

These are good, guys. And then making pleats.

So I'm gonna start by warming up the skillet

to about medium, and I'm gonna give, wait.

Not give, I'm not giving it oil.

I'm gonna add a couple teaspoons of oil to it.

We need a little bit of fat to help it brown.

So.

The number of dumplings you add to your pan

totally depends on how much skirt you want.

So I'll mix up my slurry first, this thing heats up fast.

So, for each half a cup,

which is gonna be good for a 10-inch skillet,

I'm gonna do a teaspoon of cornstarch

and a teaspoon of flour.

So I tested this with cornstarch alone and flour alone.

When you mix them together, it has the best crunch.

I can't describe it.

This is also gonna get two teaspoons of vinegar.

I want like a huge skirt.

I really like the skirt.

If you like salt and vinegar Pringles,

to me that's what it tastes like.

[Director] Do you like the skirt?

I love the skirt.

Have I not expressed how much I love the skirt?

We wanna wait until it starts to sizzle

so we know that the pan is hot.

Give this a good whisk because immediately

the starches start to settle.

You see that?

[Director] Yeah.

You don't really need the dumplings

to be in there that deep.

It takes about five minutes to steam, so.

It really only takes 1/2 a cup for a pan this big

to give you enough steaming time for that.

We'll come back to it, should I cut?

[old school rap beat]

Ideally you wanna steam this with a glass lid

so you can get a good look at how the evaporation's going.

I don't have a glass lid.

It's fine.

You can look at it, you can peek.

Oh!

It's fine, it'll be fine.

Okay, cut?

Okay, so these have been steaming for five minutes

so they are totally cooked through.

They've gotten really plump.

The wrapper is cooked, the filling is cooked

and we're left with this, like, sticky,

goopy lookin' stuff here.

I'm gonna turn up the heat a little bit right now

'cause now we're looking to get some color.

While this happens I can make the dipping sauce.

So here I've got that one scallion

I sliced up and saved.

And I'm gonna add to it a couple tablespoons each of

soy sauce, or I've got tamari here.

If you don't have any rice wine vinegar you can leave it out

and just go with the soy.

I like to add a couple spoonfuls of chili crisp.

For some heat.

Oh!

Oh, black vinegar.

If you have black vinegar.

And then mix it up and it's, that's your dipping sauce.

When we get to this point where all the water is gone

and we're just looking for color,

you have to really, like, stand over it, be vigilant

'cause one spot will get dark on you

before you even know it.

You know, even though these weren't perfect,

they look pretty good now that they're all cooked up.

You know?

Not perfect but they're mine.

I made them with my hands.

It's so crisp and dried out now.

I can just shake the skillet and everything's free.

It's totally dry, crisp.

Now we flip.

Okay, flipping is a little risky

and you totally don't have to do it.

You can just slide it out onto a counter and enjoy.

But I want to see my crispy lace skirt,

so I like to flip it.

It adds a little danger, which is great, right?

[suspenseful music] [sighing]

Okay.

[dramatic music]

Everything could go wrong.

But nothing went wrong.

We did it.

Oh, it's good guys.

This is well worth the wait.

Okay, so you can see the skirt is nicely

browned and crunchy, and crisp.

What's not to love?

We got all this crunch, we got all this texture.

It's like a, you get a snack in your snack.

I always like the two-for-one thing.

Maybe 'cause I'm cheap.

Even, okay, if you don't wanna make dumplings,

if you don't wanna make wrappers,

if you don't wanna make filling.

You can get your frozen dumplings from Trader Joe's,

just throw a skirt on it.

You're gonna feel so much fancier, like.

[holy music]

Look at all that.

Do you hear that?

Listen to how crunchy that is.

Okay I'm gonna eat some skirt, 'cause it's the best.

[crunching]

Okay, these dumplings had a rough start, you know?

Coming into this world.

They're not perfect but they're great.

They're still so cute.

And we made 'em.

Dunking in.

[crunching]

Mm.

The filling is super juicy.

You can really taste the scallion.

It's not a lot of ginger but it's still coming through.

And then the texture, you know.

The best part about these dumplings is the texture.

You get this chewy noodle from the part that's steamed

and then the crunchy part from the part

that had contact with the pan.

And then the super, super crispy skirt, you know?

You can eat like 100 of these.

So good.

Okay I'm gonna have another bite.

Oh whoa.

Take a look at that!

Look at how crispy!

Chewy, crispy.

It's got it all.

Here I'll cut one open.

[Director] How did you learn how to do this?

From the internet.

I don't have a story about

how my mom made dumplings with me.