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Ever wondered what dumplings look like around the world? Epicurious brings together 10 chefs from 10 countries to showcase their dumpling recipes. From Japanese gyozas to Turkish manti, discover how cultures around the world transform dumplings into their own mouthwatering delicacy.
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00:00You're about to see 10 chefs from 10 different countries making dumplings.
00:06There are a lot of different types of dumplings in China. One of my favorite is this Sichuan
00:18style dumplings. The flavor is very complex yet so well-balanced so I want to show everyone how
00:25to make this dumplings. First I'm going to show you how to make chili oil. Neutral oil here I'm simmering
00:32aromatics and spices like ginger scallion, garlic, bay leaf, and star anise. Once they are slightly
00:39charred remove the aromatics and spices from the oil and I'm going to reheat the oil until almost
00:45smoking. Some chili flakes I made with Sichuan chilies these are called argintiao and they have
00:52a well-balanced spiciness and aroma. In the chili flakes we're going to add ground Sichuan
00:58peppercorn powder. I have some white sesame seeds. Pour the oil over the chili flakes.
01:05The chili oil looks a little bit dark brown but let it sit overnight and the red color will show
01:10and the flavor actually will be a little bit better the next day. I'm going to show you how to make the
01:15filling. We have ground pork here about 30% fat. I'm going to add some seasoning, salt, soy sauce,
01:22cooking wine. The wine will remove the gaminess of the meat dishes and adds extra flavor. White
01:28pepper powder and Sichuan peppercorn powder to make this extra Sichuan. MSG and then sesame oil. I
01:36also have some ginger scallion water. I'm going to slowly add the water to the meat to add extra moisture.
01:43You don't want to over stir it. It will bruise the scallions and it will turn the scallions to a bitter
01:49taste. So normally we will soak them in water and then just use the flavored water for the filling.
01:55Do this for about 10-20 minutes. We want to recombine the ground meat to make the texture a little bit
02:03firm and bouncy. I know it's almost ready when the texture becomes very pasty. Put a little bit of meat
02:10in the center. I'm going to moist the wrapper. And this is a very easy way of wrapping dumplings.
02:16Seal it up while pushing the side of the wrappers up a little bit and it'll create beautiful natural
02:22pleats. All right. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Eight is an auspicious number. Let's
02:27cook them. I'm going to add the dumplings into boiling water and you want to add the dumplings
02:33one by one so they don't stick together. And also you want to stir the water right away. Use the back of
02:40your spoon and gently so you don't break the wrappers. Once the water is boiling, turn it to low to let
02:46it simmer. Five minutes is up. Dumplings are cooked. I know they're cooked because they are floating on
02:52top of the water and also the wrapper is translucent. We're going to add some flavored soy sauce first
02:59and chili oil and a kick. We're going to add some pureed garlic on top. Before you serve,
03:05mix everything together and enjoy.
03:14It's perfect. Mantu is a very simple dumpling made of ground meat served with a yogurt sauce
03:20and butter. When my mom asked me what she should make for me, this is what I demand. I say,
03:26just make mantu. The filling is very simple. Ground beef, finely chopped onions. In Turkish cuisine,
03:31parsley goes into everything. Some black pepper and some salt and I'm just going to mix this.
03:36This dough is very similar to pasta dough. It has eggs and also water. It's a tough dough. To roll
03:41the dough, I'm going to use this very thin roller. The name of this tool is oklava. In Turkey, this is
03:46used for making all sorts of things but mostly like very thin rolled doughs like baklava or filo dough.
03:54This is something I saw my mom do all the time. So she rolls the dough and then the dough rolls out
03:59so so even. This is an amazing technique. The next step is cutting this dough. So I'm going to use this
04:05tool I have which is not traditional. This is a tool that we use in bakery. My mom would use just a knife
04:10but again she's the best. I'm not that skilled. I'm going to cut these tiny squares. You know, smaller
04:18the dumplings, the more skilled you are. I made a tiny batch for this video. In a household this would
04:26be as big as this board. This dish is a very good example of Turkish cuisine. Everything is very
04:31labor intensive, kind of small, absolutely worth it though. I like to hold them in square, pinch the
04:37sides together and then meet them in the middle. It would be like an assembly line where my mom fill it
04:42with the filling and then me, my sisters and my father would fold the dumplings. We cook mantu just
04:47like cooking pasta. This is going to take about five minutes maybe. Once the dumplings start floating
04:52that's my indicator that they are close to be ready. This goes right into the plate. I do want a little
04:57bit of liquid so you don't need to drain the whole thing. Mantu is served with garlic yogurt sauce.
05:03I'm going to put on top, very generous. This is butter sauce with tomato paste. So this is just
05:09melted butter. Once the butter starts bubbling, you add the tomato paste and that's it. Very simple sauce.
05:15I'd like to put a little spice. So this is just crushed red peppers. Finally, anything I put garlic
05:20yogurt on, I put five minutes. Let's see.
05:27I nailed it. Not as good as my mom's. I'm saying this to please my mom.
05:33I feel like if somebody makes this dish to you, they'd love you.
05:36My dumpling is going to be a hitokuchi gyoza, translated to English as one bite dumpling.
05:42It's very common one in a Fukuoka side, which is southern side of Japan's traditional way of eating
05:46gyoza. And this is my personal favorite as well. The structure is very simple. This is ground pork.
05:50I'd like to mix and knead it a little bit so that it gets a little sticky. And now we'll put the cabbage.
05:55Onions. Once incorporated, season everything. Starting with ginger and garlic.
05:59A touch of sesame oil. Amashi. White pepper. And salt. And last and least, this is just a liquid mix
06:07with the oyster sauce, mirin, sake, and soy sauce. We always buy wheat rougher. It's just,
06:13I think it's more convenient. First of all, let's put the water around the rougher.
06:17Scoop a little bit. Not too much. Yeah, let's see on the edge. Pinch. Tuck. Press. Pinch. Tuck. Press.
06:28Pinch. Tuck. Press. It's tightly sealed so that when you cook it, juice is not going to come up.
06:34Season with just a touch of sesame oil. And right now, the pan is not heating up. The first piece of
06:40gyoza. All the gyoza is going to be cooked at the same time and it's going to be on a plate like a round
06:48circle. So that not only you, but then your friends, your family, they will share that plate. On a low heat.
06:55I'm cooking at the bottom of the gyoza so that it's going to have a foundation. The one I'm looking
07:00for is the bottom is crispy, but inside is juicy. And then you got the water potato starch mixture.
07:07Not too much, but if you put it too much, the wing is going to be like really gooey and it takes it a
07:11lot of time to cook off. And that's when the gyoza itself is going to start burning out. So once you
07:16start hearing this to dry yourself, I'm going to take off your lid. I'm going to wait for this to evaporate
07:21more so that you're going to get the crispy wing. Those lids off and then you see these bubbles are
07:26getting larger and larger. And now it starts getting smaller all of a sudden because there's
07:31not enough water. Now this is the time you're going to do max heat and finish it. You put the plate
07:37on then. Gyoza this. This is Japanese sampling. Hear the sound? Sounds nice. Tipping sauce.
07:58I think I nailed it. Yeah, absolutely. The dish that I'm going to be making today are called
08:03Ukdiche Modak. It's something that I grew up eating. It's also the offering that we make to
08:08Lord Ganesh. Made once during the year. I'm very excited to be making this today. First thing that
08:13I have with me is a dough called the Ukal. Made out of rice flour, milk and water. These are not like
08:19wontons or dumplings where the thinner they are, the better they are. Take the dough ball in your hand
08:23and then you use the force of your palms to get like a really nice circular shape. And then you just use your
08:28thumb. Press into it while making a cup shape, keeping the edges a little thicker than the center
08:34of the dough. This is where it gets a little intricate. I'm trying to do as many as I can,
08:38leaving a little bit of space right in the middle for that filling to go in. The filling that goes
08:42inside is called a saran. It's made with fresh grated coconuts, some jaggery, poppy seeds, toasted cashews
08:49and almonds. And the point is to get all those pleats and all those petals that you form onto the middle.
08:54Once you have the basic thing formed, make like a tip out of it as pointy as you can,
08:59so it doesn't open when it's steaming up. Traditionally, whenever we make these,
09:02we always make them in sets of 11, 21, 51, 101 because you never make an even number. That's
09:09just the way that they're offered to God. We're going to get ready for steaming. But what I'm going
09:12to do before that is I'm going to take some water. I'm just going to put it right on this tip and I'm
09:16going to put a strand or two of saffron right on top of these. It symbolizes that this is an offering made
09:21to God. We're letting God know that we care about you and we're very happy that you've come and
09:25you've visited us. I have a nice pot of water which has been boiling. Traditionally, they're put on
09:31banana leaves and then steam. I'm going to put a little bit of ghee on them and start putting them
09:36into the steamer and that's it. It's been eight minutes. We've had our modak steaming. Traditionally,
09:43what I would do is I would first offer one to God and then I would start eating it, but I'm just going to
09:46do that in my mind. Take the tip off. Just make like a little nice cavity in this. I have some melted
09:53warm ghee. I'm going to have my first bite. This takes me back straight home. I haven't had these in
10:02years. It's just these different textures coming in together. It's outstanding.
10:07Khingali is a dish that Georgians are very proud of. Every region makes their own version of it.
10:14This is going to be kalakuri style khingali made with beef, pork, onions, touch of herbs, and wild
10:20caraway. We have here already ground beef and pork that has already mixed caraway. You can use regular
10:27caraway if you don't have wild caraway. You want some fat for your meat. Fat is what gives an extra
10:34juice and the flavor. We're going to take this finely chopped cilantro and some of these onions,
10:41salt, black pepper, and crushed red pepper. This water is what helps develop the soup that comes
10:49out of the dumpling when you take the first bite. You can have this for lunch, but you wouldn't make
10:54this at home for lunch. You would go to the khingali house and have like a dozen with beer possibly.
11:01This is a basic flour, water, salt dough. It's made with cold water because you don't want your flour to
11:09start cooking as you're making it. The stronger the better because you get more shiny dough. You got
11:14a lot more broth in it. So you make it full fold. There's a saying that this had 19 dimples, which was
11:23related to some free christian song tradition. Slowly start bringing this together. Almost like a flower
11:31that starts opening up. Push up, sort of like lengthening the neck. And you can feel it in your
11:37hand and it's ready to be twisted and done. Hot water with general serving of salt. Mix the water to
11:46create this vortex and you start slowly lowering the dumplings. You want them to move around. You don't
11:54want them to stick. Fresh khingali of this size takes about seven to eight minutes. You can see them start
12:01floating up and turning upside down. 30 seconds to go. And before we take this out, we pour a cold
12:08water on top to get that foam off. And also it makes it more shiny. They're still puffed up. They're
12:14going to de-puff in a second. Garnish it with our spice mix with summer savory and a little bit of a red
12:20pepper for extra kick. Usually it goes on top, but I prefer to put it around the plate so you can dip
12:27your dumpling in it for as much spice and flavor as you want. You cannot eat the chinkali with the fork
12:33and knife. You eat it with your hand. So you grab it from the top, turn it upside down, take a little bite,
12:39drink the broth, and then you'll eat the rest. These are the best dumplings in the world.
12:45Just kidding.
12:46I'm making a Ukrainian dumpling, which we call vareniki. Vareniki are very important in Ukraine.
12:54They are soul food. We eat vareniki often at family gathering or at any holidays. First step
13:01for making the filling, you are boiling the potatoes. After they're boiled, you mash them
13:06and you add farmer cheese and fried onion to it. Farmer cheese and mashed potato, the most traditional
13:12filling you can get. Everybody in Ukraine, almost everybody, make their own farmer cheese. So it's
13:19like an ingredient you always have in your fridge. The dough that my mom taught me to make,
13:23it's eggs, milk, water, and flour, a little bit salt. It's going to take around a couple of minutes
13:31until desired thinless. That's why Ukrainian women are so strong. It's not easy to roll.
13:39I'm looking about for two millimeters in thickness. It's very helpful to have a metal cutter when we make
13:468,000 vareniki a day, but at home we usually use a glass. And now we're going to be filling vareniki.
13:54The filling, make sure it's not too much. Stretch the dough a little bit and just pinch it together.
14:03The water is boiling. Season it with the salt. Now carefully place vareniki inside the boiling water,
14:10but be very gentle. We're going to boil up to five minutes. When they float, boil them another four or
14:16five minutes. In Ukraine, we eat vareniki with caramelized onions and sour cream. The more the better.
14:26Amazing filling.
14:31Delicious. Just like mama's.
14:33The popular dumplings in Indonesia, we call it siomai. Historically from Chinese cuisine,
14:40assimilated Indonesia through Chinese traders. Indonesian, it's siomai any time of the day.
14:46There's a street guard version of siomai. They walk around with a huge steamer and they come to every
14:53house. Siomai siomai. Oh, it brings me back. Yeah. This is Spanish mackerel. Next, we do ice to help
15:05with the texture to stay chewy, not to break apart. Garlic powder. I like it. Garlicky. Onion powder.
15:14Black pepper. Salt.
15:16In Indonesia, we call this labu siam. Here, it's called chayote and I'm very happy I can find it
15:25anywhere because in Hispanic recipe, people use chayote also. Scallions, fish sauce, a little bit,
15:33brings very umami flavor. This is very important ingredient, tapioca flour. Gives chewy texture to the
15:42siomai. Let's get dirty. Siomai is not only a dumpling, but it's a whole meal. So we're not only
15:50gonna put it in the wrapper, but also put it on the other ingredients to the potato and the tofu.
15:58For the siomai with wonton, I do this to make a base to put on the wonton. Each corner meat like this
16:08and then another. And then we put a little bit of carrots. The next one.
16:18The siomai are done. They're going to the steamer for around 35 to 40 minutes. It's beautiful and smells
16:26like the food cart from Jakarta. Potato, tofu, the somai. We use peanut sauce on many many things.
16:38On rice, snacks, fritters, almost anything. I'm gonna drizzle sweet soy sauce. In Indonesia,
16:46we eat somai with fork or spoon.
16:55Oh yeah. It's perfectly steamed. So good. I'm proud of myself.
17:00So the dumpling in Algeria is called the borak. It's mostly based out of filo dough, but I like to
17:10just do it more like a ravioli, which is kind of similar as a dumpling. We use the very thin semolina
17:17with some olive oil. The olive oil will help stretch the dough easily. Warm water with the semolina
17:23make it a quick dough. So this filling is already cooked. I use ground lamb and I added cumin, salt,
17:30pepper. We boiled some eggs and add it on with also some potato and parsley and coriander. That's
17:37the traditional borak filling. So I'm going to use that food to lay out the dough. I'm using water
17:45to stretch the dough a little bit more and then I close it with the forks. We are now ready to
17:50fried our beautiful dumpling. Low, medium, high. Add some olive oil, those cuties to the pot. It doesn't
17:58have to be so hot. It's meant to be crispy. We don't want this to overcook. I'm adding the chicken broth
18:05to have to have a little bit of motif into the dough. Okay, so we are ready to serve our dumplings. So
18:16adding some harissa mayo. Harissa is a spicy red pepper that we make in house. It's very common in
18:22Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco. We garnish with parsley, cilantro. Dip the dumpling into the harissa mayo.
18:35So good. The truth is the French people don't really do dumplings. The closest one that you can
18:43find, it's ravioles de royans. It's a tiny pasta that's stuffed with conté cheese and parsley. They're
18:51very delicious. I'm going to show you how to make my versions of those real ravioles. At home, we usually
18:57buy them frozen. We separate them like this and we're going to cook them as a traditional pasta.
19:05start them in a salty boiling water. We're going to reduce our chicken stock while they're cooking.
19:13French lover, their chicken stock makes things better. To make it a little bit more interesting,
19:18we're going to add a little black pepper. So now that my dumplings are raised, I can remove them.
19:25We're going to add butter directly. Little sea salt. Black pepper. I'm just going to finish it with
19:35a little shive. A shive makes everything taste better. And voila.
19:42Beautiful balance between the cheese inside and the butter and the truffle. Amazing.
19:49There are so many dumplings in Korea. The most classic, the most traditional one,
19:53I believe it's a gogi mandu, which is a meat dumpling. It packs all the flavor, all the punch.
19:58It tastes clean. I think it's one of my favorite. I love making this steamed dumpling. Vegetable ingredients
20:04first. This one is a Korean chives. It's called puchu. And this one is just a leek. I just cook it
20:10until it's a little tender. Cabbage. It's quickly been blanched. Tofu also squeezed out until it's like
20:16the soul of the ingredients. Bean sprout. This also has been blanched and then just squeezed.
20:22Minced garlic. A little bit of ginger. And then pork gelatin. Took me two, three days to make it. I just
20:28boil with the pork neck bones, pork leg bones, and pork feet. And then yonduk, which is like a Korean
20:35soy essence. It's a flavor bomb, you can think. Black pepper. And then soy sauce. These vegetables are to
20:42create that crunch texture to it as you eat it. Cooking beforehand these vegetables, you don't want to cook
20:47it too long. Otherwise, it becomes a little too mushy. This pork is mostly pork shoulder. I think pork
20:53shoulder has a very good fat to meat ratio. I like to keep flavor inside, rather too dry. This is a
21:00dumpling wrap that I get from the store. Make sure you get a good chunk of filling inside here. If you
21:06don't put much in it, it's gonna just taste like a flour and dough. And you don't want that. You want a lot
21:13of flavors. Water around it, kind of think it's like you're putting a glue around it. When you're
21:18folding it, make sure you get all the air out and make sure all the filling gets spread out evenly.
21:23Add another glue to it, to the edge of the skin. And then and make it into circular shape. And that's
21:30how you make Korean dumpling before you steam it. The water is hot. I'm gonna put the steamer inside.
21:37Trap the steam. And then once it traps, I'm gonna put the dumpling in there and I'm gonna start cooking.
21:43This is just a pad so the dumpling doesn't get stuck. Steam it for about 10 minutes and it
21:48should be ready. In restaurants, people actually serve the dumplings in a basket and I'm gonna just
21:55eat it the way it is. And this is the soy sauce and the vinegar and once that's stuck.
22:02Yup. That packs all the flavors, juice. Wow. The flavor is, well, it's very delicious.
22:10These are the best dumplings in the world. Delicious. You have to try it. This is my favorite order.
22:17Well, you guys want to try it or no? Watching a six foot five guy holding the
22:22tiniest dumplings in the world.
22:29You
22:31You
22:33You
22:35You
22:37You
22:39You
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