Eat Down the House: Frozen Dumplings
Restaurant Baby and I hosted a Chinese New Year dinner party in January. The day before, Kim and her friends made a huge batch of dumplings. Thanks to the wonders of modern refrigeration in the form of our freezer, to this day I am still benefiting from their hard work. On my days off, I like to wake up early just so I can have my go-to breakfast comfort food, a big bowl o’ noodles complete with dumplings and some veg.
Here is how I like to cook my dumplings, which is to pan-fry them. You may prefer yours to be steamed or boiled, and below are links for those methods.
Pan-fried Dumplings
Ingredients
- 1-2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
- 6 frozen dumplings
- ¼ cup of water or broth
Directions:
Heat a non-stick pan on medium-high. Cover bottom of pan with very thin layer of oil. Wait for the pan and oil to heat up, until a drop of water will sizzle and pop in the pan.
Then place the frozen dumplings in an even layer down in the pan, with the flattest side down. Leave uncovered for 3 minutes, until the skin is golden brown on the bottom.
Flip each dumpling to an unseared side. Wait another 3 minutes or until the skin is golden brown. I like my dumplings golden brown on all sides; so, I’ll repeat this step again for the last side of the dumpling.
If you are already cooking up some noodles in broth, use some of the broth to steam the dumplings. If you do not have broth around, you can just use water. Pour the water/broth into the pan (be careful, the liquid will produce steam immediately!) and cover the pan for 3-5 minutes.
Serve with your choice of dip and condiments.
Other Ways to Cook Frozen Dumplings:
- From Andrea Nyguen’s Asian Dumpling Tips
- From Jessica and Lon of Food Mayhem
Eat Down the House items eaten: 2-week old napa cabbage, Chinese egg noodles, Sambal Delek hot sauce, roasted seaweed, homemade vegetable broth, frozen dumplings
