• Eat Your Books

  See Susie's review of this cookbook in her round-up of the best 2009 cookbooks at NPR Kitchen Window and sample recipes for Fried wontons and Tibetan beef and Sichuan peppercorn dumplings.

  See Lisa Is Cooking's take on Vegetarian crystal dumplings and chiu chow dumplings from this book.

• elhagman on October 29, 2022

  Ebook

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Kimchi dumplings (kimchi mandu)

  • krista_jo on May 16, 2010

    Of all the recipes I've made so far, this was the only filling I didn't like. It's really nothing special. I want to eat my kimchi with my dumplings, not inside them!

• Fried mung bean dumplings (moong dal vada)

  • MelMM on February 14, 2014

    These are simple to make and the recipe works perfectly as written. Nice crunch.

• Green chutney

  • MelMM on February 14, 2014

    Nice bright flavors and tang. The sugar is not really perceptible, but seems to deepen the flavors a bit. A really nice version of a classic chutney.

  • Delys77 on February 11, 2014

    Pg. 221 Just like in the restaurant with its salty, sweet, spicy, and tangy notes.

• Tamarind and date chutney

  • MelMM on February 14, 2014

    This was delicious. I used whole pods of tamarind (with seeds) instead of pulp, so had to use more to account for the volume of the seeds. This chutney had a nice subtle heat from the chile, and a good balance of sweet/sour/salt.

• Tangy spiced potato dumplings (batata vada)

  • MelMM on February 14, 2014

    The recipe had one small glitch, which was that the chickpea batter required more water than called for (I used 1 cup instead of 1/2 cup to get the right consistency). Otherwise, these came out very nicely, perfectly seasoned.

  • Delys77 on February 11, 2014

    Pg. 183 Very tasty little morsels. The potato has a lovely yellow hue and little specks of black mustard seed which makes for a lovely presentation. The coating is very crisp and the overall flavour was excellent. I was able to cook in a large pot in 3 batches, but I had to be very careful of crowding.

• Steamed vegetable dumplings (Zhēngjiăo)

  • sck on January 07, 2013

    Very tasty filling! Baked tofu was a real time saver. Frozen spinach works very well, too.

• Spiced lamb dumplings (khasi mom)

  • okcook on December 24, 2015

    The filling is a bit time consuming to make. Good flavours and quite herbaceous with all the cilantro. The cooking time says 8 minutes but mine took 12 minutes to get the filling up to safe temperature for ground meats. I like the texture of the dough. I did not make the spicy tomato sauce from the book but used a spicy sauce from my freezer. The tomato really complimented the lamb.

• Tangy soy dipping sauce

  • lorloff on February 07, 2021

    This was great with dumplings. We liked it so much we made extra and are now planning meals so we can use the sauce. The chili oil we used was Blake Slate Sichuan chili oil and I used Korean Soup Soy Sauce. Will make again and again.

  • JKDLady on January 20, 2016

    This was really good with the Pork and Napa Cabbage Water Dumplings.

• Panfried pork and scallion mini buns (shēng jiān bāozi)

  • MollyB on April 02, 2021

    Great recipe! It's essentially cooking a steamed bun as you would potstickers, and it's a great technique. We really enjoyed these (but don't put too much chile oil in your dipping sauce). It's pretty labor-intensive but worth the effort.

• Char siu pork

  • krobbins426 on February 22, 2013

    Fantastic recipe. Tastes just like it came from Chinatown. Can also use the marinade and technique on tofu.

• Shrimp wonton soup (yúntūn tāng)

  • Delys77 on February 06, 2014

    Pg. 70 I did use the suggested shrimp and pork filling from pg. 69 and it was very good. Simple and clean flavours for lovely little nurse cap shaped dumplings. I did use premade wrappers to make my life a little easier. I added some egg noodles to the soup to compliment the wontons and also modified the soup base by adding some pork to the stock. On the whole very good with my modifications.

• Siu mai open-faced dumplings (shāomài)

  • Delys77 on February 19, 2014

    Pg. 77 I used regular store bought thin skins and didn't bother rounding them as I was a bit rushed. The result looked a touch rustic, but were still nice. Flavour wise these are a bit different than the siu mai I am used to as there is no shrimp in them and a fair amount of mushroom. That said, this wasn't a negative, these were absolutely delicious, and with pre made wrappers only took about an hour to prep and steam, including time to rest. I would definitely make these again. Mine may have been a bit bigger than she planned though as I only got 20 out of the recipe.

• Sticky rice and spiced chicken in banana leaf (lemper ayam)

  • Delys77 on February 17, 2014

    Pg. 173 This is the first time I've made sticky rice and it turned out perfectly with her instructions. I steamed it by placing my rice cooker insert into my largest stockpot, and it worked perfectly. The chicken itself is very good, and the leaves imparted a lovely flavour to the rice. I would however add a touch more salt to the rice and the chicken as the result was a touch bland. Surprising given the very flavourful chicken, but with that much rice both components need to have a fair amount of seasoning. I ended up baking them as my stove top was too busy for steaming, this worked very well. Lastly I didn't staple or use toothpicks, I just folded the leaves under.

• Chicken stock

  • Delys77 on February 06, 2014

    As written this stock was a bit one note for me. I am used to putting some pork ribs into my asian stocks to increase the flavour, possibly some dried chinese dates etc... I would likely go with versions I have made from other sources (Mastering the Art of Chinese Cuisine and Land of Plenty).

• Curried chicken bun filling (gālí jī bāo)

  • Delys77 on February 24, 2014

    Pg. 102 The curry filling in this is spot on and delicious. Very rich and flavourful without any real hit, just a subtle warmth from the mix of spices. The dough also worked out very well, although mine only took about 30 minutes to double, and by the time my filling was ready it has nearly quadrupled and had to be pushed down a touch. Also, perhaps due to over rising, I only got about 12 medium sized buns out of the filling, and had to freeze the rest of the dough.

• Pork and napa cabbage water dumplings (shuĭjiăo)

  • Delys77 on February 11, 2014

    Pg. 31 The wrappers took a bit of time to make but they weren't too difficult and they proved to be much easier to work with in wrapping than store bough. The filling in these is delicious, so go easy on the dressing so that you can really taste the dumpling. Also, I would cut the soy sauce back a bit in the recommended sauce pairing. I did struggle to keep these small as I only ended up with 26 and they were on the big side, but still super tasty. Took about 10 minutes to cook in a single batch.

  • JKDLady on January 20, 2016

    We loved these! The dough does take some time to roll out, so give yourself plenty of time. The dough itself is quite simple to make. Next time, I would only work with 1/4 of the dough at a time. I had a cookie cutter out to give me a guide as to the size. I made sure each was large enough, so that took some time. I also weighed each piece to make sure that each had the same amount of dough.

• Korean dumpling soup (mandu guk)

  • Delys77 on February 19, 2014

    Pg. 46 These were delicious. I pan fried them as per the instructions and it worked perfectly. To be honest they don't remind me that much of the mandu I had in Korea, but those were almost always steamed so I may try a batch that way. That said, these had a lovely flavour with a slightly chewy texture and a lovely crisp edge. I had to cook in about 3 batches, so allow 30 minutes or so for actually cooking. The dipping sauce was also a winner.

• Basic dumpling dough

  • JKDLady on January 20, 2016

    This does make a far superior dough to what you buy in the stores. It takes time to roll out. I should have just worked with 1/4 of the dough at a time as it dried out some. Definitely stage this. Delicious.

• Steamed filled buns (zhēng bāo)

  • ddutton848 on January 21, 2018

    Delicious. Did the vegetarian filling with firm tofu and it turned out great. Dough was easy to work with a quick rising time.

• Shanghai pork, bamboo, and mushroom spring rolls (Shànghăi chūnjuăn)

  • Rinshin on May 14, 2019

    Made this number of times and makes excellent spring rolls. Very easy too if you already have thinly sliced pork handy. I normally use a little more shrimp than the recipe. Photo added.

• Chile garlic sauce

  • peaceoutdesign on December 28, 2021

    YUM! I didn't trust that anyone could tolerate 6 oz of chilies, so I just used 6 serranos that I seeded like a wimp. Next time I will try the amount called for (still seeding them) but it was excellent even through my cautiousness. In the book, it was used as a base for the sauce for the Roasted Cauliflower wings, which just made the sauce even better. Using that recipe: 1T sugar, 1T Bragg liquid aminos, 3T chile-garlic sauce, 1/4 light corn syrup simmering briskly and yummier.

• Baked filled buns (jú bāo)

  • sosayi on October 29, 2018

    Really easy dough to work with and the instructions were spot on. I didn't love the filling I used (from another book), but would use the dough again with another filling in the future.

• Japanese pork and shrimp pot stickers (gyōza)

  • stepharama1 on November 03, 2022

    These were superb and worth the effort to make the dumpling wrappers from scratch. I didn't have Chinese chives so I subbed scallions and some cilantro so these weren't completely authentic but still delicious.