Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Daily highlight #14: What are parents good for?

For making dumplings, of course. Whenever the folks come to town, we reserve one night to make these beauties from scratch.

My dad is the dough master, mixing and resting like a pro. He is the most impressive with the slender tapered rolling pin. Rolling the slightly flattened and individual sized dough ball with one hand while turning it quickly with the other, he needs only a single rotation, in under 30 seconds, to finish a perfectly round wrapper that is thicker in the middle and gradually thinner towards the edge.

My mom is the master filler. She usually likes to load up each dumpling until it's almost too plump to hold together. But when she is here, I request less filling as I enjoy the chew at the dough closure most of all. Mom makes a killer garlic chive filling that is as pungent as it is delicious.

There is no recipe either of them could pass on to me. They simply do by feel.

This time, even J joined us in the fun. Mom was pretty impressed that he went from the mutilated creation in the front to the half moon shaped pretty thing at the back in all but three tries. Mom is a good teacher. :)

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Mmmm, homemade dumplings! We do the same thing when my parents come to town, only Dad's more of the master eater while Mom and I make a huge batch to eat and freeze the rest for future meals :)