Beer, it’s not just for drinking anymore. Beer is a uniter of people, a gastronomical statement and a damn fine ingredient in the kitchen. I, like many people I know, am a lover of beer. Although my parent’s generation loyally consumed uninspired, yet tasty pints of Hamm’s or Blatz beer, my generation has a veritable universe of beers to choose from. America’s love of beer, particularly the craft and imported varieties, has grown to impressive heights and shows no sign of stopping.
If you are new to the world of beer, and I mean good beer, it can be a little overwhelming to try new varieties. It’s hard to know where to start, let alone how each beer variety differs. Fortunately, good beer is easy to come by these days and with hardly any effort, you can learn how to choose the beer for you. Which for me, is every kind.
One great way to try out some new beers is to find recipes that call for beer as an ingredient. Most beer-based recipes call for less than a full bottle of beer, so you can use a little in your meal and enjoy the rest of the bottle while you’re cooking. Now that’s motivation to get in the kitchen.
Dan and I have been subscribing to BeerAdvocate magazine for a year or so. Not only is this publication a great way to keep up with the ever-growing beer culture but there’s also a great cooking column in each issue.
We recently purchased a quarter pasture raised hog from our local organic farm and have an enormous amount of pork products to plow through this year. Now, when it comes to chops, ham and bacon, I need no instruction or inspiration. But when faced with seven pounds of ground pork, I need a little assistance. Fortunately, Dan and I remembered that there were some pork dumpling recipes in an issue of BeerAdvocate. After some time thumbing through our hefty pile of beer literature, we found the one we were looking for in Issue #63 – Pork Kimchi Saison Dumplings. The original recipe called for ground chicken or turkey but we swapped that out for the ground pork. Here’s the modified recipe.
1 pound pasture-raised ground pork
4 tablespoons Saison – we used Crooked Stave Saison Vieille Artisanal
1 teaspoon tamari, soy sauce or coconut aminos
2 tablespoons arrowroot powder, or corn starch
10 tablespoons spicy kimchi, finely chopped
6 tablespoons cilantro, chopped
1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
1 teaspoon garlic, minced
45 gyoza or wonton wrappers
We also made a delicious Stout Soy Dipping Sauce to accompany our dumplings. Here’s the recipe we used.
1/4 cup tamari, soy sauce or coconut aminos
3 tablespoons Stout – we used The Lost Abbeys Serpent’s Stout
1 tablespoon garlic chili sauce
1 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
1 teaspoon garlic, minced
3 scallions, finely chopped
Here’s the thing about making dumplings at home. They take FOREVER, this is not a quick meal. The night we made these dumplings (we did make two batches, about 100 individual dumplings), we didn’t eat until 9:00pm. That was just poor planning on our part but seriously, these are a lot of work. The saving grace is that there is absolutely NO comparison to dumplings you can buy at the store or in a restaurant. These little pork morsels are infinitely better, and besides, you get to drink all of the extra beer from the recipe while you work! Not a bad trade-off.
The first step is to get all of the ingredients out and prepped. It’s helpful to chop, grate and mince everything in advance so you can just throw everything into the bowl at once.
The recipe we followed gave a specific order of operations but I didn’t think that was necessary. These take long enough, no need to drag this out by adding extra steps to the process. Get all of your ingredients (except for the wrappers) into a bowl and mix thoroughly.
I find it helpful to do a little taste test of the stuffing before you commit to making the dumplings. Fry up a little in a pan and see if you need to adjust the flavor. I added extra cilantro and kimchi to the stuffing after the taste test. Once the flavor is where you want it to be, cover and refrigerate for at least an hour before making the dumplings.
While the pork is hanging out in the fridge, you can make the dipping sauce! It’s as simple as measuring out the ingredients and mixing them thoroughly in a small bowl. Again, give it a taste and adjust accordingly for spiciness, sweetness and saltiness. You can store this in the refrigerator until you’re ready to eat. It will last several days refrigerated, so you can make it in advance.
Now to make the dumplings. This, admittedly, can be a little tricky but once you’ve made a few, you’ll be good to go. We opted for the half moon dumpling fold, which is the easiest and fastest. There are many different ways to fold dumplings and plenty of information about this online if you want to get more creative.
The first step is to make an egg wash, which will be the glue to keep these suckers together. Just mix together one egg, one egg yolk and one tablespoon or water, beer or milk. Keep this in a bowl near your work area. Place one wrapper on your work surface. With your finger, lightly coat the edges with your egg.
Next, take about a teaspoon of filling and place it in the center of your wrapper. I like to use two spoons for this process – one to measure and one to help get the filling centered.
Fold the wrapper in half. Occasionally, these will crack or tear if you overfill the dumpling. Don’t worry, just keep on going!
Pick up your dumpling and seal all of the edges. The goal is to get as much air as possible out of the dumpling and make sure that there are no gaps along the edge. We made several that were definitely not folded properly but fortunately these guys are very forgiving, particularly because we used the steaming method to cook them, rather than the frying method.
Place your finished dumpling on a wax paper lined baking sheet and repeat these steps until you’ve run out of filling or wrappers. Make sure that the dumplings don’t touch each other as they have a tendency to stick together. You can add a second layer of dumplings to the tray if you separate the levels with a piece of wax paper.
Now to cook these up! I used a medium pot and an old vegetable steamer that sits on the bottom just above the water. This method worked really well. Lightly coat the steamer with a little oil to prevent sticking and bring the water to a boil to create the steam. I was able to get between six to eight dumplings on the steamer each batch. Just make sure the dumplings aren’t touching each other. Cover with a lid and steam for about eight minutes.
The dumplings will shrivel up around the filling when you remove the lid. Make sure to cut one open every once in a while to make sure the filling is completely cooked. You’ll also need to add additional water to the pot a few times to keep the steam going. I put the finished dumplings into an oiled baking dish and kept them in a 150 degree oven until we were ready to eat.
We cooked up about half of the dumplings and froze the rest of them to cook up another time. When you’re ready to eat, serve with the dipping sauce and if you have any extra, some of that delicious beer!
These dumplings are addictive. Chewy, spicy, salty and oh so tasty. Sure, they took forever to make but I got to try out two new beers and have a freezer full of dumplings for another time. It definitely helps to make a large batch of these and freeze half, so you can enjoy a quick meal some other time. I would add a few minutes on to your steaming time for frozen dumplings.
The stout dipping sauce really steals the show, in my opinion, and would be a great accompaniment to any kind of dumpling. If you don’t want to take the time to compile you’re own dumplings (even though I hope you will give it a try sometime) just whip together a batch of this dipping sauce and serve alongside some pre made dumplings.
If you want to save some time and increase the flavor of the filling, I would suggest making it a day in advance. You can even add a little more beer to the mix to intensify the flavor a bit. I think the addition of shredded carrots or cooked shiitake mushrooms to the filling would be really tasty too.
The lesson with these Pork Saison Dumplings? Don’t just drink your beer, cook with it too! Be creative and adventurous. And… if the recipe sucks, you can drown your sorrows in some tasty beer.
100 First Tastes 