Dumpling Making!

If you book to stay at Loch Riddon Bothy you will only be a short hop from Planted by Sai HQ. Sai is a wonderfully talented cook who has just started to share her knowledge and techniques at small workshops. Last weekend I joined three others and we were taught how to make Asian dumplings - from scratch!

Everything Ready for Dumpling Making!

The first thing we had to do was make the little wrappers. The dough was made and then set aside while we made two different fillings. Lots of chopping and grating of veggies with loads of garlic and ginger. These were both briefly cooked and then set aside to cool.

Table Top Stove for cooking the Fillings

So now it was back to the dough which we each divided into 24 pieces and then rolled into a ball. This is part one of wrapper making. The second part is to take each little round and roll it out before using a cookie cutter to cut out a circle so that you end up with a stack of wrappers.

A Stack of Wrappers

So, the wrappers are made and the fillings have cooled down. Now comes the tricky bit - for me anyway. Take a wrapper and put a dollop of filling in the centre. Wet the edges of the wrapper and fold over in half sealing the dumpling in a number of ways so that the filling stays inside the dough during the cooking process.

Some Folded More Neatly Than Others!

So thats it! Dumplings made and ready to take home for a delicious meal. Sai also gave us recipes for a couple of tasty dipping sauces.

Did I say that we were given lunch too as part of the course? Well, not only did we have some of the delicious dumplings that Sai had made alongside us, but we also got home made Bao Buns with tofu, pickle veggies and pea shoots - so good! Hopefully there’ll be a course on that before too long!

Lunchtime Bao Buns