What’s in a dumpling?As a kid, I didn’t see a ton of similarities between my father’s Ukrainian heritage and my mother’s Cuban upbringing. But commonality quickly emerged in the kitchen, the cradle of so many cross-cultural epiphanies. We’d wind like a conveyor belt around our table — my brother and I at times begrudgingly — and work to swaddle morsels of something savory or sweet in rounds of dough to be boiled or fried. There were potato and farmer’s cheese-stuffed varenyky at Christmas, and empanadas filled with guava and cream cheese whenever Mom felt like it. To be human is to love a dumpling. (As it is to argue about what is and is not a dumpling.) So you could say I’m jazzed about New York Times Cooking’s Dumpling Week, now in its second year. When I first saw Kay Chun’s recipe for cabbage, potato and cheese dumplings with dill in a team meeting, I let out a tiny gasp of validation. The sauerkraut-embellished filling was familiar, but the inclusion of tender napa cabbage and the use of frozen wonton skins was a revelation. There’s leek in there, too, and Parmesan and caraway seeds and scallions! I want to boil them. I want to pan fry them. I want to throw them in soup. Cabbage, Potato and Cheese Dumplings With DillLeave it to Hetty Lui McKinnon to deliver another vegetarian banger for the occasion. Her mushroom manti with garlic yogurt and tomato sauce have a Turkish lilt and are stuffed with any combination of cremini, button and shiitake mushrooms. She, too, uses store-bought wonton wrappers, making her dumplings larger, but no less delightful, than the more petite muse. Lean into the ethos of Dumpling Week with a Polish potato and cheese pierogi, the recipe for which Amelia Nierenberg adapted from Bar Prasowy. Or revisit our offerings from last year, like Hetty’s gok jai, bouncy translucent dumplings filled with tofu, mushrooms, pickled mustard greens, carrots, celery and water chestnuts. Eric Kim’s kimchi napjak mandu, also from last year’s Dumpling Week, is a flatter, crunchier dumpling filled with sweet potato glass noodles and the fiery fermented cabbage, and is no work to make vegetarian. Eric gives you the option to use soy sauce in place of fish sauce in the filling; while you’re at the store, look for a vegetarian kimchi that is made without fish sauce. He folds them into wide triangles rather than half moons, offering plenty of crisp edges. For an iftar spread, Zainab Shah’s aloo samosas are equally delicious and crunchy triangles, the gentle potato and pea centers brought to life with cumin, coriander, turmeric, garam masala and a bit of fresh chile and cilantro. Like an empanada, a samosa is at the thought-provoking nexus of dumpling and pastry — something to discuss with your assembly-line counterparts as you fold store-bought spring roll wrappers around the warmly spiced filling. Most times, though, what’s already on hand is a frozen dumpling. Your options still are plentiful. There’s Hetty’s sheet-pan pierogi with brussels sprouts and kimchi, using frozen potato or cheese dumplings, as well as her dumpling and smashed cucumber salad with peanut sauce, using your favorite frozen potstickers. And don’t forget dessert! Genevieve Ko’s chocolate sesame dumplings deliver — and end an argument: “Can you wrap just about any filling in dough and consider it a dumpling?” she asks. “These bite-size desserts prove you can.”
Mushroom Manti With Garlic Yogurt and Tomato Sauce
Kimchi Napjak Mandu (Flat Dumplings)
Aloo Samosas (Potato Samosas)Email us at theveggie@nytimes.com. Newsletters are archived here. Reach out to my colleagues at cookingcare@nytimes.com if you have questions about your account.
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