Dumplings – Not Eating Out in New York

27 Nov 2019

Ukrainian Cabbage Dumplings (Varenyky), and a Confession

by Cathy Erway | posted in: Dumplings, Recipes | 16

The holiday season has arrived, and that means a lot of dumpling-making from November through February to my family and friends. Although no time of the year is spared of this tradition, we really bring it on the nights before Thanksgiving and Christmas: at least two types of fillings, stacks of round wrappers, and often, square, yellow wonton wrappers for boiled wontons and their filling are brought out onto the table and everyone gets busy folding. The inevitable chatter over how … Read More

13 Jun 2018

Chicken and Basil Wontons

by Cathy Erway | posted in: Dumplings, Meat & Poultry, Recipes | 14

This wonton filling is proudly—if improbably—fashioned after san bei ji or Three Cup Chicken. This is one of the ultimate dishes from Taiwan, and one I love enough to try to twist into different forms any day. It starts with a deeply satisfying blend of soy sauce, sesame oil and rice wine (the eponymous “three cups”), and it’s splashed with copious aromatics—garlic, ginger and basil. I wanted to get its zingy, herbal flavors inside a wonton for a refreshing filling based on … Read More

5 Feb 2018

Philly Cheesesteak Dumplings

by Cathy Erway | posted in: Dumplings, Meat & Poultry, Pasta & Noodles, Recipes | 11

What doesn’t taste good in a dumpling? Good question. Another: Is there any festive occasion whose theme can’t be dumpli-fied? I say there is definitely not. So when Super Bowl LII weekend was approaching, and I realized that one of the teams playing was the Philadelphia Eagles, I decided to make dumplings with a filling a la the city’s signature hoagie. Cheesesteak Dumplings aren’t that different from Cheeseburger Dumplings, after all.

26 Oct 2017

Winter Squash Wontons, Two Ways

by Cathy Erway | posted in: Dumplings, Pasta & Noodles, Recipes, vegetarian | 22

A good gourd goes a long way. So does a package of wonton skins. Both ingredients have been known to travel afar, to unlikely juxtapositions and international cuisines. So when you’ve got a lot of them, it’s tempting to try em a number of ways. But how do you know—before you’ve tried it—whether two seemingly disparate ingredients will go together in one dish?

22 Nov 2016

Curried Sweet Potato Dumplings

by Cathy Erway | posted in: Dumplings, Sides & Salads, vegan, vegetarian | 4

The All-American meal is upon us: Thanksgiving. Apple pie, turkey and cranberry sauce; mashed potatoes, gravy and stuffing. I have always been intrigued by this holiday meal because even though I was born and raised in America, none of these things were really familiar to my palate except for once a year, on Thanksgiving. (A phenomenon also discussed by Andrew of the blog Beyond Chinatown, who compiled some great interviews on the Chinese American Thanksgiving here.) But as I’ve learned through the years, … Read More

30 Sep 2016

Everybody Eats Dumplings (at the 13th Annual Dumpling Festival)

by Cathy Erway | posted in: Dumplings, Eating Excursions, Events, NYC Events | 24

Old people eat dumplings. Babies eat dumplings. Big people, little people, smart people, silly people, black, white, Asian, Hispanic—all people eat dumplings. It’s a phenomenon that I experienced early on, when my mom brought pork and chive potstickers for the elementary school “bake” sale. Everyone—teachers, parents, kids—ate them with gusto. “Dumplings are magical,” said a judge/organizer for the 13th Annual NYC Dumpling Festival last Saturday in Sara D. Roosevelt Park. That’s all there is to it.

18 Sep 2016

Pepperoni Pizza Dumplings

by Cathy Erway | posted in: Dumplings, Pasta & Noodles, Recipes | 5

Here’s another notch to add to a wall of recipes that includes the Cheeseburger Dumplings, Buffalo Chicken Dumplings, Broccoli Cheddar Dumplings, Apple Brown Sugar Dumplings, and the Hot Dogpling—stuff you don’t normally see in Asian pan-fried dumplings, or potstickers. Quintessential as they might seem in hindsight (my friends and I certainly feel that way after gobbling up panfuls of these pizza dumplings last night), they’re recreations of favorites in the name of dumpling fun. And fun is what’s on the menu … Read More

9 Feb 2016

Buffalo Chicken Dumplings

by Cathy Erway | posted in: Dumplings, Meat & Poultry, Recipes | 4

Gong xi fa cai! It’s Chinese New Year, and for many — as in more than 25% of the world’s population — that means cooking or just eating a huge amount of home-cooked foods to celebrate. I can’t think of a better time to not eat out in New York. But the eve of the Year of the Monkey 2016 happened to coincide with another great tradition in the US (albeit less than a quarter of the world’s population): the 50th … Read More

7 Oct 2015

How NYC Does Dumplings (at the NYC Dumpling Festival ’15)

by Cathy Erway | posted in: Dumplings, Eating Excursions, Events, NYC Events | 3

New York, I still love you. I think that’s how many people felt when they saw the infamous pizza rat meme. For all the crap that goes through its gutters each day, all the crazies and critters that line its streets, there is a gleeful levity in little moments like these happening in every corner of the city all the time. And so for all the hunger that some of its people suffer, there are events like the NYC Dumpling Festival, pelting food from all … Read More

23 Sep 2015

Shredded Vegetable Dumplings

by Cathy Erway | posted in: Dumplings, Recipes, Sides & Salads, vegan, vegetarian | 4

There are a lot of initiatives around hunger lately, with World Peace Day just behind us and a long winter ahead, but when one happens to involve dumplings, I cannot sit idly. The New York Dumpling Festival (#dumplingfest2015) is this Saturday, and it benefits one of my favorite charities, the Food Bank for NYC. To salute this group and shout-out the event, I thought I’d go orange with this dumpling recipe, a blend of hearty vegetables from my CSA.