Dumplings
Dumplings are cooked pieces of potato or flour dough, which sometimes contain a filling of vegetables, rice, meats or other ingredients. They are popular throughout many cuisines, and their texture, fillings and cooking methods vary considerably. Pot stickers are a type of dumpling popular throughout Asia.
Origin of the Dumpling
In "The Oxford Companion To Food," Alan Davidson traces the word "dumpling" back to the 17th century, when it began to appear in food texts referring to masses of flour dough in various soups and stews throughout British cuisine. In China, dumplings have been referred to in texts dating back to 500 A.D. Dumplings are popular in many cuisines and can be found throughout Western and Eastern Europe, Asia, India, South and North America and the Caribbean.
Asian Dumplings
The Chinese term for dumpling is "jiaozi" and the Japanese is "gyoza." Dumplings are popular throughout Asian cuisines and vary from the dumplings of Western Europe. Pot stickers are made by thinly rolling a dough and filling the dough with meats and vegetables. The dough is then crimped, or pressed together, creating a wavy border. The pot stickers are either boiled, steamed or shallow-fried and served with a variety of dipping sauces. Pot stickers are not the same as wontons. Wontons have a thinner dough and are served in a broth.
Dumplings in Europe
British and Irish cuisines typically make dumplings from flour, fat and a leavening agent, and flavor them with spices or herbs. The dumplings are then boiled or steamed and served in a stew or soup. In Italy, ravioli is made from a flour dough that is cut into squares and filled with meat or cheese and boiled. Gnocchi is a small dumpling made from potato flour that is boiled and served in a sauce or gravy. Scandinavian cooking often uses potato dumplings, though flour dumplings can be found as well. In German and Hungarian cooking, a variety of dumplings can be found, ranging from German spatzle (a small, boiled dumpling made from egg and flour) to sweet dumplings made by wrapping fruit in a dough and baking it.
Dumplings in North and South America
Chicken and dumplings is a soup popular in Southern American cuisines, consisting of hand-torn pieces of flour dough boiled in a chicken-based soup. Sweet dumplings are also popular, taken from the German traditional, and apple dumplings (apple wrapped in a sweet dough and baked) can be found in many parts of the U.S. In South America, dumplings can be found in Peruvian and Chilean cooking, typically a flour dumpling with a meat filling that is fried.
Dumplings Elsewhere
Indian cuisine offers a variety of dumplings, from samosas, fried dough filled with meat and potatoes and served as a snack, to modak, a rice dough filled with coconut, steamed and served with butter. Dumplings are also popular in Jewish cuisine, most notably matzah balls, large flour dough balls that are served in a broth and are popular during Passover.
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