I don’t need to announce it, but I will. Thanksgiving is this week! Luckily, I’m not hosting or cooking anything this year. As much as I love to cook, holiday cooking for family is a whole other level of stress that nobody needs. So props to everyone hosting dinner. You are the unsung heroes of turkey day.
This year, I wanted to breathe new air into leftovers – leftover ingredients in particular. Yes, you heard right. Let’s focus on the leftovers. Let’s face it; Thanksgiving is just the one meal, but you’ll be eating leftovers for the rest of the week. Most people make sandwiches with the leftover turkey or take the turkey bones and make broth/jook (rice porridge) with it. But I really want to turn it into a whole different dish because it’s boring to eat the same things over and over and over. So I made a stuffing from leftover items I had in my kitchen and used that stuffing as a dumpling filling. The verdict? Deliciousness. You can still taste the flavors of Thanksgiving (sage and orange) but it’s a different texture in a dumpling. It’s like a little steamed pocket of the holidays.
Most people will tell you to always use raw meat when making dumplings. 99.9% of the time I would agree. Cooking the meat while steaming the dumpling would yield the juiciest filling ever. But I think using stuffing as the filling is quite alright. Why? The added moisture being held by the bread. When making stuffing, broth and eggs are added and the bread soaks up the liquid which keeps the dish from drying out. The stuffing does that here and keeps everything all juicy and loosey (Loosey? I’m delirious from all the chili sauce from the dumplings).
I used Kristina Cho’s, from Eat Cho Food, dumpling recipe ratios to make my dumpling skin. I took her dumpling workshop a few months ago and it was so fun. Her dumpling skin recipe is a winning one so go check it out! Also, she recommended the Sichuan Chili Crisp hot sauce from Fly by Jing. I don’t usually like sichuan chili sauces because all they do is numb but this one actually has taste AND TEXTURE. It has whole fermented black beans in it that taste amazing and remind me of my mom’s cooking. So what are you waiting for? Make some Thanksgiving stuffing dumplings for turkey day this year!
Thanksgiving Stuffing Dumplings
Ingredients
- Stuffing Filling
- 1 pound ground turkey
- 1 1/2 cups chicken stock, unsalted
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 large shallot, minced
- 6 large cremini mushrooms, minced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon minced sage
- 1 orange, zested
- 3 tablespoons fresh orange juice
- 2 cups bread, hand torn into 1/2 inch pieces
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- 2 eggs, beaten
- Two-Tone Dumpling Skin - recipe ratios by Kristina Cho
- Plain
- 5 ounce all-purpose flour
- 2.5 ounce boiled water
- Pinch of salt
- Pumpkin
- 5 ounce all-purpose flour
- 1.5 ounce pumpkin puree (I used Libby's)
- 2 ounce boiled water
- Pinch of salt
Directions
- Step 1 In a large pan, melt butter and add minced shallots. Cook until translucent. Add garlic and mushrooms and cook until browned. Add a pinch of salt and pepper.
- Step 2 Add ground turkey to brown. With a spatula, break up the ground turkey into smaller pieces.
- Step 3 Add sage, orange zest, bread pieces, orange juice, and stock. Mix well and add salt and pepper to taste.
- Step 4 Allow stuffing mixture to cool. Once cooled, mix eggs into mixture and chill while making the dumpling skin.
- Step 5 To make plain dumpling skin, mix flour and salt together in a bowl. Make a well and add the water. Stir with chopsticks until water is distributed throughout all the flour. Mix the flour with hands until it forms a ball. Knead for 2-3 minutes and wrap in saran wrap and allow to rest for at least 30 minutes (up to 3 hours).
- Step 6 To make the pumpkin dumpling skin, mix flour and salt together in a bowl. Mix the pumpkin puree and water in a small bowl. Make a well and add the pumpkin water. Stir with chopsticks until water is distributed throughout all the flour. Mix the flour with hands until it forms a ball. Knead for 2-3 minutes and wrap in saran wrap and allow to rest for at least 30 minutes (up to 3 hours).
- Step 7 Roll the doughs into 6 inch logs. Cut the logs in half length wise and place one half plain and one half pumpkin together. Roll the new two-toned log together until the two halves come together into a 12 inch log. Cut each log into 16 equal pieces (32 total). Keep each round wrapped in saran wrap to keep from drying out.
- Step 8 Roll each piece of dough into a circle about 4 inches. Place about 1 tablespoon of filling and pleat.
- Step 9 Steam the dumplings for 7-8 minutes and serve with a sauce.
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