Mushroom and Tofu Dumplings with Ginger and Vinegar Dressing

On a quest to find the perfect filling for vegetarian dumplings, I spent the majority of my Sunday preparing for and cooking some tofu and mushroom ones. I bought a bunch of ingredients from an Asian grocery store in Preston Market:

- Beanshoots
- 2 bunches of coriander
- Ginger
- Firm tofu
- Assorted mushrooms (shitake, shimeji, oyster, enoki, king oyster)
- 2 tins of sliced water chestnuts
- Dried black fungus
- Gyoza wrappers

After coming home and unpacking everything, I realised that I may have gotten a bit too excited about the idea of vegetarian dumplings, and ended up buying too much, so I put one packet of the shitake and half of the king oyster mushrooms in the fridge to use another day.

To begin, wash the coriander, drain the water chestnuts and tofu, and dip the mushrooms in some cold water before wiping clean with a paper towel. After that, chop all the mushrooms (except a small handful of enoki), tofu, water chestnuts, two thirds of the soaked and drained black fungus, coriander leaves (except a few sprigs) and half of the ginger. Thankfully, I had my dear food chopper on hand, which helped so much with the water chestnuts, tofu and ginger!

Combine all the chopped ingredients in a large bowl and added plenty of seasoning - light soy sauce, shao xing wine, vegetarian oyster mushroom sauce, white sugar, sesame oil and white pepper.

To create the dumplings, place a small amount of filling in the centre of a gyoza wrapper, smear water around half of the edge, fold the wrapper in half over the filling, and make small pleats with your fingers.

I used both packets of gyoza wrappers, which produced 3 large plates of dumplings. There was still more than half of the filling left over! - I stored it in the fridge to use for dinner the next day.

To cook the dumplings, heat a few lugs of olive oil in a large pan, add the dumplings (pleat side up) and let them fry for a couple of minutes to brown and crisp up at the base. Then pour in boiling water (about 1cm from the base of the pan), cover the pan and steam the dumplings for about 5 minutes, or until the water  has evaporated.

Meanwhile, blanch the enoki mushrooms and black fungus, that was set aside earlier, and your desired amount of beanshoots, to serve. Make a sauce for the dumplings (I used Kylie Kwong's Ginger and Vinegar Dressing recipe):

Combine:

- 2½ tbs Light Soy Sauce
- 2 tbs finely sliced Coriander roots and stems
- 2 tbs finely diced Ginger
- 2 tbs finely sliced Spring Onions scallions (I omitted these)
- 2 tbs Kecap Manis
- 2 tbs Malt Vinegar
- ¼ tsp Chilli Oil
- Sesame Oil

To serve, I placed the dumplings over a small handful of bean shoots, followed by some enoki mushrooms, black fungus, coriander sprigs and a drizzle of the delicious dressing!

Mushroom and Tofu Dumplings with Ginger and Vinegar Dressing