Nina & Shanghai Dumplings

CASE: I first had shanghai dumplings in New York, at an amazing corner restaurant famous for them (Shanghai Cafe http://www.menupages.com/restaurantdetails.asp?neighborhoodid=0&restaurantid=5483). I went with my equally amazing friend Nina, whom is newly engaged and probably moving to Baltimore and working on her dissertation and speaks five languages. She always knows the best restaurants and we have come a far way from being college roommates who loved to cook. (Nina, don't you miss the days when we'd buy each other a fancy dinner?) They are amazing, hot and steamy, you bite into them and this delicious hot broth bursts into your mouth. I could eat a hundred of them, and was desperate to figure out how they trap the broth in the dumpling. Solution? Aspic!

Need:
bamboo steamer (more about this later...)

1 package round dumpling wrappers, thicker the better

aspic:
2 cups chicken broth (made by reducing 10 cups of water, smashed garlic, ginger pieces, onion, soy sauce, and rice wine)
1 package gelatin

filling:
1 lb ground pork
1 small can water chestnuts
1 small can straw mushrooms
1 cup chopped green onion
1 raw egg
4 T soy sauce
4 T rice wine
1 pinch salt
2 chopped garlic cloves
2 T chopped ginger
3/4 cup choped Napa cabbage

Reduce chicken stock, be sure to remove ginger if the stock seems to be getting bitter. Strain out the vegetables. Add gelatin packet, then pour into a square pan. Refrigerate until firm, and then chop into little cubes.

Mix filling ingredients then add cubed aspic. Let sit for at least 3 hours.

When you make the dumplings, keep them covered with a damp towel and for heaven's sakes don't layer them. They stick.

Set bamboo steamer in hot water, line with green parts of Napa cabbage. Cook thoroughly, approximately 15 minutes. Serve hot.

These are also good frozen! Just freeze them carefully: don't let them touch, don't let them get too hard, and don't freeze them in a glass container because they don't want to come back out.

NOTE: If you get a brand-new bamboo steamer, they need to be seasoned! I did not season mine and ended up with bamboo-y tasting dumplings. I also used thin, square dumpling wrappers from the regular grocery store--big mistake! These need to be pressed together like a little cup; you cannot have them be that oblong, football shape. The result was a sideways mess! You could see the liquid through the wrapper; that is, if it didn't leak through the steamer already! And it didn't burst in your mouth like a hot delicious Shanghai dumpling...it dribbled.

VERDICT: Not Guilty. Cheaper and better in a restaurant. Then again, mine obviously tasted like bamboo and I honestly couldn't bear to eat my second batch. I am not a panda.