Tofu Scallion Dumplings

Preparation

Make dough

Take cabbage and chop into rough pieces so it easily blends. Throw into a blender with 1 cup of water and blend until smooth. Strain mixture through a fine sieve into a container so you get purple cabbage water. Save 3/4 cups of liquid for your dough, store the rest in the freezer (which you can use to defrost for later dough making sessions). Pour flour onto a work surface and create a medium sized well in the middle, throw salt into the well. Pour 3/4 cup of purple cabbage water you saved into the well and mix using chopsticks, slowly incorporating flour from the outer edges of the well until the dough becomes a thick paste. Use hands to incorporate the rest of the flour and begin the kneading the dough (it'll be messy to begin with) until it becomes becomes smooth and the surface is uniform, around 10 minutes. When you press into the dough and it bounces back a little, you know it's done. When ready, wrap dough baby in plastic wrap and let it proof for about 30 min.

Make Filling

With freshly cleaned blender, throw all your filling ingredients in and blend until smooth, it should resemble a creamy thick paste. Place into a piping bag or a ziploc bag and store until dough is ready.

Roll out dough

To make wrappers with a rolling pin see instructions below. If using a pasta machine, see instructions here.

Lightly dust a work surface with flour. When your dough is ready, take out of plastic wrap and cut into two equal sized pieces. Store one piece of dough with plastic wrap and set aside. With the other piece of dough, cut in half again. With your two smaller halves, roll into two thin cylinders, about the size and shape of small hot dogs. Cut each cylinder into 5-6 equal pieces, they should like like little gnocchis or marshmellows. Then, turn each piece cut side up and with the palm of your hand, press down onto it to flatten to make a roughly flattened circle. Dust each side with flour and then with a rolling pin, flatten to create a thin circular wrapper to desired thickness, about an 1/8 of an inch - not too thin but not too thick. Repeat with the rest of your marshmellow dough pieces until you have a bunch of wrappers. Make sure to flour each wrapper as you roll them out and then cover with plastic wrap so they don't dry out. Repeat process with other half of dough whenever you want to make more wrappers.

Fold and seal dumplings

If you have a ziploc bag with filling, cut one of the corners and squeeze a small dab of filling (about a third of the size of the wrapper) into the middle. Seal the dumpling together by carefully pleating one half of the dumpling and attaching it to the other half. Repeat until you've run out of filling or wrappers. (Below is an example of how to do the classic fold, yours will be purple).

Cook dumplings and serve

If steam-frying — In a nonstick pan, add generous dab of oil and place dumplings bottoms down and fry on medium-high heat for 1-2 minutes. When the bottoms have browned, add 1/4 cup of water and place a lid on top (the water will splatter when it hits the oil so just be careful!) cover and steam for 5 minutes on medium heat. If water evaporates before 5 minutes, add a little bit more tablespoon at a time. Once the water has evaporated at the 5 minute mark, use a thin metal spatula to take dumplings out of the plan, then serve. Garnish the tops with scallions and/or any of your favorite fresh herbs.

If steaming — In a bamboo steamer place parchment paper underneath each shumai (or get steamer liners with holes in them) and place shumai's on top. Place your steamer with dumplings on top of a shallow pot with boiling water. Steam for 5 minutes until wrappers and filling have cooked through, serve.