Egg and chive dumplings
Crisp-bottomed potstickers filled with soft scrambled egg, chives and ginger, a vegetarian dumpling classic that freezes beautifully for later.
- 75 min total
- 60 min hands-on
- A little more hands-on
- Serves 4
- About $2.19 a serving
- 430 calories
- Good the next day
- Vegetarian
- Dairy-free
Dolly says: Make the full amount. It’s just as good for lunch the next day.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 6 large eggs
- 1 package chives, about ½ cup
- 1 bunch green onions
- 1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 32 wonton wrappers
- 1 tsp chili garlic sauce
From your pantry
- ½ tsp salt, divided
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil, divided
- ¼ cup soy sauce, divided
- ⅔ cup water, divided
- 2 tbsp rice vinegar
Each serving has about 430 calories, 18 g protein, 41 g carbs and 22 g fat, and costs about $2.19 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the eggs with ¼ teaspoon salt.
Whisk. Whisking means beating quickly with a whisk or a fork to blend things together. It smooths out lumps and mixes eggs, oil or sauces evenly.
How you’ll know: It all looks one even color and texture, with no streaks or lumps.
Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a nonstick over low heat and stir the eggs into small, soft curds with no runny egg left, 2 to 3 minutes.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Low heatTimer: 2 min 30 sec
Food safety: For the safest eggs, cook until the whites are fully set and the yolks begin to thicken. Dishes made with eggs are done at 160°F.
Spread on a plate to cool.
the chives and green onions and the ginger.
Finely chop. Finely chopping means cutting food into small pieces, a little bigger than minced, about the size of a lentil. Small pieces spread their flavor through the dish and cook quickly.
How you’ll know: Nothing is bigger than a lentil, and the pile looks like confetti rather than paste.
Grate. Grating means rubbing food across the holes of a grater to make fine shreds or flakes. It spreads cheese, garlic or ginger evenly through a dish so it melts right in.
How you’ll know: Even shreds fall off the back of the grater, and you stop while the piece is still big enough to hold.
the cooled eggs into small crumbs. Mix with the chives, green onions, ginger, sesame oil, 1 tablespoon soy sauce and the rest of the salt.
Chop. Chopping means cutting food into bite-size pieces that don’t need to be neat. Keep them roughly the same size so everything cooks evenly.
How you’ll know: Your pieces are about half an inch and roughly alike, even if none of them are pretty.
Dolly’s tip: Mix in the sesame oil right away. It coats the chives so they don’t leak water.Put a heaping teaspoon of filling in the center of a wrapper, wet the edges with a fingertip of water, into a triangle and press out the air as you seal.
Fold. Folding means mixing gently by scooping from the bottom and turning it over the top, instead of stirring hard. It keeps light mixtures airy and soft things like berries or herbs in one piece.
How you’ll know: You use slow, wide strokes and stop as soon as there are no streaks left.
Dolly’s tip: Don’t overfill. A teaspoon looks small but seals easily.Repeat with the rest, keeping the finished dumplings under a damp towel so they don’t dry out.
Dolly’s tip: Freeze any extras flat on a sheet pan, then bag them. Cook from frozen with an extra minute of steaming.Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large nonstick that has a lid over medium heat. Add half the dumplings in one layer and cook until the bottoms are , about 2 minutes.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Golden brown. Golden brown is the color of good toast, somewhere between yellow and light brown. It means the outside is cooked and crisp but not burnt.
How you’ll know: It looks like toast and smells toasty; dark brown with a bitter smell means it went too far.
Medium heatTimer: 2 min
Pour in ⅓ cup water, cover right away and steam 3 to 4 minutes, until the wrappers look see-through.
Medium heatTimer: 3 min 30 sec
Dolly’s tip: Stand back when the water goes in. It hisses loudly for a second.Uncover and cook until the water is gone and the bottoms again.
Crispy. Crispy means the outside is dry, firm and crunchy. It comes from high heat, a little oil and room in the pan, because crowded food steams and goes soft.
How you’ll know: It sounds crunchy when you tap or bite it, and it doesn’t flop when you lift it.
Medium heat
Repeat.
Medium heat
Stir the rest of the soy sauce, the rice vinegar and chili garlic sauce together for dipping and serve with the dumplings.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
