We LOVE dumplings, and we don't use that word lightly. We love them steamed, boiler, pan-fried, or whatever, and we love the endless variety of fillings you can stuff them with. We couldn't decide which recipe to make so we decided to make our four favorites, but to be frank: we ran out of steam after three and so Bravado Spice presents: Dumplings Three Ways.Go Straight to the Recipes

We started off with a relatively traditional take with a pork and chive filling. You'll notice in the video that once the filling has been mixed, that we pick it up and slam it back into the bowl. We're not just being dramatic. That's a real technique and it helps push out any air bubbles that have formed in filling, thereby ensuring a solid filling that's less likely to explode during the cooking process. We chose to use the Bravado Spice Aka Miso Ghost Reaper Hot Sauce as we felt that the funky red miso and smoky sesame oil flavors complimented the flavors well. We also like to add a few drops of Aka Miso Ghost Reaper sauce to a store bought ponzu sauce which we paired with both the pork & chive, and pork, mushroom, and kimchi dumplings. 

There are a number of ways of filling and sealing dumplings but we found this fan-fold technique to be the easiest. You start with your circular gyoza wrappers (it won't work with the large square egg roll wrappers) and moisten the edges with a little water. We found it easiest to hold the dumpling in our non-dominant hand and, after adding a small spoonful of filling, to make a crease somewhere along the edge, and let that be the stating point of the back and forth folding. You  crease as much as a centimeter to the other side of the wrapper, and then fold approximately half that length back and then repeat. The seam will bend in towards the folded side.

For our filling, we went with a Korean influence and paired it with a vaguely Korean influenced hot sauce: Bravado Spice Black Garlic & Carolina Reaper. The fermented flavor of the kimchi is a natural pairing for black garlic, which is essentially a fermented garlic. Again, once the filling has been well incorporated, you're going to want to pick it up and slam it down in the bowl a few times in order to get any air pockets out. Again, we find that adding a few drops of Aka Miso Ghost Reaper hot sauce to a store bought ponzu sauce makes for a great dipping sauce.

We hesitated to share this recipe just because it seemed like it bordered on sacrilege but all our friends and family who've had these dumplings wanted the recipe so we figured we'd share with you. This recipe uses Bravado Spice Jalapeño & Garlic Seasoning which adds a wonderful zesty kick to the filling. The crux of this recipe is the cheesy gooeyness of the American cheese, the tartness of the dill pickle relish, and the acidity of the yellow mustard. You don't need much cheese as it will melt and incorporate itself pretty thoroughly. If you want to flex on your friends at the next pot luck or party, these are a showstopper.

Stay bold,

-Bravado Spice