Shrimp Dumplings in Soup: because I am sick

What was originally a spontaneous (and surprisingly successful) attempt at ha gao, mainly to get rid of some miscellaneous items from my pantry, turned into a very important means of ingesting sustenance as I finally caught the flu. I’m probably one of the last persons at my job and definitely the last person at my house to succumb to this viral nuisance. And yes, I did get my flu shot this year…one covered strain in this year’s vaccine mutated or the station going around wasn’t included in this season’s flu shot.

Food makes the soul happy, or if anything it makes mine quite content. Soup is the go-to comfort food for illness altogether. This is a very last-minute idea as I was dragging myself to get ready for work last Sunday…but it worked wonderfully!

A few days before, I prepared ha gao (a shrimp dumpling staple at dim sum places) using wheat starch and tapioca powder that’s probably been in my pantry since a failed ha gao attempt more than a year ago. The wheat starch is crucial for the translucent dumpling skin that results after steaming. More than a year ago, the recipe I followed for the wrapper was faulty but moreso my dumpling wrapping skills were novice, at best. My dumpling wrapping skills have gotten better since I started regularly preparing homemade dumplings for work.

This time, I generally followed a recipe that I found via Pinterest: I just added more grated ginger to my shrimp filling because I like the taste of ginger.

Ha gao preparation!

I chose to steam all 50-something dumplings after being formed because I was afraid the wrappers would break/fall apart after the shrimp filling inside thawed out while steaming. The wrappers are quite delicate. The freezer was also packed, not like I could’ve frozen some even if I wanted to.

As mentioned in the recipe, a flat press would definitely make it easier to form the wrapper. A rolling pin got too messy for me and flattening the wrappers with a weighted flat-bottom bowl still didn’t get the wrappers to a desired thinness. I also should’ve kneaded my wrapper dough more since I thought my wrapper was still too fragile. Next time! I can see myself making ha gao or a different type of translucent wrapper dumpling some time this year, for sure.

Some cooked ha gao: my wrapping technique definitely got better as I kept preparing these.

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Long story short, I agreed to come into work last Sunday because all my other co-workers were sick. I had an itchy throat earlier in the day, but I didn’t think I’d experience all these horrible symptoms associated with the flu when I woke up before work (lightheadedness, muscle pain, joint pain, fever, profuse phlegm production, painful coughing, etc)! I quickly packed some shrimp dumplings and added those to a bag already containing oranges I bought earlier, lots of tea bags, cough drops, and sinus pressure reducing medicine. I looked at my pantry to see if there was anything I could bring to snack on at work and (luckily) found hondashi powder…

Hondashi powder is like instant fish broth or instant fish soup base. Dashi is a Japanese soup base formed from soaking kelp and a dried fish product. I bought a bottle of this powder a while back and this powder has been sitting in my pantry for a long time, too. I most definitely forgot I had hondashi powder until I found it last Sunday!

Moments like this, I would prefer to eat tom yum or kimchi jjigae. The sour clear broth of tom yum would have helped my itchy throat so much. I’ve also been craving tom yum for some time. The heartiness of kimchi jjigae would’ve kept me full for a while. The spiciness would’ve been a great counter-irritant for my throat, too. Regardless, thanks to my hondashi powder I suddenly had instant soup at work!

Thank goodness there’s a water cooler that dispenses hot water (but heating up water in a microwave wouldn’t have been unreasonable, either). A number of times, I filled a Styrofoam cup with hot water and dissolved around a spoonful of powder. Afterward, I added a couple cold shrimp dumplings, allowing the heat to gently warm these up.

Some of the things that helped me function: there’s shrimp dumpling soup in the cup!

I’m still sick but I am getting better. I need to buy more oranges, though! Now that I know I have hondashi, I can see myself adding that to some dishes to boost a food’s umami (…well, if I don’t finish the bottle making more instant soup at work first)! I’m still only consuming oranges and soups (this soup being the main one since I made a lot of ha gao) since it still hurts to swallow. In general, I’ve tried a number of instant soups/broths before and this is one of the few that I’d recommend consuming: it’s just naturally salty and it’s not overbearing. Even after I get better (which I hope is soon), this is a broth I can see myself preparing more frequently, supplementing with fish cakes or dumplings to make a simple, tasty soup.

My Take on Beef Tongue Stew

I mainly drew inspiration for this stew from the flavors of Picadillo, a beef hash of sorts that I commonly see ground beef, tomatoes, and red wine. The last time I made picadillo, I added onions, peas, olives, and raisins. This beef stew is not exactly like Aji de Lengua (ie, no peppers/heat) nor Lengua Estofada (ie. no vinegar), but I admit to looking at a few recipes for both of these stews prior to making this stew. I used beef tongue from my post about tacos de lengua where I elaborated on how I cooked my beef tongue initially.

Ingredients:
1 quart reserved beef stock (from boiling the beef tongue)
7-8oz tomato sauce (I used half of the 15 oz can in the picture)
1 c red wine (I used this wine that was half Shiraz and half Cabernet, but any red wine that you’d be willing to drink would be fine)
Beef tongue (I cubed up some of the meat I originally planned to use for tacos, so I’d say maybe 3/4 of my cooked beef tongue was used for stew)
2 T olive oil
2/3 bulb of garlic, minced
2 large Idaho potatoes, large-diced (similar size to beef)
1/2 cup green (Manzanilla) olives, sliced in half (I sliced lengthwise, but slicing down the middle would be better)
Slurry: I used 1 spoonful of starch and an equal-looking amount of soy sauce
Salt and pepper to taste

Not pictured for the stew are raisins and red wine.

Over medium heat, saute the garlic in the olive oil until fragrant. This won’t take long. Add the beef stock, tomato sauce, and red wine and bring to a boil.

I estimated the cup by pouring some wine into the tomato sauce can, rinsing out the can at the same time.

Stir in the beef tongue cubes. Add the potatoes, olives…

…and raisins. Once this comes to a boil, lower the heat and simmer until the liquid reduces. I reduced the liquid by around half.

I know this does not look like 1/2 cup. I originally added around 1/4 c but after eating this, I really think the stew can use more.

After the liquid reduces, make a slurry and add it all to the pot. Cook for an additional 3 minutes and adjust for seasonings prior to serving.

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Yummmmm~

Additional Comments:

I honestly like how beef tongue definitely gets more tender after a few hours of low/slow cooking. I’m sure if I have the patience to make a beef stew with beef chuck (or any other really tough cut of meat) I can get a similar result, but I really do like beef tongue and again, this is one of the most interesting cooking experiences I had in a while.

My parents preferred if there was more “soup” to go with the meat, as they wanted to mix some with rice. I am completely satisfied with the amount and thickness of liquid for my stew, but one can adjust this by changing the amount of slurry added (omit it altogether if you want this to be more soupy) or reducing the liquid less (or even more, if preferred). I cooked the stew covered for around 20 additional minutes (to tenderize the beef more) prior to cooking it without the lid (to allow the liquid to evaporate).

On that note, my parents suggested I add more meat and less potato but that’s because they ate this with rice. This is something I intended to eat by itself for the most part, so I’m okay with the ratio of meat to potatoes, but if I cooked this to be eaten alongside other foods I probably would add more meat or less potato.

One can definitely add soy sauce instead of salt to season. Despite the Spanish undertones of this dish, being Asian I am partial to the use of soy sauce in place of salt. “Natural MSG”/flavor booster, why not?

The one thing I can definitely see myself doing next time is cubing the meat and potatoes smaller. Because I cubed them quite large, I didn’t get to enjoy both together unless I spliced either with my fork. Slightly smaller cubes will help reduce the cooking time, for sure.

Shortly after preparing this, I bought around 2 lb pork tongues and cooked these similarly to this stew. The tongues were more tricky to prepare in the beginning, being more difficult to remove the outer mucous membrane. I also overcooked the meat because the meat was quite soft at the end. I think this was primarily due to me stewing this for a long time, but smaller chunks of meat and pork being something that cooks differently than beef may have something to do with this, too. The point of me mentioning this is that substituting pork tongues still yields a tasty stew.

I’ll sound quite redundant, but there isn’t an exact way to cook beef tongue. I only publish this to show that while there is quite a bit of preparation, what sounds like a weird piece of meat makes a pretty tasty stew. Let me know how you cook tongue, I’d like to see how other cultures prepare beef tongue, or any other animal tongue =]