Long time no see, plated savoury! I feel like I naturally gravitate towards desserts, seeing some of the recent posts, but trust me, savoury dishes excite and hyperactivate me just as much. This dish is an instance of a strong urge to make something umami, a dish that packs lots and lots of flavour and one anyone could close their eyes and savour! That little starting point for me to evolve this whole dish was the idea of pouring steaming hot broth from a jug into a bowl that emphasized on flavour of the dish’s heart. Obviously since this was umami, I decided to go with something dashi-esque, which in this case is a mushroom-shoyu broth.

As I was dwelling on how I would make the broth, I started to think of what I would do with the mushrooms I would use to flavour it with; I realised I could use it as a filling for a dumpling! My plan numero uno was to use only mushrooms, but my dad told me it would lack texture and mouthfeel, so cauliflower & walnuts made an entry. And lastly, I garnished the dish with onion petals, not only to add a delicate touch to the dish, but also to brighten up for plating!

An umami bomb!

Mushroom-shoyu broth:

• 6 cups water
• 4-5 large mushrooms
• 1 large carrot
• 2-3 spring onion greens
• 2-3 tsp. shoyu (or soy sauce)
• Salt
• Coriander leaves (with some stem)

Roughly quarter the mushrooms, peel and chop the carrots and dice the spring onion. Add them to the water and bring to a slight simmer, covered. Once it starts to simmer, add 2-3 teaspoons of shoyu and season with salt. Add a handful of coriander and allow to simmer further. Remove the mushrooms once cooked and reserve them for the filling. Slightly reduce the broth on a low flame, seasoning if required. You may discard the remaining veggies or use them while steaming the dumplings.

Dumpling filling:

• Reserved mushrooms
• 1 cup cauliflower florets
• 1/4 cup walnuts
• 4-5 garlic cloves
• 1/2 inch ginger
• 3-4 basil leaves
• Salt
• Pepper
• Oil

Toast the garlic in a little bit of oil until golden. Finely chop the cauliflower until it almost resembles couscous. Roughly chop the walnuts. Pat dry the mushrooms to remove their moisture (or squeeze the moisture though a cheese cloth and add the juice into the broth), finely chop them and combine with the cauliflower and walnuts. Add grated ginger, minced garlic, torn basil leaves and season with salt and pepper.

Dumpling wrapper:

• 1 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup mushroom broth
• 2 tsp. oil

Combine all ingredients and knead for about 5 minutes to form a smooth dough. Cover the dough and let it rest for about 20 minutes.

Folding and steaming:

• Water
• Cabbage leaves

Divide the dough into tiny balls, each the size of a dime. On a floured surface, roll a ball into a thin circle. Place a spoonful of filling in the centre. Dip a finger in water and run it around the edge, so that the dumpling doesn’t open. Form a half moon, squeezing the air out as you seal. Keeping the sealed edge away from you, make a dent in the filled part of the dumpling and join the two ends to form a bowl shape. Repeat with the rest. In a colander for steaming, place the dumplings on a bed of cabbage leaves. Steam the dumplings over a double boiler for about 20 minutes until cooked.

Assembly:

• 1 small onion
• Coriander leaves

Slice the onion in half and sperate the layers. Cut each layer into two parts, resembling a petal. Soak the petal in the mushroom broth for 5 minutes and slightly salt it. In a large bowl, pour some broth and garnish the dumplings with the onion petals and coriander leaves.