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- [Announcer] The following episode of Charlotte Cooks is brought to you by Central Piedmont Community College and viewers like you, thank you.

- Next on Charlotte Cooks, we're making Carolina shrimp dumplings and using lots and lots of local ingredients.

(cheerful music) - Welcome to this edition of Charlotte Cooks.

I'm so happy you're here today, and I am ecstatic to have Sam Diminich in here with me again from Your Farms, Your Table, is that right?

- That's correct.

- What are we making?

- Much like we do at Your Farms, Your Table, we're gonna utilize local and regional ingredients to make um a very traditional dumpling called Shumai.

- And even thought we're in North Carolina, we can still use local ingredients and create this fantastic Japanese-style dish, right?

- Shrimp from the Carolina Coast.

Right now it's in season, so that was really the inspiration for the dish and then other ingredients that we have, really, like, it's a situation where the farmers' markets and the farmers themselves write the menus for us, and so that's how the dish came together.

So we're gonna make a miso corn puree, a Dashi, which is a very traditional Japanese stock in a lot of ways but we're gonna infuse it with Vidalia onions - Yum.

- That we caramelize in smoke.

Yeah, so we're gonna have some fun.

- Dashi is basically, like we think of chicken stock in American cuisine, Dashi is like the chicken stock for Japanese cuisine, but it's fish based instead of chicken stock based.

- Absolutely, we're gonna use dried seaweed called Kombu and then bonito flakes, which is actually dried skipjack tuna.

- [Pamela] We've got a pot of boiling water here.

- [Sam] We do.

- [Pamela] And what are we going to do with that?

That's our base, right?

- Yes, it's our base right there, yeah.

So first, we're gonna start with Kombu.

So this is our seaweed right here.

- [Pamela] Oh, look at that.

- [Sam] Yeah.

- [Pamela] Is it real flexible?

- [Sam] You can probably smell it, yeah.

It's, yeah, has a little bit of crack to it.

So I'm gonna tear this off and really what I use is about a four by four, - [Pamela] Okay.

- [Sam] give or take, and so what all I'm gonna do is I'm just gonna submerge this into the water, right, so we just have water and uh the seaweed right now.

So that's gonna infuse the water with flavor, begin the base of the stock, so that's gonna simmer, really about five to eight minutes.

All right, then I turn it off and then I'll add the dried bonito flakes.

- [Pamela] And this is the dried tuna.

Wow.

Look at how thin that is.

That's amazing.

- So the Kombu is simmering, all right.

So next, I'm gonna add the bonito flake.

- [Pamela] Now will that dissolve completely in there?

- [Sam] Almost.

- [Pamela] Okay.

- [Sam] Right, so that's gonna simmer maybe two to three minutes and then I'm gonna turn it off.

- So now we turned it off and it's just gonna sit there and steep like a tea.

Because it's fish and Kombu, we don't really need to boil it for hours and hours, do we?

- Well, there's a couple different reasons, really.

Steeping infuses just the right amount of flavor.

But also we wanna keep it nice and clear, Right?

So by boiling that, there's gonna be a disruption between the Kombu itself and the bonito flake and it will create a cloudy stock.

We want this to be nice and clear for a lot of different reasons.

- [Pamela] Okay, good tip.

- The way it eats the flavor on your palette and of course from an aesthetic point of view, whenever we pour, as we'll see later on, it should be beautiful.

- Nice, gotta move to the next thing.

Just let that sit there and just infuse.

So Sam, what kind of shrimp are we gonna use today?

- We're gonna use shrimp from the North Carolina Coast.

Half the shrimp is whole.

Half the shrimp I rough chopped.

- [Pamela] Now, why do you do that?

- Because whenever we make the dumpling, so I'm gonna make almost like a paste here, - Okay.

- But whenever we make the dumpling, we're gonna fold in the chunks of shrimp.

- So you want them, You got a big hunk of, (crosstalk) - Yeah, a little bit of bite to it.

- [Sam] Correct.

- [Pamela] Good idea.

We always gotta think ahead, don't we?

- It's important.

- Gotta think about what the experience is when you're gonna eat it.

- Yeah, definitely- - Yeah - Definitely for a lot of reasons.

You know, as a cook, that has to be part of your mindset.

- Absolutely.

- But also, I think, you know, forethought's really really important, you know, as far as the avenue of ideas with food.

So here we have Maitake mushrooms.

I've roasted these with sesame, just a touch of ginger, a touch of garlic and some sea salt.

- [Pamela] Nice.

- [Sam] Next, this is ground ginger.

We have garlic here, I'm not gonna use all of that.

- It's too early - it's too early for that.

- Well we'd call Dragon Mouth, you know (growls).

[Sam Laughs] with all that garlic.

- Rice wine vinegar.

- Okay and now do you season the rice wine vinegar or unseasoned, - Unseasoned, yeah.

- Unseasoned.

- Unseasoned, yeah.

- 'cause it's bright and crisp without salt and sugar.

- It is, it is.

And just kind of an overview, right, so we have the ginger and the garlic.

Those are both aromatic, all right.

So we have scallion here.

That's gonna be your allium effect.

- [Pamela] There you go.

- [Sam] You know like this onion effect.

[Pamela Agrees] - Which is really, really important in balance.

Okay, so here we have a toasted sesame oil.

- [Pamela] And that's the kind that we used to say when we lived in Japan that the toasted sesame oil smelled like burning tires.

[Sam Laughs] - As opposed to, there's another one that doesn't have any aroma to it at all that comes out of Indian cuisine.

- Yeah.

- And so make sure you're getting that toasted sesame oil.

- Yeah, toasted sesame oil.

- Because you want it to smell like burning tires [Pamela Laughs] - Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Think of it almost like, a foundational flavor - Absolutely.

- It's both aromatic but it's also- it's very very assertive in what we're making.

- Very assertive, it's very assertive.

- Right, okay, so we have the rice wine vinegar.

We have the aromatics, we have the scallion.

- And so this is the soy, right, and so, you know, whenever I'm thinking about cooking or I'm walking myself through the recipes, you know, I'm gonna check the boxes with salinity, [Pamela Agrees] with aromatic flavor [Pamela Agrees] - [Sam] garnishes, so on and so forth.

So we're gonna season lightly.

- And you're just using salt and pepper for that?

- Salt and pepper, right.

- Do you have to use white pepper or black pepper?

- I use black.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

[Lid Closes] [Food Processes] - [Pamela] All right.

- [Sam] So here we are.

- You've got to be careful when you're doing a food processor because you don't want it to really just over process.

- That's right.

- You just (imitates buzzes) and there you go.

- Yeah, yeah.

I mean, yeah, so the way I do it, you know, is I'll pulse it, I'll turn it on and turn it off, turn it on, turn it off.

- All right.

So we're going to transfer this to a bowl.

- And that's it for the filling?

Except you're gonna fold in the other shrimp pieces.

- [Sam] We're gonna fold in the chunks of shrimp.

- [Pamela] Okay.

- [Sam] Yeah.

- [Pamela] That's the good stuff.

The big chunks of shrimp.

- [Sam] Kind of what I was talking about, when it comes down to balancing flavor, it's gonna show up at the end of the dish.

[Pamela Agrees] Right, and so it's important to understand, you know, different components of the dish, different flavor profiles, you know, and how to work well together.

- [Pamela] So it's really important to taste before you add salt, after you add salt, especially when you're learning how to cook so you understand what salt does.

- [Sam] I agree.

We're ready to fold dumplings?

- We're ready to fold dumplings.

- [Sam] We're gonna use wonton wrappers as we move forward, whenever we fill them, sometimes, they have the tendency to stick.

- Yes.

- So we're gonna dust with a little bit of corn starch.

- And that's going to help keep those little wrappers from turning into a soft, mushy dough.

- [Sam] The dumplings will be more sound.

- [Pamela] We're going to be using water on the edges and so it is important to make sure that the bottoms aren't gonna be super soggy.

- Exactly.

We're making six, if you're making 200 or 300 - [Pamela] Right.

Right.

- [Sam] Right.

In a restaurant environment you gotta think ahead.

- It makes work harder.

- Yeah.

Okay, cool.

So we have our, so we have our filling ready.

I have a pastry brush and some water here, all right, so I'm gonna pre-brush these wrappers.

[Pamela Agrees] - [Pamela] Just wanna get all the edges.

- [Sam] Yeah, you know, We're gonna seal the edges, so that's where my- that's the direction of my brushing, that's that.

And then about a tablespoon, all right?

- [Pamela] You don't need any additional seasoning in this either, do you?

Because- - [Sam] This is ready to roll.

- [Pamela] Everything has been fully seasoned.

- [Sam] Yeah.

- [Pamela] You want to steam them, right?

- [Sam] Yeah, I mean, and that's something important to talk about too, right?

You know, so we roasted the mushrooms- [Pamela Agrees] - [Sam] And when we roasted the mushrooms we had ginger, we had garlic, we had salt and pepper right?

So the flavor is there.

- Nice flavor there.

- Yeah, and so whenever we made our, farce or our filling, we made sure to include lots of flavorful components, soy, sesame, rice wine vinegar for acidity.

- Garlic and ginger - Yep.

- [Pamela] So we have all those beautiful flavors just melting and working together.

- Yeah, it's a language it really is.

- It really is.

- Yep.

Okay, so that's that right there.

You want to work neat so we have our towels ready.

Okay, so the thing about these dumplings is I use my hand like that, right?

- [Pamela] Nice.

Almost like making a circle with my thumb and first finger.

- [Pamela] Oh you're just going to make it like a little flower!

[Sam Agrees] - [Pamela] Nice.

- [Sam] And you know what's great about Shumai dumplings in general?

There's probably an equal amount of, folds to these dumplings as there are tomato sauces in an Italian kitchen.

- Oh, yeah, okay!

Yeah, yeah, well, you know you see, - Right.

Which makes it easy for me, right?

- Because there is no wrong answer.

- [Pamela] Right, you can do it any way you want to.

- [Sam] Yeah.

- [Sam] Nah.

But, I mean, but the main purpose is to pack it in, you know, we want to pack it in so it steams consistently.

- And so that's what you're doing when you're holding in your hand and you're pressing with a spoon as you're pushing it down in there- - [Sam] Correct.

- [Pamela] So it's a nice solid little pillow.

- [Sam] Yeah.

- [Pamela] Inside of that beautiful wrapper.

- [Sam] Yep.

- [Pamela] Then you're just folding those- galette style actually.

- [Sam] That's it.

- [Pamela] You cook for... - Christian Mccaffrey.

- Oh boy he's my favorite runner on the team.

- Carolina Panthers.

- [Pamela] Oh my gosh, I love watching that man run.

What does he eat?

- [Sam] You know what's great about that?

- What's that?

- Is, is that the business that I have Your Farms Your Table, you know, the way we source locally, I cook like I eat which is relatively clean.

I guess he found out about what I was doing, - We have a conversation and went and cooked a meal for him at his home, and we hit it off right off the bat.

- Oh, that's awesome.

- Yeah, so it was really cool situation where the start is lined up as to what he is looking for and what I do, but also it means a lot to me to be, more of an ambassador of the community, you know, - Absolutely.

- To be able to connect to so many like Christian Mccaffrey, an athlete on a global stage, affluent even- - [Pamela] Absolutely.

- In lifestyle with the small mom and pop farms that we harvest from.

- You know, It's those connections that build the community and make a community strong.

- Yeah.

- You know, and that's what we're about now, isn't it?

- Learning together, yeah.

- We're not about individual- We're coming together as a really strong community after everything we've been through.

- I think so too.

- I think it's wonderful.

- Learn together, live together, grow together.

- [Pamela] Absolutely, I like that!

I Like that.

- Ready to steam?

- [Pamela] Ready to steam.

I'm going to grab these Shumai that you have over here so we can fill up our steamer.

- Sounds like a plan.

- [Pamela] Now, if you're gonna save these- I see you've got these all wrapped up- It's a good idea to wrap -EM up.

Don't let -EM dry out, right?

- Absolutely, yeah, so I dust with cornstarch, sometimes I'll use parchment on the bottom down there.

- [Pamela] But dust that with cornstarch too.

- [Sam] Dust that with cornstarch, yep, [Pamela Agrees] And then, once you're done folding dust again with cornstarch, not too much, but just enough, right?

to protect the exterior and to get a good nice tight wrap on it.

[Pamela Agrees] - They freeze really well, - [Pamela] Oh, good to know.

- [Sam] They store in the cooler maybe a day and a half two days, you know, before they start to melt a little bit, So really versatile, so, if you're making these at home, yeah, you can make these a week ahead, two weeks out, if you're having a party or an event Slap them in your freezer.

- So now we're gonna take that and plop that into that water.

- [Sam] This is great, isn't it?

- I love that - [Sam] So we have a nice, tight fitting lid - Yeah.

- Yeah, plenty of water underneath but it doesn't make contact with the dumplings themselves.

- [Pamela] And the bamboo is not gonna be effected by that water around it at all?

- [Sam] No.

- [Pamela] Bamboo steamers are fantastic, aren't they?

- [Sam] Beautiful.

- Corn Puree!

We've got our Carolina corn, shucked, A little bit of oil, what kind of oil are you using?

- I just use like a canola oil.

- Just oil?

- We're going to add a little bit of our onion.

[Oil Sizzles] - [Pamela] Boy, all these flavors, boy.

- So, like, you know the container had, there was a natural cornstarch in there so I'm gonna add just a little bit of stock there - [Pamela] Right.

So you're grabbing that, yes.

- [Sam] Season Lightly.

- Salt and pepper - Salt and pepper (Sam moves pan over the burner) - Don't be afraid of heating for pan!

- That's right.

so I'm going to add just a touch of red miso - Now why red miso over white miso?

- Just a little bit more depth in flavor, and it really, really goes well with the corn.

It really does.

- Yeah, yeah it does.

- [Sam] So, you see we have some color.

you can smell.

- [Pamela] You definitely can smell it.

- An aromatic effect here, right?

so what I'm saying is like, you can't just put everything in there, boil away, you know what I mean so it'll evaporate it, so we are building flavor.

- So we have a nice fawn on the bottom, the corn is brown.

- [Pamela] Yes.

- [Sam] Onions are translucent but not burnt, all right?

And the red miso has melted.

[Oil Sizzles] - [Pamela] Water from that cornstarch and everything you had in there.

- [Sam] Correct.

[Oil Sizzles] - [Sam] So here we are, so, this is almost halfway evaporated, we want to get most of the water out of this, and basically, what's going to happen now is, is the flavors gonna be emphasized.

- [Pamela] You don't want to get all the water out.

You want to have some moisture in there.

'Cause we're making sauce out of it, right?

- We're gonna blend it.

- I'm gonna scrape a little bit of the fawn that's off the bottom, you know, and so this is like a really important example, I think, me as a cook, personally, is to honor the ingredients that we harvest from local supplier's, right?

- Yeah.

- And that's, like, to give it our 110% every single time out and so this is a perfect example, like, of just not taking a short cuts.

- Right.

- Right?

Just making sure if we set out to do something we're doing it to the best of our ability.

So next, we're gonna blend.

All right, so we have a high power blender, you know, If you're, if you're watching this at home, and you have your tabletop hand-me-down- - That's okay.

- That's fine too.

- It'll work too.

- Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean what we're working with is flavor and that's what's most important.

(blender roars) (blender roar intensifies) - So not even a minute pureeing it, you want, - not even a minute - [Pamela] to get it as smooth as possible, right?

- Yeah, that's it, and, if you saw me add a little bit of extra liquid to it it's just enough to create some viscosity.

- Right.

- So that the corn will puree.

- So the blender was just bigger than the recipe that I made so add a little bit of water to it, so anyway, so this is on standby, this is ready to roll.

So let's check on our dumplings - [Pamela] Yeah.

Mm, that does look good.

- [Sam] They look good right?

- [Pamela] They look fantastic.

- [Sam] Yeah.

Done.

- [Pamela] They look fantastic.

- [Sam] I think done perfectly.

- Absolutely.

- All right, so I turned this off , we want to just let those rest.

- Keep them warm.

- While we take care of our Dashi.

- All right, so what are we doing to our Dashi?

- All right, so, again, here's another example of building flavor, right?

So we have our stock, all right?

But the stock alone isn't enough for what we're doing today.

- so I have some mirin, it's a sweet wine.

- Right.

- All right, so it has a sweet flavor.

[Pan Sizzles] - [Pamela] Drop that in.

- [Sam] All right, and then I have white soy.

- White soy - White soy show you, right, so this is our salty element.

- Absolutely.

- So sweet, salt, almost like a gastrique in a french kitchen.

- [Pamela] Oh, there you go.

- Here we have smoked onions, right?

so these are sweet onions.

All right, so all I did was I used a slicer.

Throw these in the slicer, season salt and pepper, and hickory chips.

- Right.

- But it's an assertive element to the dish.

- That's beautiful, I mean I tasted one of those onions when we were getting set up, and oh my gosh.

- Yeah - [Pamela] It's like they'd make a good smoked onion jam.

- Definitely, [both] definitely.

- So I'm adding the onions, to our reduction, right?

And you can almost see it start to thicken a little bit.

- [Pamela] Yeah.

- [Sam] Almost down to a syrup - It is a syrup, yep.

- All right, so that's great, good.

so we're gonna strain out the kombu and the bonito flake [dishes clank] - All right, so I'm gonna add just a little bit of the juice from the smokes onions - [Pamela] So now we've simmered this Dashi for a little bit with the extra onions and the smoked onion juice, the white soy sauce.

What else was in there?

- Mirin.

- Mirin and that's it, right?

- Yeah.

- And now we're ready to plate, right?

- We're ready to plate.

- 'Cause now you've adjusted the flavors and we're ready to go, let's plate.

- Let's do it.

- Dumplings are done?

- Dumplings are done.

- [Pamela] Oh my goodness!

God, I love these things.

- Looks good, right?

- These are fantastic, absolutely, they are.

- [Sam] Yes, we have the dumpling, we have the corn puree, we have a couple of elements for garnish, and then we have a little bit of, aioli that I made ahead of time, all right?

- [Pamela] Okay.

- All right, so we're gonna start with the corn.

- And this is that pureed corn that we just did in the blender, isn't it?

- This is it, yeah.

- [Pamela] Put a nice circle down.

Half the fun of cooking is plating too, guys.

It's so artistic.

- You gotta love it, right?

- Absolutely.

- Okay, great.

- [Pamela] Now are they really delicate at this point?

- [Sam] They're not really delicate, I would just recommend, you know, just being comfortable with it, just work with it a little bit until you're comfortable with it.

- [Pamela] Now would you serve this as an entree, an appetizer, or a teaser, - [Sam] Serve it as an appetizer - Appetizer, okay.

- Yeah, definitely.

- And just load your plate up if you wanted to have an entree.

[Pamela Laughs] - [Sam] Yep, or really part of an appetizer.

I'm sorry, part of an entree would work really, really well.

Okay great, so we have, all right, so we have the corn, we have the dumpling - [Pamela] A bit of this aioli on the top - [Sam] Yeah.

- [Pamela] Now what's in your aioli?

- [Sam] So, I use a little bit of, rice wine vinegar, miso, and rosemary.

- Nice.

- [Sam] Thank you.

You have some pickled ginger.

- [Pamela] A little bit on each one too?

- [Sam] Little bit on each one - [Pamela] Now you could use a pink pickled ginger too if you wanted to.

- [Sam] You surely could.

- I love eating a pickled ginger.

It's such a nice palette cleanser.

- Yeah, and that's exactly what it's all about, really.

You know, if just providing that punch.

It's almost like a counterweight, you know, it's just to the other flavors that are on the plate, the aioli and the corn.

And I think- - Got some little micro greens there.

- Yeah we do, we have some lettuces, and some herbs, here they're grown locally.

Basically, what it comes down to is just executing, right, but within that execution, elevating flavor.

- [Sam] You know, so that's one of the, reasons why we have pickled ginger on the plate.

so our next step is just to pour the broth.

- Nice.

- which in, restaurant setting, we would do table side.

For a little bit of theater but also, you know, as soon as the broth is poured, it should be eaten.

- [Pamela] Okay.

- [Sam] Yeah.

We ready?

- [Pamela] I'm ready to eat, i don't know about you Sam but are you to eat?

- [Sam] Let's do it.

There you are.

- Oh, that's beautiful, that's beautiful.

Oh, look at this plate, so we've got local corn, local greens, Carolina shrimp, look at this gorgeous plate, Carolina shrimp Shumai, corn puree, vidalia onion dashi with smoked vidalia onions, oh, just amazing layers of flavors in this, if you want to grab the recipes you can get them on our website, at pbscharlotte.org or send me an email at Pamela, (spells Pamela) dot Roberts (spells Roberts), @cpcc.edu and I'll be happy to send you a copy of the recipes.

But, thanks Sam, I'm so you were here, this was a great show, I'm glad we'll have you back again sometime soon.

- I can't wait.

- Good luck with your farms and Your Farms Your Table - Yep.

- Good luck with Christian.

Say, "Hey!"

For me!

- You know, let us know what you're up to next.

- Sounds great, yep.

- Sounds wonderful, I'm so glad you're here.

- Bye, bye now and we'll catch you later.

Thanks for watching this episode of Charlotte Cooks.

Tune in next time.

[cheerful Music] [cheerful music continues] - [Announcer] A production of PBS Charlotte.