[music] foreign with me today is Janet Chen CEO of pro musica chamber orchestra Janet thanks for being here thank you so much for having me I'm really excited to be here oh I can't wait to get started why don't you tell me a little something about Pro Music a chamber orchestra maybe that's people don't already know sure um Pro musica chamber orchestra what I like to describe us is a collective of 37 musicians professional musicians that come from all over the country and make Columbus their musical home we were founded in 1979 and we have a very strong commitment to performing what we call traditional chamber orchestral repertoire like the mozarts the beethovens but for our entire history we've been very committed to Bringing to life and championing new works and highlighting composers of today because we really believe that we are the future of our genre so it's a wonderful blend of people who are really passionate about music making for this community that's wonderful such a great cultural resource for us here in Columbus thanks well let's talk about about the food what recipe have you chosen today so today I have chosen for us to make a homemade dumplings so yeah I'm really excited because this has been a tradition for me growing up I grew up in Taiwan and dumplings symbolize little pockets of treasure and gold you think about what the dumpling looks like so we eat these often during the Lunar New Year if you have a birthday it just symbolizes Prosperity but you can certainly make it at any point in time during the year it's fun to do because when you wrap the dumplings you can get your kids involved you can get friends together to do it and a lot of the ingredients are really customizable to your taste so I hope we have fun yeah absolutely celebratory but also something you can make just for your family absolutely absolutely so what do we need to get started today here's what we'll need today for the filling one pound of ground pork one napa cabbage chives Ginger cornstarch two tablespoons of sesame oil two to three tablespoons of light soy sauce dumpling wrappers Shanghai Style and for the dipping sauce [music] chili oil and black vinegar or soy sauce okay so we're gonna get started what's our first step well the first step is really what we'll taste at the very end of after making the dumplings but that is the dipping sauce that's so important exactly what's cool about dipping sauce is is again you can tailor however you like so if you like spicier not so spicy saltier sweeter the sauce is your domain okay yes exactly the world is your oyster when it comes to dipping sauce you kind of eyeball these based on what you know you like I do I eyeball it and I always the golden rule is start with less because you can always add more but for today we have some chili oil I hope you like a little bit amazing okay and we have some sesame oil and then we have some black vinegar so I'm not super familiar with black vinegar do you use this a lot we do a lot in Chinese cooking it's not as Punchy as soy sauce and I think it provides a little bit of a little bit of tank but it's not overwhelming and I I think it mixes also well with like ginger shredded Ginger and blends with the sesame oil so I like using it lovely okay yeah how much are we adding it all mixing it up yeah let's just add it so we've got our chili oil so if you want to just sure just get that I might use this a little bit yeah that's a good idea make sure we get all that goodness the chili oil in because that's kind of the base of the and the Heat of the sauce it is and you see all that nice oil around the chili flakes okay and then we can go with the sesame oil and sesame oil is incredibly fragrant so I like to use a tiny spoon to start and just start drizzling it in drizzling it in yep and then after that can go with the black vinegar okay how much of this do we add um let you want the black vinegar to be a little bit more than the sesame oil you don't want to go so maybe a spoon that's perfect okay yeah start there and then maybe a second spoon yep okay there you go and then we can just mix that all together yep simple and if you like it to be a little more salty you can add soy sauce into it um you can add some sugar if you like it to be sweeter but that's just generally sort of the basic dipping sauce yeah it looks great okay our beautiful dipping sauce is mixed together before we get started on the dumplings tell me a little bit about how Pro musica is redefining what it means to be a chamber orchestra that's a great question and I think a lot of Arts organizations especially Performing Arts organizations are rethinking how we're relevant to the modern world and the community and we are in that same boat so what we have really tried to commit ourselves to is is obviously bringing our music to the people around us we talked about commissions and new music but also reaching those who might not have access to coming downtown to coming to a concert some ways that we're doing that is we created a new neighborhood Series so hour-long programs that are all around the 270 outer belt here in Columbus we're also bringing musicians to local bars and breweries like Natalie's and noctera and just trying to give access to anyone who wants to dip their toes into hearing a little bit more about pro music and you know spreading the joy of music I think that's so important and I'm sure people have preconceived notions of what a chamber orchestra is I think it's great that you're breaking that mold yeah I think you know often people are afraid they don't know how to act when they come to concerts they think maybe you have to be very polite and it's stuffy and it's really truly the opposite and you think about the music that you hear when it was born 200 some years ago they were playing for like theaters where people were screaming and throwing Tomatoes keep your Tomatoes right but you know they were living in that moment and we're recreating that experience that's amazing so yeah okay Janet so we're ready to assign assemble the dumplings I'm so excited I've never done this before is there a trick to it is there anything we should uh there's there's no trick there are a couple tips that will help make the wrapping go a little easier and stick together but you know some people say oh my gosh it's so intimidating but you really don't have to be intimidated each dumpling will be wrapped with love and care and will have its own individual identity and I think that's what's so fun about doing this together absolutely so we've got our pre-mixed our pork mixture all mixed together so we can just start assembling you can't all right I will follow your lead okay so we first take one of the dumpling wrappers right put it in the palm of your hand like that and then what we're going to first do this is a little bowl of warm water we're going to dip our hand in there finger and you just want to draw a circle around the border of and this actually acts like the glue okay so this seal exactly it will help seal it and stick together okay you can kind of feel that yeah you can feel tacky yep okay then we take a little spoon okay simple tool here yes you don't want to start with too much yeah I bet you don't want to overfill yeah you don't want to over stuff it can always add just put it right in the middle okay that's good perfect yeah put that back in and then you fold the middles pinch it together like a taco okay all right maybe a wild a little you're fine and then if you I like to hold it like this and pinch it in touch pinch the tops and then this part take a little it is you can pinch the sides sometimes I like to get fancy and folded on both sides if you want that's so delicate yes and then yours is beautiful what you can do also is re-dip your finger and then just seal okay little folds yeah just make sure ideally that you don't have any gaps um so that's how they'll cook you want that to sort of yeah and you don't want the filling to kind of ooze out as you're cooking it so you really want to see there you go oh my goodness and then you just lay them on a flowered like cookie sheet okay um so that they don't stick together [music] foreign [music] and not as challenging you did a great job they're beautiful so the cooking process for this we're going to boil them yes okay so how does that work how long how do you know when they're done yes so today we're gonna boil them because it's very simple and straightforward you can also pan fry if you would like or you can also steam them but boiling is super easy okay so we have our pot of boiling water nice and bubbly and all we're going to do is go ahead and put the dumplings gently into into their hot bath yeah these look amazing oh they turned out great they really did and it really is a simple process super simple and super yummy I know I'm so excited so should we should we dig it yeah let's dig in we've got our chicken sauce dipping sauce ready just take one of them okay come here they're nice and steaming dip I like to try to get all the stuff come on friend yep here we go all right go for it okay hmm oh my goodness that flavor you like it mm-hmm sauce is such a good compliment it is meat is delicious and then the dumpling wrap is so soft and tender yeah and these are winners it doesn't the filling doesn't overpower right it's not overpowering in flavor so the sauce really kind of helps absolutely compliment that these are wonderful okay I wanna get to see if I can oh good I like the black vinegar you yeah not too overwhelming um but a nice balance of flavors thank you for coming and showing us this beautiful recipe no I it was such a treat and I think just a wonderful bonding experience absolutely so thank you [music]