Thai Basil Shrimp Dumplings

dumplings for good luck!

Hello hello! As promised, this is a double recipe week. We have some Thai Basil Shrimp Dumplings on the menu/in the freezer because when I’m anxious nothing calms my mind more than rolling out dough and pleating. Reuben and I are hopping on a plane in a few hours to head to Chicago for the James Beard Awards, which is very exciting but incredibly nerve-wracking. To clear my mind and prevent myself some doom-scrolling or tuning into the news all day, I headed out to the garden earlier this week to tidy up and harvest some things that needed to come out of the ground. Our growing zone is small but mighty and this was one of our more heavy harvests. We got some big heads of bok choy, bulbs of kohlrabi, radishes, spinach, baby chard, tarragon, berries, and a bouquet of basils. Oh and the daily carrot I pluck to check on their growing status and to snack on. We have some beans, squash, tomatoes, and cucumbers starting to form and I’m excited for our summer harvests!

I grow what I want to eat, focusing on colorful or Asian varieties that might be harder for me to find at my local markets. So our harvests are a blend of practicality and novelty. I’m determined to share more recipes that utilize the fruits of our labor, but you’ll still be able to make it with some substitutions or a fun trip to the farmers market. If you’re not growing Red Rubin purple basil in your yard to fry up into stunning translucent chips, conventional basil will do exactly the same thing.

For these dumplings I looked to the garden, which reminded me of how I first started my blog in 2017 by shopping the Clement Street Farmers Market and buying whatever produce called to me to make a dumpling out of. I used our bok choy, which admittedly got a little old and tasted closer to bitter mustard greens but still delicious, and our abundance of thai basil, which has such a lovely licorice like fragrance so I rub my thumbs on the leaves for free aroma therapy. I thought about throwing in some of our garlic chives, but I wanted to let the basil flavor shine through. The bok choy gets cooked down to remove it’s moisture, we don’t want a soggy dumpling, and to bring out some of it’s sweetness. It gets mixed with the shrimp, basil, and sauces that compliment the delicately fresh and floral flavors. These shrimp dumplings eat light and taste as refreshing as a pan fried dumpling can be. They are especially good with some chili oil mixed with vinegar and soy! For an extra detail I fried up some basil leaves in oil, which turn them into this crispy chips, and I just love how the light passes through the leaves like stained glass windows!

There are a few of these dumplings waiting for us in the freezer for when we get back from Chicago and I’m so looking forward to them! I’ll catch up with you all next week! Until then, have a good weekend and happy dumpling making! Wish me luck!!!

Thai Basil Shrimp Dumplings

Makes 32