Back of the House Baddies

This week we’ve prepared daring dumplings and show y’all how we fake it in photos

Why hello there super secret friend. You probably saw our email yesterday but that’s for the normies. But you’re not like them. We can tell. You’re a paying subscriber so on Sundays, we’re gonna send you extra goodies. 

First off thanks so much for being a part of our first edition of the paid subscribers-only content here in The Broiler Room. Your support means so much to us. We’re a tiny food company trying to compete with the big boys and your support helps hype us up every week. And damn this week has been a sprint. Michelle has been busy recipe testing, Matt is tired of holding up light flags,  and both of us are tired of eating cold lunches. Yeah, we proudly eat everything after we shoot it because we sure as hell don’t waste food. Plus, our meals are real. We don’t use glues or weird dyes to make the dishes we cook look anything less than realistic. Straight from our stove and right under the fucking lense.

damn Matt, clean your computer screen

the finished, rapidly cooling product: our Five Spice Delicata Squash Soup photo

Another recent project, just for paying supporters, is a brand-new recipe full of big fall flavors: our Winter Squash and Sage Dumplings. 

If you’ve never made dumplings before, they can seem intimidating but don’t let that shit stop you. Even sloppy folds look great once you pan-fry them and honestly, you can’t fuck up these flavors. Taste is the most important thing when cooking and you're gonna nail that. But we have faith that you’ll get into a dumpling rhythm after folding the first few. If you can roll a burrito, you can make a dumpling. Plus, this recipe makes a ton, and they freeze like a dream. So you can have a future, homemade dinner ready in the less than 10 minutes it will take to heat these fuckers up. Past-you is really looking out for future-you.

Winter Squash and Sage Dumplings

Makes about 35 depending on the size of your wrappers

Filling:

¾ cup mashed roasted winter squash*

½ cup minced, firm tofu

½ cup minced cooked, thin rice noodles

1/3 cup minced green onions (about 4 sprigs)

1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger

6 fresh sage leaves, minced

2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil

½ teaspoon salt

Pack of dumpling wrappers or homemade

Dipping Sauce:

Equal parts Chinkiang vinegar/Chinese black vinegar and soy sauce

Toasted sesame or chili oil to taste

Sliced green onions to garnish

In a small bowl mix together all the filling ingredients and stir until everything is well distributed. Done. You can do this part ahead of time so you can just fold up the dumplings when you are ready to eat.

Whenever you are ready, grab your dumpling wrappers and fill a small bowl with a little bit of water. Dip a finger in the water and moisten the edge of half a dumpling wrapper. Think of this like glue. Now place a little less than a tablespoon of filling in the middle. If you are new to folding dumplings make sure not to overfill them because that just makes shit unnecessarily hard.

borderline too much filling

Now holding the wrapper in your hand, pinch the dumpling wrapper together at one of the bottom corners like you were gonna just fold it into a half moon.  Whatever side feels more natural is totally fine. Take the side of the wrapper facing away from you, and pleat it towards the corner you’ve already sealed. Basically, make a little fold in the wrapper and then seal it along the top of the dumpling. Continue pleating in that direction. When you’ve reached the other end, seal the dumpling making sure there aren’t any holes. The more dumplings you make the better your pleats will start looking but at the end of the day the only thing that really matters is that these fuckers are sealed. So, forgive the ugly dumplings and keep grinding until you’re out of filling or wrappers.

Now you can freeze them or fry ’em right up.

To cook: Heat up a little oil over a high heat then add the dumplings in an even layer without being too crowded. Once the bottoms are nice and golden brown, pour a thin layer of water into the pan, cover, and reduce the heat to medium-low.

Let those delicious motherfuckers steam in there until the water has largely evaporated and then it’s time to take off the lid and refry. Turn the heat up under the pan to medium-high and fry them up on all sides for a few more minutes, until they look golden brown and crispy on at least two sides.

Serve warm with your fav dipping sauce or the classic listed above.

stuffed these immediately in our mouths after this shot

To freeze: Right after they’re assembled, lay the dumplings on a tray or large plate, dusted with flour or lined with parchment paper, in a single layer without them all touching. Throw them in the freezer. Once they’re completely frozen, dump them off the plate and into an airtight container or bag and store them until you get struck with dumpling desire. To reheat, just cook them exactly like you would if they were freshly made. DO NOT DEFROST THEM. And now you have a homemade meal or snack in your freezer for anytime you barely have the will to cook. Future you will be grateful.

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As we creep closer to the release of our new book Brave New Meal on November 9, we’ll be sharing some recipes out of there and a few behind the scenes stories. Everything was shot during quarantine so while the pictures look PHENOMENAL (thanks to Matt our talented photographer), our setups are hilariously simple. Look at this gorgeous citrus spread:

looks like some art right???

And now appreciate the fact that all of that produce rests on a piece of wood we found in an alley, balanced atop an Ikea desk, in the middle of our office with paper butterflies from Etsy, and a plastic background. Toothpicks abound.

the finger limes were being fucking annoying

Yup, you bet your sweet ass we roll around the neighborhood on trash day looking for backgrounds and surfaces people are throwing out. In fact, the background on the cover of our second book Party Grub was part of a bamboo fence we pulled from our neighbor’s trash. Of course we hose down and disinfect everything but we just can’t let good stuff go to waste. We’re not hoarders, just scrappy.

Our point is you don’t need a prop warehouse or expensive camera equipment to create killer food photos. Just be inventive and realize that whatever is just out of frame is nobody’s business. There’s a photo of a bunch of herbs in our first book that we took on the pavement in the alley behind Matt’s apartment. Just laid the herbs straight on the ground and shot that shit. It’s only us two; no stylists or prop masters here.

And now all y’all know our secret. It’s alleys and garbage.

we got tons of weird looks doing this btw

This has been a long way of saying that we have lots of new content for y’all that will be rolling out soon. We’ve shot and filmed all kinds of stuff and we can’t wait to share this new shit with you guys first. We’re really proud of how everything has turned out.

We really appreciate every single one of you guys for joining us here in our new project. We don’t take it lightly that you’ve decided to share some of your hard-earned money with us by becoming paid supporters of this newsletter. Some people might act like $5/month is nothing to ask for but we are NOT those fucking people. We’re going to honor the hell out of you supporting us, so strap in.

It’s gonna get hot here in The Broiler Room but we saved you a front row seat. Hope you’re hungry. 

Michelle and Matt