I’m a sucker for comfort food, even when I don’t actually need any comforting. I especially love when I can combine multiple comfort foods into one. After another work trip to San Jose this week, I was determined to make some dumplings this weekend to satisfy my craving for some good Asian food. However, I ended up feeling under the weather and just as I was about to head to Panera Bread for some soup, it hit me: french onion soup dumplings. True, they are neither authentic Chinese nor typical sick food fare, but I was too hooked on the idea to stop. Despite how gourmet and complicated they might sound, these dumplings actually require very few ingredients – an onion, beef broth, shredded cheese and some dumpling wrappers and we’re pretty much good to go. A couple things to keep in mind for this recipe:

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As with making traditional french onion soup, the secret to perfect, melt in your mouth onions is time. By letting them simmer in beef stock, herbs and spices for 45-60 minutes, the onions soak up all the flavor and liquid, making them tender and savory.

As for preparing the dumplings, although this was my first time making them from scratch, much to my surprise and delight, they were incredibly easy to make and turned out just as pretty as the ones you see at dim sum (or the frozen ones you get from Costco). Follow these steps for perfect dumplings every time:

1. Place no more than 2 teaspoons of filling in the center of the dumpling wrapper. Adding more than this amount will make the dumpling difficult to seal completely and if you’re cooking with meat, it will take longer to cook. 
2. Brush the edges of the dumpling wrapper with a whisked egg before folding in half. Doing so will help you seal the dumpling tightly and keep it from falling apart while cooking. 
3. Make “z” shaped pinches along the top of the dumpling. Start by making one pinch in the center of the dumpling and hold down the pinch for 5 seconds. Make additional pinches along the sides, holding down each pinch for 5 seconds as you go. 

Finally, when you’re ready to cook your dumplings, first sear them in a nonstick pan until the bottoms are golden brown. This will prevent the bottoms from becoming soggy and breaking apart. After the bottoms are seared, add water to your pot to steam the dumplings. Make sure the amount of water you put in the pot doesn’t touch the seams of the dumplings, only touching the about 1/4 inch of the dumplings.