Dumpling Making with Dumpling Dumpling at Outside-In Food Court, Portsmouth

AD – this experience was complimentary in exchange for a review.

A skill I’ve always wanted to obtain is the art of dumpling making. I love eating dumplings – whenever we go out for an asian meal I always order them – but I’ve always wondered how they are made. So, when Dumpling Dumpling announced that they were running dumpling workshops at Outside-In Food Court, where they have a permanent setup – I absolutely had to join in! I’m already a huge fan of Dumpling Dumpling – they’ve gone from strength to strength over the last few years, and they even bagged two awards in the 2019 Hampshire Street Food Awards. Basically, they’re awesome – as is their food!

The team behind Dumpling Dumpling is Nat & Dan, and their love of dumplings began when they were living in China in 2008. While teaching English and living in Yulin City, Nat & Dan learned how to make dumplings with students & friends in the local mountains – eating dumplings with good company & great views. When they returned to the UK, they missed making dumplings – and so they started making their own! They started experimenting with fillings, and started bringing dumpling joy to friends & family on the Isle of Wight back in 2016 – cooking from their garage and serving their guests on picnic blankets. After a huge amount of positive feedback about their dumplings, Nat & Dan decided to run with it and set up Dumpling Dumpling! Now, they offer a unique street food experience serving up homemade dumplings filled with unusual fusion flavours and fried to crispy perfection – and thus, the flavourbomb was created.

They have taken up residence at Outside-In Food Court where they serve dumplings to the people of Portsmouth every Thursday to Sunday, but they also take their aptly named flavourbombs to food festivals and local events across Hampshire.

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The dumpling workshops are hour long sessions aiming to give you all of the knowledge and confidence you need to easily make dumplings – and it really wasn’t as hard as it looks.

Natalie (aka. Mrs Dumpling) is the mastermind behind the dumpling workshops and is an excellent teacher. With many years of dumpling-making experience under her belt (including cooking school in China!), you’re guaranteed to learn all of the techniques you need to become a dumpling master yourself.

A huge variety of fillings were provided, catering for veggie & vegan diets as well as meat-eaters. Nat showed us how to create our fillings, combine complimentary flavours and ensure the right consistency for our dumplings.

For my first batch of dumplings, I opted for a chinese pork inspired dumpling. I mixed pork mince, edamame beans, spring onions, chinese cabbage, soy sauce, sesame oil and garlic together – but you can really create any combination of flavours that you wish!

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Onto the dumpling folding – which was a little daunting, but surprisingly easy. Nat showed us how to create a basic half moon shape, which formed the basis for a lot of the other folds.

Here we have Nat showing how to create an ingot shape – formed simply from a half moon. Simple, but effective! She also demonstrated a purse shape dumpling and a cornish pasty fold – both of which were slightly more fiddly, but easy when you have such an experienced teacher watching over your shoulder.

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My first dumpling was a success – a simple half moon shape, but I was very pleased with my creation!

We created 20 dumplings over the course of our hour-long workshop, and each one was a success. After an hour I felt perfectly confident with recreating them at home – once you get into the swing of things, it’s a very therapeutic activity!

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Many dumplings later, and with flour covered hands (and clothes) my creations were complete. I couldn’t believe how professional they all looked!

If you book onto a workshop, Nat and the team are happy to cook your dumplings for you there and then if you wish – or you can opt to take them home and try your hand at cooking them yourself.

I decided to take mine home and try the traditional shallow fry method of cooking – easily done in a frying pan with a little oil and water. In less than 10 minutes of cooking, you’ll have perfectly cooked, homemade dumplings that taste so much better than any shop bought ones.

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I had such a brilliant time learning from Nat about dumpling making, and I’d book on to another workshop in a heartbeat! She was a brilliant teacher, very knowledgable and eager to assist, and I’m so pleased to have come away feeling confident enough to try making them at home.

Here’s the low-down on booking on to a workshop with Dumpling Dumpling:

The workshops last roughly an hour, and cost £18 per adult (20 dumplings) or £10 for under 12’s (10 dumplings). They can cater for veggie & vegan diets alongside meat-eaters, but aren’t able to accommodate gluten-free requirements currently as their dumpling wrappers contain gluten. If you’re interested in booking on to a workshop, send them a message on Instagram here or Facebook here, or drop them a line at contactus@dumplingdumpling.com. They are also able to arrange private workshop sessions for larger groups, and make sure to keep an eye on the events schedule at Outside-In Food Court for future workshops.

Follow Dumpling Dumpling on Instagram and Facebook to stay up to date with their future workshops, and visit them at Outside-In Food Court to sample some of their flavourbombs!

A big thank you to Nat & Dan for inviting me along to review the workshop – it was fantastic and I can’t wait to go back for more!

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