I tried to re-create my favorite New York dumplings using just what I had in my kitchen

• Brooklyn Chop House in New York, NY opened its doors in 2018. After paring down service to takeout and delivery due to COVID-19, Brooklyn Chop House reopened for outdoor seating on June 30, 2020.
• Insider's Lisa Paradise asked chef and owner Stratis Morfogen to send lamb gyro and pastrami dumplings, with some key ingredients to try to remake them at home. She has to rely on what she has on hand.
• When she's finished making her dumplings, Chef Stratis breaks down everything Lisa did right and wrong to recreate a takeout quality dumplings at home.

Following is a transcript of the video.

Lisa Paradise: Can you recreate New York City's best takeout dishes from your home kitchen? Well, today I'm gonna try. Chef Stratis Morfogen from Brooklyn Chop House is sending me some of their best sellers and a couple key ingredients to get me started.

Stratis Morfogen: I sent you the pastrami dumplings and the lamb gyro dumplings, two dumplings that you would not see as your typical, traditional dumplings.

Lisa: What challenges do you think that I'll run into?

Stratis: The whole challenge of creating a dumpling is just the technique of holding it in your hand as the spoonful of filling is inside the dumpling skin, then you start from the ends, and now you start just twisting them together, where you're basically using your hands and you're tightening all the edges up, and you try to make a very tight crease, 'cause once you steam it, it'll just open up and it'll just, basically everything will fall out of it. So, what I did with the lamb gyro is basically I've done the old, traditional grandma's recipe, which is all the components, all the flavors of your traditional gyro inside a dumpling instead of a pita bread.

Lisa: Your grandmother is OK with you giving away...?

Stratis: Well, hopefully she approved from up there substituting a pita bread for a dumpling skin. The whole concept of Chop House was to basically take all classic sandwiches and make them into dumplings. Our pastrami is Pat LaFrieda chopped pastrami. We put a little cream in it. Anybody can do that, but what we did is that we put our own unique Chinese flavors. And every spice pack is made by the chef or myself, and it has probably about 12 different types of ingredients in it.

Lisa: I really appreciate it. Stratis: Thank you, stay safe. Lisa: Thank you, you as well, and I will let you know if I am struggling. [laughs]

Stratis: Thank you so much.

Lisa: [laughs] Have a good day.

Stratis: I have faith in you.

Lisa: I'm glad someone does. They sent me a Brooklyn Chop House plate. This is going to be the most professional dish that I put together in my entire life. We haven't even gotten to the ingredients yet, but they also sent me a steaming basket. I have some ground lamb, and this is definitely the spice mixture for the pastrami. Stratis said I would not be able to get close to the spice mix in my own home because they use so many secret ingredients. Two different kinds of dumplings. These are the pastrami. The pastrami is... oop. Yeah, the pastrami dumpling just tastes like a really good pastrami on rye with all of the toppings, flavor, shoved into one tiny little bite. This is, like, a very liquidy mustard, but it's very, very spicy. This is the lamb one, and it comes with tzatziki. It's kind of garlicky, it's kind of spicy, and then that really tender texture of the lamb, and still kinda has that, like, bite of a hamburger inside. Just to add a little bit more of a challenge to myself, I wanna try and make the dips too.

First things first, I'm gonna make the wrappers for both types of dumplings.

I'm just going to throw this down on my counter, developing the gluten a little bit so that it all holds together when you put it in your steamer. When I push the dough, it springs back a little bit, so I'm gonna call it done. Put my little dough baby in there. I'm gonna put together the lamb dumplings first. One clove of garlic. Not even, like, an eighth of red onion. I'm gonna add this ground lamb to this bowl here. Salt and pepper. I don't have any fresh dill, but I do have dried dill.

The pastrami dumplings have deli pastrami. Truth be told, I did a little bit cheat and go out and get pastrami because there's nothing that was in my apartment that's even anywhere close to pastrami. So I'm just gonna kind of small dice everything. Try and get that same texture of, like, really being able to taste and bite into the ingredients that are in that dumpling. Brooklyn Chop House's dumplings, you could really see the chunks of beef. I do wish that I had asked for not, like, a sandwich-meat cut on the pastrami but more of a thicker slice, and I'm realizing as I cut this up that it's gonna be much more shredded. Very basic season this. Salt, pepper, as you might have guessed, and then the spice blend that Stratis sent me. Oh, that's good. I have absolutely no idea what's in this. It tastes a little bit soupy, but it's also a little bit spicy. There's definitely a lot of salt, so I probably didn't need to put the salt in already. I should have tasted this first. I'm gonna be a little bit heavy-handed with this because... I like it.

The pastrami filling has a crema mixed in. I don't buy a lot of dairy products because I live in Brooklyn. All I have is a dairy-free creamer, which I already had in my fridge for coffee. It's also, unfortunately, vanilla flavored nondairy yogurt. The yogurt's also lemon flavored, which... could be bad, could be good. Find out.

Equal parts cream and yogurt, and then some lime juice and some salt. Whisk it all together, let it sit, and in the case that you're using all nondairy products, then you hope for the best, which is what I will be doing. Really, it should sit for at least two hours, probably max 12, but I'm, like, trying to get these dumplings done, so I'm gonna let this sit for two hours, and the reason that I know it's kind of close to where I want it anyway is because when I take my spoon and I scoop up some crema and I draw a figure eight on it, it holds on top. So, it doesn't just, like, sink back into itself, so, it's... good enough for now. And so I just really want, I think, enough of this so that it gives the pastrami mix, like, a little bit of a stick to it so that I can make it more of a paste.

I think I'm ready to roll out some dumplings. So, I'm gonna start with the lamb dumpling. I don't know. Two tablespoons of filling inside? Take the whole dumpling and kind of roll it in on itself and then roll the other end over. It makes a little dumpling that looks like it's hugging itself.

Pastrami dumplings were just kind of a standard dumpling shape. Take my pastrami mix. Drop it inside. This is the easy part. This is the part I 100% know how to do. I think that if I ever took a dumpling-making class, I would get left behind at the shaping stage. The ugliest dumplings the world ever did see, but hopefully they taste good.

So, I'm going to cheat and use a fork. I don't want them to all fall apart just because I'm trash at rolling the edges. And, yeah. All done.

The last thing I have to do is make the two dipping sauces, starting with the mustard. Add to this little spice grinder some mustard seed, dried chopped onion, red pepper, and then of course, like, salt and pepper, garlic powder, and then I'm gonna do vinegar.

I don't have a lot of things that would go into tzatziki, one of which being cucumbers, because before quarantine started, I bought a bunch of cucumbers, and then I got bored one day and I pickled half of my fridge. I can tell you right now, I have a lot of garlic and a lot of dill in them, so I'm not gonna put either of those things into the tzatziki. I don't really wanna use that many because I don't wanna, like, brag, but they're really f------ good. And then kind of same thing with the, what the f--- did I make? Kinda the same with the crema that I made. This lemon, like, nondairy Greek yogurt, 'cause this is pretty strong lemon flavored, I'm not gonna put any lemon juice in here, which checks out because I used all my lemons on cocktails. Salt to it, and a little bit of pepper. I have to say, even if these dumplings turn out to suck, at least the sauces aren't gonna be bad, so, we have one victory.

Hello.

Stratis: What we're doing today, is this gonna air? 'Cause I am still, like, wearing a pajama top. [laughs]

Lisa: I can't actually tell you're wearing a pajama top, if that means anything to you, but it is gonna air.

Stratis: It does, 'cause I don't feel like getting dressed.

Lisa: OK, cool. [laughs]

Stratis: So, you want me to watch the video and critique it?

Lisa: Yeah, just watch the video and critique. Let me know [laughs] how you think I did.

Stratis: I mean, really, I mean, it's better than what I expected. I mean, it's not easy to do what you just did, but if you want me to critique it just for the sake of adding a little drama to the show?

Lisa: Please give me all the drama. [laughs]

Stratis: Well, I thought it was too doughy. You did one extra fold. You folded in the inside, and then you turned it. And when you did that extra fold, you added another layer of dough.

Lisa: So, rather than pinching it and then trying to fold it, I should have tried to fold it as I went along.

Stratis: Yeah, the protein should be in the middle, it should be in the palm of your hand, and then you do this with your fingers, and then with your fingers, you're basically cut, you're creasing the fold on the top like a half-moon. You don't wanna go too thin 'cause you really wanna have that sandwich feel. And if you're just a little bit off, it changes the whole shape of the product. In the tzatziki, I would use the lemon zest. You have to use probably five lemons for every lemon skin, 'cause when you do get it on your taste bud, it's like, wow.

Lisa: Yeah, it's more of a palate cleanser.

Stratis: Yeah. Juice messes up the texture of the sauce.

Lisa: So, if I zest the lemon, it's just a more concentrated flavor, and then it doesn't mess up the consistency of whatever I'm making.

Stratis: Yes.

Lisa: So next time, no lemon-flavored yogurt. What did you think about using the pickles instead of just, like, cucumbers and making the combination?

Stratis: I'm not a big fan of pickles. That's just a personal taste. When you eat a pickle, it doesn't hardly ever remind me of a cucumber. When you eat a fresh cucumber, it's so pungent. To me, pickles don't have that essence.

Lisa: What did you think about the fillings that I made? Any critiques or...?

Stratis: I thought they were great. I really can't critique them. I mean obviously with us, the skin is a little thinner, the dumpling is a little smaller, the pastrami's not shredded. It's in tiny little cubes. The proteins are, like, chopped so fine. I mean, I'm always amazed at how these guys do prep. I can't. How they chop vegetables and meats in such little, fine little squares, and they're all consistently the same? It's an unbelievable art. I could never get to that point, personally.

Lisa: I mean, I did pastry school, so I just don't have those knife skills. I'm, like, OK with, like, a big dice. I can get pretty consistent sizes, but once it gets that small.

Stratis: But again, if you're, the way you made the dumpling, which was a little bit longer than ours and a little bit thicker than ours, I'm OK with the shredding.

Lisa: Was there something that I could have done when I was making the dough to make it, like, a little bit stronger or a little bit thinner? 'Cause I felt like when I was rolling it out, I was really struggling to get it thin.

Stratis: Were you doing it on a marble?

Lisa: I wasn't. I don't have a marble.

Stratis: Marble, granite, or some kind of shiny stone, nonstick, would make it a lot easier.

Lisa: Just by not having a granite countertop, I was already starting down here.

Stratis: It's like you're bench-pressing 1,000 pounds just to get to 200.

Lisa: The culmination of the show, the question that I'm meant to ask you is whether or not you would throw it out, eat it, or serve it, and I feel like I can guess what you're gonna say.

Stratis: You did a great job. You did probably best, probably better than, I'd say, 99% of people that are not, you know, dim sum chefs, but if I had to critique it, I'd say hey, you know, would I serve these at the restaurant? No. But if I came to your house and you were hosting a dinner and you made them? I would eat them with joy and say, "Wow, that's incredible that you made these."

Lisa: But no, I mean, thank you, I really did, like, enjoy doing this, and I have, I've made dumplings twice more since then. I've found it, even just since I filmed it, to be really fun to just try different things, so I can't imagine owning a spot where you get to decide what's on the menu.

Stratis: All right, thank you so much.

Lisa: Thank you.

Stratis: It was a lot of fun doing this.

Lisa: Yeah, no, it was great, and I appreciate it, and I had fun learning a new skill, so thank you.