Pork Dumplings

Happy Tuesday!

So I made these a couple of weeks ago for the first time.  I can't believe it took me this long to make dumplings.  When I was young, my sister and I would always help my mom fold these on weekends.  She would make a couple of hundred at a time; whatever we didn't eat that evening, she'd freeze for future use.

It's actually quite simple to make.  You can find dumpling skin at any Chinese market.  They are the circular ones, not the square ones, which are wonton skins.  And honestly, you can fill them with anything you want.  I chose to use ground pork and chopped napa cabbage for this one, but it's also common to use ground beef with chives, or ground chicken, or shrimp, even fish!  I used ground turkey the first time I made them, and they were delicious as well.  Be creative and use your imagination!  The recipe below makes about 120 dumplings.

Ingredients:
2 lbs ground pork
1 medium-sized napa cabbage
4 stalks green onions
1 3/4 tbsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup wine
1/4 cup sesame oil
about 4 packs of dumpling skin (with 30 in each pack)

Instructions:
1) finely chop napa and green onions
2) combine napa mixture with ground pork
3) add salt, wine, and sugar, then mix
4) prepare a bowl with some water
5) put about a tsp of pork and napa mixture in the center of 1 dumpling skin
6) dip finger in water and trace outer rim of dumpling skin
7) fold in half, encasing the pork mixture, then fold the sides by pushing up the corners.

8) Place folded dumplings in rows on cookie sheet sprinkled with loose flour.

To cook these, you either boil them, or pan fry them.  When ready, dip them this mixture: soy sauce, sesame oil, and vinegar.  It's delicious!  I chose to pan fry this time, here's the end result!

Here's the instruction to make pan-fried dumplings look as good as mine:

1) pour about 1 tbsp of oil in a frying pan, heat
2) line dumplings around pan
3) pour 3 tbsp of water in pan, lower heat to medium
4) cover and let simmer for about 10 minutes
5) open lid, so water can evaporate, and let cook for about 2-3 minutes.
6) this part is tricky, if you want your friend dumplings to look like my picture above, you just cover the pan with a plate, flip the pan and plate over, and voila!  Your dumplings should look like the ones pictured above!

I'm going to try making ones with beef and chives next.  Happy cooking!

xoxo,
Lin