Description:
Chinese Dumplings is THE food to eat for Chinese New Years... Why? Because its shape resembles a Chinese golden nugget, or ancient money (Yuan Bao), lucky food for the new year!
Prep Time: 1 hr
Cook Time: 10~15 mins
Ingredients:
1 package of premade dumpling skin (from the grocery store)
1 lb of ground pork
1 bundle of green onions chopped
5 head of shitake mushrooms chopped (if dried, soak in warm water until soft then chop)
a small block of ginger chopped (good for digestion)
1 cup of dark soysauce (or 2 cups of lite soysauce)
2 tablespoons of white pepper
*2 tablespoons of sesame oil*
For veggies, you can choose:
Finely Chopped Cabbage (crispy) - 1 head
or
Coarsly Chopped Baby Bok Choy (crispy and stringy) - 5~6 stalks
or
Chinese zucchini aka bottle gourd (stringy) - 1 stalk
Skin, then grated (coarse and long strands)
Discard the core with the seeds
Vegetarian Stuffing:
1 pack of dumpling skin
1 pack of firm tofu
1 head of napa cabbage shredded, salted, and squeeze out water
1/2 a package of mung bean noodles cooked and cut
1 large carrot skinned & grated
1/2 package of dried woodears, soaked & sliced
1 bundle of chopped scallions
1 stalk of finely minced fresh ginger
4 egg whites or 1/2 a cup of corn starch
2 tablespoons of white pepper
1/4 cup of soy sauce
*dried shrimp skin*
Homemade skin:
- Mix water and flour to a dough consistency similar to bread-making dough.
- Roll out the dough and cut into small balls about size of a marble, diameter of about a quarter
- Use a roller to flatten out each ball
Instructions:
- Mix all the ingredients into a large bowl, stir only clockwise (or counter clockwise) so that the meat stays together.
- Prepare a bowl of water
- Take a piece of skin, brush one side with water (this will help the skin stick together)
- Put 1 tablespoon full of stuffing onto the same side of the skin with the water, and then fold it in half and press firmly. You can fold layers on the top to make it look pretty, but it's not necessary for the taste.
- Important: make sure the edge are sealed. If not, put more water and press the edge together firmly. If it's not sealed, the dumpling may break apart when cooking.
- Bring a pot of water to boil and throw the dumplings in. About 5~8 mins later, when the dumplings start to float on the surface of the water and the skin turns translucent, they are ready. Take them out and serve with soysauce and vinegar.
- You can freeze the rest of the dumplings and cook them later.
Suggestions:
You can also make pot stickers
Instructions:
- Mix a cup of water with 1 tablespoon of flour
- Heat some oil in a pan then place the dumplings. About a min or 2 later, the pan should get pretty hot, pour the flour water mix into the pan and cover it immediately.
- Wait another 2~3 mins, open the cover, the skin should turn translucent from the steam. Leave the cover off and let the rest of the water evaporate and then turn the stove off.
- Serve immediately with soysauce and vinegar.
