Dumplings

It’s a beautiful thing when I see our son and his girlfriend making food together. Both of them are passionate about Italian, Spanish, and Asian food. I always learn something new! This recipe is a masterpiece from Masterchef Nicole 🙂

Dumpling wrappers can be found in most Asian stores or you can make your own with just water and flour!

DUMBLINGS

6 dl flour
½ tsp salt
2½ dl cold water

If you bought dumpling wrappers from the store, they’re most likely frozen. Thus the first step would be to let your wrappers thaw so they’re ready to use when it’s time to fill them!

If you are making the dough yourself: Measure the flour and salt in a bowl. Add water 0,5 dl at a time whilst mixing. When the dough starts to stay together, kneed it for a few minutes. Wrap the dough in cellophane and let it sit in the fridge for 30 minutes. Pour a little flour on a flat surface and kneed the dough gently on it. Roll the dough into a 30 cm long stick and cut it into 30 bits. Roll the bits into balls, place them on a lightly floured baking sheet. Use either a rolling pin or a pasta maker to make round sheets of dough. If you are stacking them on top of each other, place a little piece of a baking sheet between them so they won’t stick together.

FOR THE FILLING

½ or ¼ of red cabbage chopped into fine pieces (depending on the size of the cabbage)
½ a teaspoon of salt
400g of minced pork
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
½ a tablespoon of sesame oil
Thumb size amount of grated ginger
Bunch of chopped up scallions
1 egg
2-3 cloves of garlic
Bunch of finely chopped celery
1 Tablespoon of fish sauce (not mandatory)

For frying:
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil (or enough to cover a thin layer of your pan)

For steaming:
Water, enough to cover around 1cm of the pan

Place all of your filling ingredients into a bowl and mix them all together and make sure that all raw ingredients are chopped very finely so you don’t get any big chunks in your dumplings. Side note: You can replace the pork with chicken or beef as well as mushrooms.

Once you’ve mixed all your ingredients, you’re going to take your wrappers and lay them out with a little bowl of water, which you’re going to use to make the rim of the dough a little wet so they stick together when you wrap them. Start by adding one or two teaspoons of filling on the wrapper and closing them one by one (there are many different ways to close them, so you can choose what comes easiest to you).

Once they’re ready, start warming up your pan with oil on medium heat and place your dumplings on the pan (this helps give them a crispy bottom, as well as cooks the filling a little bit). The dumplings should have a light brown color on the bottom from cooking in the oil. Next, add the water to the pan and cover it with a lid. You can also reduce the heat at this point and let the dumplings cook for 6-7 minutes or until the water has evaporated. Take the dumplings off the pan and serve them whilst they are warm!

Tip: Serve the dumplings with soy sauce or chili oil, and top them with chopped onion and/or sriracha mayonnaise.