When I lived in China I ate a lot of different dumplings. My favorite were the pork and cabbage ones however.
This recipe takes my favorite flavors and pushes them up a notch. I like to do extra garlic and ginger making the meat a little spicier. Sometimes I even add some of this Black Bean Chilli Paste to make them spicier. A TBLS or two will go far.
Pork and Cabbage Dumplings
1 lb ground pork
8 ounces Nappa cabbage sliced thin (Find the Nappa! Other cabbage just isn’t the same)
1.5 TBLS Shaoxing cooking wine or Dry Sherry
2 TBLS soy sauce
4 scallions, green and white parts, finely chopped
1.5 inches of grated or finely chopped ginger
2 cloves of grated or finely chopped garlic
2 tsp sesame oil
1.5 TBLS Black bean paste
1/2 cup chicken stock
2 tsp salt
Mix all together with your hands and really mix, beat, etc until all the moisture from the broth is super well incorporate.
I like to use the square wrappers, fill with like 1.5 tsp of filling, fold into triangle and then attach the left and right corners together.
Here is a more detailed video on how to fold a dumpling:
We don’t judge on the fold. My daughter and I have decided our favorite way right now is to roll them kind of like a flat taquito. We also love eating them in this shape as well.
Then you can either boil them (for about 6-8 minutes in boiling water. If you do boil your dumplings then they need to be well sealed with no openings to the meat.
I like to put them in an oiled frying pan and cook about 4 minutes until one side is light brown and crunchy. Then I pour about 1/2 cup of water in the pan and put a lid on them to cook about another 4 minutes.
I like to combine soy sauce with my favorite chilli crisp to dip!
Now stuff yourselves. Chi-Fan! (Eat up) And Gan-Bei! (Bottoms up)
Happy New Year! Xin Nian Kuai Le!!