Juicy Pork Dumpling

My mom is from Beijing and my dad is from Southern China. Since my mom is the main cook of the house, I grew up eating more Northern Chinese food. Every Chinese new year, we would eat dumplings. Since I was young, my family always makes dumplings at home. We usually use pork and cabbage for our fillings and will eat it on the first day of winter and Chinese new year. So today I’m showing you how to make pork dumpling from scratch including the dumpling wrappers.

Pork Dumpling filling

There are 2 main ingredients for this filling: ground pork and cabbage. I also added some infused aromatic water to increase moisture. Then I also added some ginger, garlic, salt, ground sichuan peppercorn and salt. Then I added a bit of soy sauce and sesame oil.

• Ground pork: can either do lean or regular ground pork. If you use lean ground pork, you may need to add some fat or more infused aromatic water to prevent the meat from drying out.
• Cabbage: I’m using Napa cabbage because the flavour is quite neutral so it doesn’t overpower the pork flavour.
• Infused aromatic water: I used a few aromatics to be steeped in water. This helps to increase the moisture in the ground pork mixture. It helps to enhance the flavour. When cooked, it will release juices. I used scallions, ginger slices, sichuan peppercorn in warm water.
• All other ingredients: soy sauce, sesame oil, salt, sichuan peppercorns minced ginger and garlic are added to help brings out the flavour of the pork because the pork filling is going to be main flavour of the dumplings. The pork filling should be savoury and maintain its juiciness.

Dumpling wrappers

For this pork dumpling recipe, I will be making the dumpling wrappers from scratch. However if you are short on time or don’t want to make the wrappers, you can buy dumpling wrappers from Asian supermarket.

The dumpling wrappers are made with all purpose flour and water. If you like a colourful dumpling wrappers you could blend spinach or beets with water so the dough will be green and pink respectively.

Flour to water ratio is about 2-2.5:1. This dough is not very wet so it might be hard to knead at first. Let it rest for 10 minutes and the gluten relaxes and it becomes easier to knead.

If using store bought wrappers, the store bought dumplings wrappers are not as stretchy as homemade wrapper so you can’t put a lot of filling in it or else it will burst while cooking. Also use a bit of water around the edges to help it stick together.

Steps to making the Pork dumpling

1. The filling dough can be made ahead of time(just make sure to re-mix before using). Shred all the cabbage in a food processor or blender. Steep your aromatic in some hot water. Let it for 5 minutes
2. Strain out all the aromatics from the water. Pour the aromatic water into ground pork while stirring vigorously.
3. Add in cabbage and mix.
4. Add in ginger, garlic, sesame oil, soy sauce, ground Sichuan peppercorn, salt into the filling and mix.
5. Prepare your dough, let it rest for 10-15 minutes
6. Once the dough has been rested, put some flour onto your working surface.
7. Knead the dough until it’s smooth.
8. Cut a section off and roll into a long log about 1 inch in diameter
9. Cut the log into about 1.5in width, roll them into a ball and flatten them. Roll each of the wrapper until they are about 2-3 inch in diameter.
10. Place the filling inside the wrapper.
11. Pinch the top close.
12. Then use your fingers on one side and push the wrapper towards the middle to make the pleats.
13. Pinch everything to make sure it’s all sealed.
14. Put onto a floured baking tray,
15. Cook the dumplings any way you like.

Cooking the Dumplings.

There are 3 main ways you can cook your dumplings: steaming, pan fry and boiling. You can also deep fry them. I usually eat them boiled because for me it’s the easy to heat up a pot of water and boil the dumplings.

• Boiling: Heat up a pot of water, once it’s boiling, put the dumplings in. Let it come to a boil, add water. Boil until the dumplings float to the surface.
• Steaming: Line the steamer with steaming parchment paper or silicone steaming mat. Put over cold water and turn the heat on. Once the water is boiling, let it steam for about 10 minutes. Eat with your favourite sauce.
• Pan frying: place some oil into a pan, place the dumplings into the pan, space them out. Heat the oil up slowly. Once it’s frying, let it pan fry for about 5 minutes. Combine water and a bit of cornstarch to get a crispy bottom.

Pro-tip:

• When rolling out the dumpling wrappers, try using one hand to roll while the other hand rotates the wrapper. You can get an even thickness
• Alternatively you can roll, turn the wrapper and then roll again.
• When adding the filling, place to the centre of the wrapper so you have room on either side to close
• When pleating use one hand the dumpling and the other hand to pleat.