DUMPLINGS!! I love them so much. I think everyone does?? These babies require quite a bit of work, but if you buy the premade wonton wrappers in the refrigerated section of the grocery store, it will save you a lot of time. Romain is just a go-getter and enjoys making things from scratch. I love the versatility of a dumpling. You can literally come up with endless combinations!

I think my favorite is a soup dumpling (Chirba Chirba Juicy Buns come to mind), which will probably be the next dumpling we tackle. We pulled recipes and inspiration from Asian Dumplings, which is an awesome book if you’re looking for more information than you ever knew you needed about making dumplings.

Dumpling Dough:

2 cups AP Flour

3/4 cups of recently boiled water

Combine by hand or in a food processor. Knead until smooth, making sure you don’t over work the dough. Let it sit at room temp for at least 15 minutes. Cut the dough ball in half, roll that half into a 1 inch thick log and cut into even pieces. The dough will be a little sticky, so use some flour on your surface. Flatten/roll out dough pieces into 1/8 thick disks. Half of the dough makes about 16 dumplings.

Filling:

2 cups napa cabbage, finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon of salt

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated

2 scallions

6 ounces ground pork

1/3 pound shrimp, chopped

1/4 teaspoon sugar

Pepper

1 1/2 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon sesame oil

Mix cabbage with salt and let it sit for 15 minutes to draw out moisture. Drain, rinse and drain again – we used a cotton kitchen towel to ring out the remaining water. Mix cabbage, garlic, ginger, scallion, pork and shrimp. Mix salt, pepper, sugar, soy sauce and sesame oil in a separate bowl and then combine with bigger mixture.

NOTE: Doggos will be worried that this is taking a long time and really concerned they won’t get any snackies.

 

Assembling:

You’ll want to put about 1 tablespoon of filling in each dumpling. If you overfill, then you’ll end up with a mess. We used the half moon shape by folding and pressing the edges together, then pinching the ends to close. It’s not super easy at first and takes a minute.

Pan-frying:

Add 2 tablespoons of canola oil to a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Place the dumpling in the pan, with sealed edges up and it’s okay if you crowd the pan. You want to get the bottom golden brown and crispy, which will take about 1-2 minutes. Add 1/4 inch (about 1/3 cup) of water to the pan and watch for dramatic effect. 😉 Cover the pan with a lid or aluminum foil, lower heat to medium and cook out most of the water, for about 8-10 minutes. Remove the lid/foil and let the dumplings fry for 1 to 2 more minutes, to crisp up again.

We made a simple dipping sauce of soy sauce (5 tablespoons) and rice vinegar (2 1/2 tablespoons) and Sambal for a little kick! Romain made a quick asian slaw to go with it and to make us feel more healthy about eating dumpling for dinner.