One of my first food memories is being in the kitchen with my mom, standing on a stool barely able to reach the counter, and helping her fold a garlic and ginger pork mixture into dumpling skins and folding them with a dumpling press. We would then take them and steam them on in bamboo steamers until they were cooked. From there we would generally sear them, not before eating a ton of the freshly steamed ones as soon as they were done.
Over the years I've continued to make dumplings every now and then, but mainly to have quick snacks available for me. For this particular recipe I had in mind more of a won-ton soup style dumpling so I did a fold for that purpose.
The ingredients in the recipe can be changes to whatever you want, from a shrimp based dumpling, vegan ones using soy, all pork, or really any mixture of ingredients. The flavor on these are fairly classic, though I did use fermented ginger and garlic as I had made some recently and wanted to use them.
One of the important steps in this is the testing of the mixture prior to using it. There are two reasons to do this. Firstly, you want to make sure the flavor is correct for your needs, and secondly, you want to make sure the bind in your mixture is done correctly. I normally take a small amount of the filling and wrap it in plastic wrap, then microwave it. This mimics the poaching in the skin, not perfectly, but close enough to be able to tell if it's seasoned correctly, and if it will hold up in cooking. I also use this step when making pates, loafs, really any mixture that I'm cooking just to make sure the flavors are where I want them to be.
One of the issues I get while making dumplings is that I try to put more filling into them than is necessary. I have a melonballer in one of the images, with the small scoop in the mixture, just to show how little goes into each dumpling. You can make larger ones, but as the filling gets bigger, its more likely to burst out of the seal, especially if your just folding and crimping. Another part of making the dumplings, much like raviolis, is to make sure you don't have air pockets in them. When you poach them off, generally they are about done when they float. If you have air pockets they float before being done, and are also more likely to burst open when cooking.
You can cook these any way you want, and normally I make larger batches then steam them off. This particular recipe is for a soup, so I decided to poach them off in water that had rice wine vinegar and was lightly salted. If you are interested in making dumplings, but want to use different folds, do a quick search online so see how the styles vary. There are a ton of ways to do them, and a ton of tutorials on how to make them.
Enjoy.
Ingredients
Won-ton Skins 1-2 packs
Chili Oil 2 T
Hoisin Sauce 2 T
Ground Pork 1 lb
Ground Chicken 1 lb
Fermented Garlic* 10 cloves
Ginger 3 T
Black Vinegar 3 T
Corn Starch 1/4 cup
Soy Sauce 1/4 cup
Szechuan Peppercorns, ground 2 tsp
Method of Procedure
Mix your meats together and add all ingredients except cornstarch and skins. When adding the garlic and ginger the best way to do this is run it through a micro plane.
Once the mixture is thoroughly combined, add your cornstarch and mix.
The meat should be soft and tacky (it stays together when you touch it, but pulls a bit with your hands).
Take a portion and wrap it in plastic wrap then microwave. It should only take at max around 30 seconds depending on the size of the testing portion. Let cool and taste.
Season to taste and adjust the binding with water or cornstarch if needed.
Set up your dumpling making station by setting a tray down for the dumplings, a bowl of water to seal, and a bowl of the mixture.
Take a small amount of filling and place it offset in the center, towards one of the corners.
Using a fingertip, run you fingers along the edges of the skin.
Fold the bottom corner towards the top making sure there aren't air pockets in the center.
Take the two side corners and fold one over the other, sealing with water as well. Pinch tightly and set aside.
From this point you can steam, poach, fry, sear, etc. A lot of the cooking process here depends on your final use of the dumplings.
Comments