Ingredients: for 18 Dumplings
Dumplings
150g plain flour
110ml very hot water
2 tablespoons sunflower or groundnut oil
150ml cold water
Filling:
75g minced pork
25g Chinese leaves or spinach
1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
1 tablespoon dry sherry or rice wine
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon spring onions, chopped
1 teaspoon sesame oil
½ teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon chicken stock or water
Dipping Sauce:
Rice vinegar and light soy sauce
How to make Chinese dumplings…. WASH YOUR HANDS
- First make up the dough – put the flour in to a large mixing bowl and gradually stir in the hot water using a fork or chopsticks, if the mixture is too dry add a little more water. Remove the dough from the bowl and knead it with your hands for around 5-10 minutes until it is smooth. Put it back into the bowl, cover with clingfilm and leave to ‘rest’ (the dough, not you!) for 20 minutes.
- Mix the rest of the ingredients together, make sure you wash your hands thoroughly after touching raw meat, don’t touch anything else until your hands are clean.
- Remove the dough from bowl and knead it again for 5 minutes, lightly dusting with flour if it gets sticky.
- Roll the dough into a sausage around 25cm long and 2.5cm wide then cut or tear into 18 pieces.
- Roll each piece into a ball then use the rolling pin to roll into a round, flat pancake about 6cm across.
- Place the pancakes on a lightly floured tray or piece of baking parchment and cover with a clean, damp tea towel until you’re ready to stuff them.
- Take a teaspoon of the filling and place in the centre of each pancake, dampen the edges with a little water and pinch the pancakes together with your fingers, they should be flat at the bottom and look like pasties. Pinch the edges together to seal them. Cover them until you’re ready to cook them.
- You can cook these in the oven at 200oc/gas mark 6 for 10-15 minutes or the traditional method of cooking them is to heat a tablespoon of oil in a non stick frying pan or wok and place the dumplings bottom, flat side down in the oil for about 2 minutes until they are lightly browned. Add 150ml of water, cover the pan and cook for about 10-12 minutes until most of the liquid has been absorbed, uncover the pan and keep on cooking for another 2 minutes.
- Mix some rice vinegar and soy sauce together in a small bowl, you can experiment with different quantities until you get the mixture you prefer, use this to dunk the dumplings into.
©BeverleyGlock2013