Chinese pork dumplings
Cooking wares
knife, cutting board, cookie sheets for placing the dumplings,
Big spoon
Strainer
Pot >= 6 qt
Ingredients (for 3 people)
Ground Pork 猪肉馅 1 lb
Chopped unshelled Shrimp虾. .5 lb (option)
Chinese chives韭菜(or Napa cabbage+2chopped green onion) 0.3 lb
Dumpling wrappers 饺子皮 1.5 packs
Seasonings
Chinese pepper powder 花椒粉 1/8 tsp
Ginger powder (option) 姜粉 1/16 tsp
Sesame oil (olive oil) 香油. 1 tsp
Soy sauce 酱油 1 tbsp
Cold Water 凉水(chicken or bone broth 高汤) 1/4 c
Salt 盐 1/2 tsp
Make the filling:
Prepare the vegetable. Clean the chive by picking out the rotted or yellow leaves and wash them well. Cut chives into small dices. Put them into a large bowl. Add the sesame oil (olive oil) and mix it well.
Prepare the meat. In a medium bowl, put in ground pork. Add cold water (chicken broth) and mix them well in one direction (like clockwise). Add chopped shrimp, Chinese pepper powder, ginger powder, salt, and soy sauce to the meat and mix them well.
Wait till you're ready to make the dumplings, then put the seasoned meat into the vegetable bowel and mix them well.
Cooking Steps
Fill the pot with 2/3 water and heat it on high temperature till it start to boiling. Put the dumplings into the boiling water (Be careful. The lower you drop the dumplings, the smaller splash it would make). Use a big spoon to push the water to go swirling to help the dumplings separated from each other and also not sticking to the bottom of the pot. Try not put too many dumplings into the pot so that there are enough rooms for dumplings to flow around.
Cover the pot again and keep it on high temperature. Ones it boiling again, take off the cover. Occasionally stir the boiling water to keep the dumplings separated. After keep boiling for 3 min, turn off the burner, use the strainer to pick out the dumplings out of the water and put them on plates.
Tips:
Since there's salt in the meat which would make the vegetable soggy and watery, it's better to make the dumplings soon once the filling is mixed.
Mixing the vegetable with oil before blending with the seasoned meat would also help on minimizing the sogginess.
The amount of vegetable (chive/cabbage) and salt can be adjusted to you preference.
