“Pork Dumplings with Homemade Wrappers” was the very first recipe I Googled nine years ago. Somehow I got it into my head to make “jiǎozi” for the kids, but to my dismay, all the pre-made wrappers in the grocery store had egg. I was stumped. Out of curiosity, I logged into the interweb to see if there was a recipe for homemade wrappers.
That simple question led me to Kuidaore, the first food blog I’d ever seen, and my mind was blown. Joycelyn Shu’s food was crazy and fussy and beautiful. She wasn’t a trained chef, she just read cookbooks. The food wasn’t for sale, it was just for her. Who makes beautiful food for a hobby and blogs about it?
Crazy people. Clearly.
Fast forward a year, and I was that crazy person signing up for a free Blogger account and proudly posting my first recipe for family to see. It was 2008 and I used a film camera for those photos! How times have changed. Looking back on Joycelyn’s site, it’s nothing remarkable compared to the top tier food blogs now. At the time it was revolutionary.
Now Googling a recipe is second nature, food bloggers are celebrities and cookbook authors. Careers and communities are built on food blogs. Ratatouille hit the theaters back in 2007 at the cusp of this culinary democratization. Thousands of little Remys took Chef Gusteau’s motto to heart. We hit the web showing our stuff, helping each other out on the way.
I really have no idea why it’s taken me nine years to post this recipe, but Chinese New Year is upon us so here we go.
I’ve assembled dumplings many different ways. You can make these completely by hand, rolling little balls of dough out and folding by hand like Joycelyn. I’m usually making hundreds of dumplings at a time to freeze, so I prefer to use my pasta machine to roll sheets of dough out,
then cut with a round cookie cutter,
and use a dumpling press to shape.
Use what you’ve got, and if you become addicted to homemade dumplings like we have…go buy a few gadgets. Cooking these up is super easy. I pan fry with some oil until the bottoms are golden brown, then add a cup or two of water and cover the pan to allow the dumplings to steam for 7-10 minutes until they are cooked through.
These take a bit of time to make now, but when your freezer has a few gallon bags of dumplings, you’ll be thankful. They cook up in a flash.
And if that’s not enough, Chinese tradition says they bring wealth. That sounds pretty good to me.
Pork Dumplings with Homemade Wrappers
- Total Time: 2 hours 15 minutes
- Yield: 90 dumplings 1x
Description
These egg-free pork dumplings are a New Year’s favorite for us. The dough is a simple hot water dough, and the filling comes together quickly when you use a food processor to finely chop the vegetables. Rolling and filling the dough takes a while, but that’s why this is a family event.
Ingredients
Filling
- 1 pound ground pork
- 1 small head cabbage, finely chopped ( 1 1/2lb cabbage, 6 cups chopped)
- 3 small carrots, finely chopped
- 1 T. kosher salt, the 1/2 t. for seasoning
- 3 T. fresh ginger, minced
- 6 scallions, thinly sliced
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 T. soy sauce
- 2 T. sesame oil
Dumpling Dough
- 5 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups boiling water
Instructions
Filling
- Line a large bowl with cheesecloth or a clean kitchen towel.
- Add the cabbage and carrot, toss with the 1 T. kosher salt and let rest for 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, in a small bowl whisk the ginger, scallions, garlic, soy sauce, sesame oil, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.
- Gather the ends of the cheesecloth together and squeeze out as much water as possible, return the chopped cabbage and carrot to the bowl.
- Add the soy sauce mixture and ground pork to the cabbage mixture. Stir to combine. I just use my hands to get everything incorporated.
- Refrigerate filling while you make the dough.
Dumpling Dough
- In a food processor, mix the flour and salt together.
- With the machine running, slowly add the boiling water the dough forms into a ball.
- Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and set aside until you’re ready to start making dumplings. You can keep the dough in the refrigerator for a few days. .
Shaping and Cooking the Dumplings
- My method for making dumplings is to roll a sheet of dough to #6 thickness in a pasta maker, cut rounds with a round cookie cutter, and use a dumpling press to fill and form the dumplings. Feel free to make these by hand as well.
- To cook the dumplings, heat some oil in a skillet over medium high heat, add the dumplings flat side down and allow to brown. Once they are golden brown, add 1-2 cups of water and immediately cover to trap the steam in the pan. Allow to cook for 7-10 minutes, then remove the lid and allow the extra liquid to evaporate off. Serve with dipping sauce.
- Alternatively, you can freeze the uncooked dumplings on a cookie sheet and move into freezer bags once they are solid. Cook straight to the pan from the freezer, no thawing required.
Notes
If you have a food processor, I really recommend using to chop the veggies. If you don’t, no worries, just make sure you chop them super fine.
- Prep Time: 2 hours (rolling & filling)
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Category: Main Dish
- Method: Pan Fried
- Cuisine: Chinese
Peanut-Free Dipping Sauce
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: 1 cup 1x
Description
This simple dipping sauce takes the dumplings up a notch.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- Red chili flakes, fresh ginger or garlic as you like
Instructions
- Whisk ingredients, add chili pepper, ginger, and garlic to your taste.
Notes
For sesame oil, I use Kadoya Sesame Oil. It’s hard to find a sesame oil without cross contamination warnings on the label. Kayoda is made in Japan, one of their oldest and most established sesame oil companies. All they do is sesame oil. Is a guarantee of no cross-contamination? No, it’s Japan, so they don’t have to disclose like in the US. But given their business model, and reputation for extreme cleanliness, I’ve felt safe giving them a try.
For soy sauce, I use San-J Tamari. They have a gluten-free version I started using when my youngest was still allergic to wheat. He eats wheat now, but I’ve stuck with the brand. It’s a traditional brewed tamari, and much more complex in flavor than the La Choy Soy Sauce I had as a kid.
- Prep Time: 5
- Category: Sauce
- Method: Whisked
- Cuisine: Chinese
Oh my poor dude and his wet-mitten eczema!
And then he turned the camera on me…
These look great! I love dumplings. How much ground pork do you use?
Oh heavenstobetsy! Sorry, it’s one pound. I’m trying out this new Cookbook recipe plugin, and it’s not quite a slick as I’d like. I must have “lost the pork” while re-installing an old version of the plugin because their update broke the blog!
And I’m trying to switch to Mailchimp for my email updates…we’ll see what happens at 10am when it’s supposed to post. I’m sure it’s going to be a disaster. I have old RSS subscribers from Blogger that are probably going to get doubles, but Feedburner is defunct now and I can’t get those subscribers off that list! In some ways, the old Blogger days were much easier. But these days are much prettier!
I’m nostalgic for Blogger and Google Reader, too. And once I posted a cake recipe–and left out the flour. Oops!
Would you mind sharing the brands of soy sauce and sesame oil you use? My son has a peanut allergy and I’ve had trouble finding nut free versions of these ingredients. Looking forward to trying out this recipe! Thank you 🙂
Good question. I use San-J Tamari sauce. They have a gluten-free version that I started using a long time ago when my youngest wasn’t cleared to eat wheat yet. He eats wheat fine now, but I just liked the brand so I’ve stuck with it. It’s so much more complex than the watery La Choy soy sauce I used pre-kids.
Sesame oil and sesame products in general are a challenge, most of the stuff in the grocery store has some sort of “Processed in a plant..bla bla…lawyers…bla bla”. Spectrum Naturals and Bob’s Red Mill are the worst. So unhelpful.
I’ve been using Kadoya sesame oil for many years now. Sometimes I can find it in an Asian grocery story, sometimes I order it from Amazon, it lasts a long time in the refrigerator. It’s made in Japan, one of their most revered and established sesame oil companies, and sesame oil is all they do. They don’t make other oils. Is it a guarantee of no cross contamination? No, it’s Japan, so they don’t disclose like the US. But given the business model and extreme cleanliness reputation of the company, I felt safe giving them a try.
This is off topic, but my source of peanut-free sesame seeds and tahini is “Sesame King” distributed online by Sunshine Foods. You can get their tahini on Amazon as well. Now I need to post a hummus recipe!
Thank you so much! I appreciate the sesame seed and tahini info too! Can’t wait to start cooking!
Is there a sesame oil alternative you’d recommend? My son is allergic to eggs, peanuts, treenuts, chickpea, sesame and mustard seed.