Pork Dumplings

I learned how to make these from a Shanghainese lady I booked for a cooking segment at work once. She was a wonderful grandmotherly type – moved to Ottawa to be closer to her son and his family. She taught me how to fold the dumplings so they have little pleats in them – something I don’t think I’d ever have learnt on my own. And man, was she fast at folding. The measurements for this recipe are a bit sketch – I’m going from what I remember. So fry up a bit of the filling in a pan and taste it before you start folding. Adjust to suit your tastebuds.
½ pound ground pork
½ head nappa cabbage, finely shredded
2 tbsp ginger, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
splash of rice wine vinegar
splash of cooking wine
pinch of sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch
salt & white pepper
package of round dumpling wrappers
bowl of water for folding
Combine the pork and cabbage together in a large bowl. Mix well. To that add the ginger, garlic, vinegar, cooking wine, sugar, cornstarch and salt and pepper. The mixture should be quite thick. Put one of the dumpling wrappers in the palm of your hand. Moisten the edge with water. Spoon a little less than a teaspoon of the filling into the centre of the wrapper. Folding is the tricky part. I’m just going to say fold in half and press shut tightly for now. Once I make a new batch of dumplings, I’ll put pics up of how to fold them with the little pleats. Cook the dumplings in a pot of boiling water. Stir occassionally so they don’t stick to the bottom of the pot. Once they float to the surface, cook an additional 3 minutes. Eat them plain or with rice wine vinegar and chili sauce.
To freeze: after wrapping the dumplings, spread them on a cookie sheet and place in freezer for ½ hour or so. Then store them in a freezer bag or a sealed, plastic container.