Chinese Pork Dumplings

My ever-growing desire to become a citizen of the world first starts with food. As an American, I find our choices of cuisine nearly endless. Have a taste of Mexico, Italy or Cuba any night of the week. 

I think about how far away the Orient is from my humble flat in the middle of this vast country. How different it must be to live in a country where imperial palaces housed wise emperors and a wall built in the fifth century still stands tall today.

The longevity of Asian countries is a stark contrast against the U.S., a 237-year-old nation.

With my curiosity of these lands, it is no surprise that I've come to love Asian food. And for this - I have to share a favorite near and dear to my heart.

Chinese pork dumplings. 

I first learned how to make these when I was living in Australia. One of my good friends whom I met in the land down under happens to be a native to China. And boy, could she cook! Her specialty were pork wontons (dumplings as we might call them here). I owe a lot of my cooking curiosity to her. Thanks, Betty!


Chinese Pork Dumplings

You will need...
1 lb. ground pork
3 tbs. soy sauce
2 tbs. sesame oil
1/4 cup chopped green onion
2 tsp. ground ginger
1 egg
3 cloves garlic
1 package of wonton wrappers

My grocery store didn't have wonton wrappers (damn) so I went for the egg roll wrappers instead. They're the same thing just built in a bigger size. You'll need to cut them down to bite size as I will demonstrate later.

Dump all the meat into a large bowl. Do not be frightened of ground pork. Although not traditional, it's much like ground beef. Except it oinks instead of moo's.

Mince up about three cloves of garlic.

Chop about three tablespoons of green onions. I am a firm believer in green onions. They just seem to add the right flavor. Amen.

Fresh ginger might look a little scary, but it has big flavor that you won't find in ground ginger from the spice aisle. I have made this recipe several times using ground ginger but this time around it was go big and go Asian. This little piece only cost me 22 cents!

To use: peel off the skin using a paring knife to get to the root.

I'm not fancy. I used a cheese grater for this and it worked perfectly. Ginger is very fragrant, so be prepared. Grate about two teaspoons.

Beat one egg separately.

Toss in the ginger, garlic and green onions.

Add the egg (note, this is not weird slime.. heh). You'll also need to add three tablespoons of soy sauce and two tablespoons of sesame oil. I found the sesame oil in the Asian aisle and it definitely makes this recipe. It gives the dumplings a nutty background.

I mixed everything with my hands, it just seemed like the right thing to do.

Now, we have a dumplin' stuffin' party.

Grab your wonton wrappers. In my case, I had to cut down the egg roll wrappers. Suppose you could make a large dumpling out of this? Hmm... (wheels are spinning)

Cut into quarters.

Place a small spoonful of the filling directly in the middle of the wrapper. You don't want to pile it on or else the wonton won't close.

Wet the edges with water. I take a small dish, fill it with water and use my finger and run it over the edges of each wonton. It helps keep the dumpling from splitting open during the cooking process.

Make a triangle by folding the corners together diagonally.

Press the edges together to create a tight seal with a fork. I press both front and back to make sure they don't open during the cooking time.

Set aside and repeat until all the mixture is used. A pound of pork makes roughly 35 dumplings so grab your sous chef to assist in prep!

Gorgeous little packets ready for boiling!

Use a large, wide-based skillet and fill up with water about half way. Let it come to a rapid boil before adding the dumplings. The larger the skillet, the more dumplings you can cook at a time.

Drop the kids off in the hot tub and let them cook, about 4 minutes. I flip mine about 2 minutes into cook time.

Use tongs to gently grab the dumplings to flip them. Some of them may stick to the bottom of the pan due to the flour on the wrappers. Just try to grab them softly off the bottom without breaking the wrapper.

You'll know when they're cooked through when the wrapper skins start to wrinkle around the meat and the filling starts to look darker in color.

They're ready! Anything bite size is amazing in my book. How can you have just one? You can't.

That's why I chose to have eight instead.

There's nothing wrong with eight. I ate the eight on my plate.

Serve with side of soy sauce or dumpling sauce for dipping. The post about the dumpling sauce is forthcoming. Stay tuned!