Pork and Chives Dumpling Recipe
Hello everyone! Time to take a break from the travel tales but not from Asia because…its dumpling time 
! I am finally back with another recipe which, if you can’t tell, I absolutely LOVE. This recipe has seen me through exam periods and times where I can’t be bothered cooking. Best of all, you can tweak and swap ingredients to suit! Sometimes I make a cabbage, mushroom and pork version.
With this recipe I am also going to teach you how to make the wrappers. It is superbly easy to make by hand and even more so now that I have a noodle maker that also spits out dumpling wrappers. After I tried making my own wrappers, I never bought them again. It just tastes so much better when homemade cause you know…you made it, it has to be good right?
I use dumpling flour in my recipe as it is easily available here. I think plain flour works just the same? But it is really easy to get dumpling flour at the shops in Chinatown here and its inexpensive. You may have to further research if you want to use plain flour.
There are also a few videos here that I found really helpful when learning to make dumplings. This here is a great video I found with lots of handy tips for making the wrappers. She uses a tortilla press to further flatten the dough after step 5 (refer to recipe below) but….you don’t need to. I never have and they still turn out ok. When you get to the final part of filling the dumplings, this video is brilliant to learn some fancy folding techniques.
OK, I’m really excited so lets begin!
- 500g pork mince
- 1 bunch chinese chives
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 thumb ginger
- 1.5 tsp light soy sauce
- 1 tsp shaoxing rice wine
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper (I use white)
- Dumpling flour
- small bowl of water
- Wash the chives and finely chop, set aside.
- Clean and peel the ginger, grate and set aside.
- Repeat step 2 for the garlic.
- Place pork mince into a bowl with chopped chives, grated ginger and garlic.
- Add soy sauce, rice wine, sesame oil, salt and pepper into the bowl of pork mince.
- Mix all ingredients together.
- When combined, shape into a ball and throw it a few times to get rid of any air pockets.
- When the ball starts to hold its shape quite well, set it aside while you make the wrappers.
- Place 2 cups of flour into a large mixing bowl, make a well in the center and set aside.
- Boil some water.
- Once water is boiled measure 3/4 cup, get your bowl of flour, a pair of chopsticks/spatula and start to steadily pour the hot water into the well while mixing it with your utensil of choice.
- When the dough starts to combine, use your hands and knead until you achieve the ‘3 shining’ principle (shining hands, work surface and dough).
- Once the ‘3 shining’ is achieved, place the dough in a snap lock bag or wrap it in clingfilm – set aside for 15 to 20 minutes.
- After 15 to 20 minutes, the proofed dough should be springy to touch. To test this, lightly press it and if it bounces back to its original state quickly, it is ready. If it does not, leave it in the bag to proof for an addition 10 minutes.
- When the dough is ready, divide it into 4 portions. Take one portion out and leave the others covered by a damp cloth.
- Dust your work surface with flour and rough your dough portion into a log shape about 15cm long.
- Using a knife, cut your dough into 8 equal pieces.
- Take one piece, flatten it and start rolling the dough, rotating the dough with every roll. Roll till about 9cm in diameter. If needed, dust your work surface again.
- Flour the rolled wrapper and set aside.
- Repeats step 3 to 6 until all the dough is used.
- Watch this great video I found through Google. It is great with lots of handy tips. She uses a tortilla press to further flatten the dough after step 5 but….you don’t need to. I never have and they still turn out ok.
- Once all your wrappers are rolled and ready, it is time to fill them.
- Get a small bowl of water ready and put aside.
- Place a teaspoonful of filling in the middle of your wrapper.
- Use your finger or pastry brush and lightly wet the edges of the wrapper.
- Fold the wrapper from one side across to the other and seal.
- You can get fancy and start pinching it to produce folds or…you can simply press it together.
- The finale, cooking the dumplings.
- Once done wrapping, heat a pan and add a generous amount of oil to it.
- Line up em dumplings then add 1 cup of water. Turn heat down to medium and cover the pan.
- Once the water is nearly all gone, lift the lid and check if the dumplings are nearly ready. If the wrapper looks kinda translucent let it boil until all the water evaporates.
- When all the water has evaporated, allow it is sizzle a little longer so that you get a nice crispy side. About 2 to 3 minutes will do.
- Gently remove dumplings from the pan and serve with your condiments of choice.
- Devour the dumplings.
- Prepare a steamer and line your dumplings up in a steaming dish.
- When the water in the steamer begins to boil, place dumplings into the steamer. Steam for about 15 minutes.
- After 15 minutes, check if the dumpling wrapper has turned somewhat translucent. If it has, it is ready.
- Turn the steamer off and let it stand for a few minutes before removing the dumplings.
- Serve dumplings with your condiments of choice.
- Devour the dumplings.
- TIP on freezing them. Unless you are able to finish all the dumplings….you can freeze them for those lazy days. So what you want to do is line them up on a plate, pan, tray whatever you want and freeze them till solid before bagging them. This prevents the dumpling from sticking together making it easier to use when you need them.
. Will you be having a dumpling party sometime soon? If you do, let me know how it goes! Would love to hear 
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Activities, Asian, Chinese, delicious, Dumpling, Easy, Family favourite, Make Ahead Meal, Pork