According to my husband...
How do you hand shape over 150 shumai dumplings?
Step 1: Suggest to your friends that making dumplings by hand would be a fun way to spend time together. If they need convincing, tell them you saw it on Pinterest.
Step 2: Buy the ingredients, make the filling and shape the first three or four dumplings. It is particularly important that you do all the work up to this point.
Step 3: Now show your friends how to do it. "See, it's not that hard. This is fun!"
Step 4: Take an important phone call, rearrange your sock drawer, do your taxes, or anything else you've been avoiding.
Step 5: Show back up as the last few dumplings are being completed and express your readiness to jump back in! When they say they're all done, hand someone your phone to get some group pics. Post them online so everyone can see how much fun you had together that day. Remember the hashtags #hardwork #totallyworthit.
Step 6: Steam and eat the dumplings.
According to my husband Jason this is an accurate account of the first time we made dumplings. However, the way I remember it, Step 4 - the important phone call? - was actually me moving on to prepare some of the 800 other hors d'oeuvres we served that night.
What ever really happened that day, they were delicious. So much better than frozen or take-out. And good enough that Jason agrees to make them again, and again and again. Enjoy!
Pork and garlic chive dumplings
Makes 40-45 dumplings
Fresh garlic chives balance sweet, rich ground pork in these handmade dumplings. Making them at home and handling the ground meat as little as possible keeps these light and tender.
Ingredients:
1 egg
2 tbs minced ginger
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbs soy sauce
2 tbs Shaoxing cooking wine or dry Sherry
2 tbs rice vinegar
1 tbs toasted sesame oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp white pepper
2 tbs corn starch
1 cup minced garlic or common chives
4-5 scallions, thinly sliced
1 1/4 lbs ground pork
1 pkg gyoza skins - 3.5” round wonton wrappers*
*Or you can cut square wonton wrappers with a round biscuit cutter.
For sauce:
1 tbs minced ginger
1 clove garlic, minced
1 scallion, thinly sliced
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tbs rice vinegar
1 tbs sugar
Directions:
Make dumpling mixture: In a medium bowl, break egg and lightly whisk to combine white and yolk. Add ginger, garlic, soy sauce, wine, vinegar, sesame oil, salt, white pepper and corn starch. Whisk to combine. Add garlic chives and scallions and whisk to combine.
Add ground pork and mix by hand until just incorporated. To test filling, fry a small patty of filling and taste. Add additional salt for flavor, soy for depth, or white pepper for heat as needed. If time allows, let mixture rest, covered in refrigerator for several hours while flavors develop.
Make sauce: While you have all of the ingredients out, make the sauce and refrigerate. Add all sauce ingredients to a medium bowl with 1/4 cup warm water. Whisk to combine.
Form dumplings: Take one wrapper from stack. Keep remaining skins/wrappers covered with a barely damp towel. Dip your finger in a bowl of cold water and run it around the edge of the wrapper. Turn the wrapper over and wet the other edge.
Place a generous tsp of filling in the middle of the moistened wrapper. Fold the sides of the wrapper up around the meat, pleating as you go. Repeat until you run out of skins or filling.
Steam dumplings: Line a steamer basket with parchment and poke a few holes to allow steam to rise through. Place dumplings in the steamer basket and place basket over simmering water until dumplings are cooked to 165°F, about 10-15 minutes. The pork may still look pink when cooked.
I like serving them in ceramic soup spoons with a splash of dipping sauce in the bottom.
TIP: Make lots of dumplings and freeze them. Place them, spaced an inch apart, on a parchment-lined baking sheet and freeze solid. Then transfer to freezer bags or storage containers.
