Chonger Family Tradition: Dumpling Making!!

Merry Christmas!!!

While most families prepare a Christmas roast, my family, the fobs that we are, make home made dumplings during the holidays.  It's the perfect activity - everybody gathers together, you assign each person a task, we prep the ingredients, mix everything up, then sit down together to wrap!.  The wrapping stage is the perfect time to have meaningful discussions with the family or simply catch up with one another.

For those of you who always wanted to make home made dumplings, I took step-by-step photos this year.

Ingredients for Pork and Garlic Chives Dumplings (zu rou jiu cai or 猪肉韭菜):

1 Medium size head of Napa cabbage
1 ginger root (enough to make about 3 teaspoons of freshly grated ginger)
3/4 pounds of ground pork (I like the leaner kind for a healthier meal)
1 bunch of garlic chives (also known as jiu cai or 韮菜 in Chinese)
2 large eggs
1 package of dumpling skin
Sesame oil
Salt
Pepper

Dipping sauce:
Dark vinegar
Soy sauce
Sesame oil
Chili oil

Servings: Makes about 40-42 medium dumplings

Ready? Here we go...

Chop the napa cabbage into thin strips

Cook the napa cabbage in boiling water until the veggies are soft.  Then drain the water

Here's an important step.  Squeeze the water out of the cabbage until it's dry.  You have to make sure the veggies don't retain too much water so the dumpling filling won't be too heavy.  This prevents the dumpling skin from breaking later on

Next - mince the garlic chives until they're finely chopped

Grate the ginger root.  I happen to love ginger so I always like to add more.  You can lessen the amount if you don't like the kick

Combine the chives with the napa cabbage and mix the vegetables together

 Add the pork and mix it up

After you mix everything up, crack an egg and add it to the mixture.  Then fold the egg into the mixture.  The egg will help hold the mixture together for the dumpling filling.  Don't forget to add sesame oil, salt and pepper to season the mixture.  If you like a little bit of spiciness, you can also add chili oil

After you mix the egg in, place the mixture into the fridge for 30 minutes.  This allows the mixture to set

Now it's time to make the dumplings!   Here's a pic of the package of dumpling skin we picked up from the market

I took a video of my mom making a dumpling.  Make sure you pleat the sides.  I like to pleat 3 on each side so the ends curve in.  Also, you need to wet the ends with water and egg white so the skin will stick together

Yumm...the finished product (almost).  Make sure you dust the dumplings with flour so they don't stick together

Now it's time to cook them!  We boiled our dumplings last night to make 水餃 (shui jiao).  You can also steam or fry them, depending on your tastes.  For the 水餃, you throw the dumplings into a pot of boiling water, and you boil them until the dumplings float and the skin starts to turn white

Add more water to the pot and wait until the dumplings boil again.  This makes sure they're thoroughly cooked on the inside and outside

Voila.  Dumplings!!  Make the dipping sauce to your liking and enjoy!