Pork Dumplings
These Chinese-inspired pork dumplings are savory, comforting, joyful food. Make your own dough or use the filling with store-bought wrappers. The dough is lightly adapted from the wonderful Molly Yeh's family recipe on Food52.
Calories: 77kcal
Ingredients
For the dough
- 3 cups (360 grams) all-purpose flour, plus plenty more for kneading
- 1 ½ teaspoons (9 grams) fine sea salt
- ¾ cup (177 ml) boiling water
- ¾ cup (177 ml) cold water
For the filling
- 1 pound (454 grams) ground pork
- 8 leaves Napa cabbage
- 1 large egg
- 2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
- 8 garlic cloves minced
- 3 tablespoons (45 ml) low-sodium tamari or other good soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons (30 ml) toasted sesame oil
- ½ teaspoon (3 grams) fine sea salt
- 3 scallions white and light green parts thinly sliced
For pan-frying
- Safflower or other neutral-tasting oil meant for high-heat cooking
For the dipping sauce
- ¼ cup (60 ml) tamari or other good soy sauce
- ¼ cup (60 ml) rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon (15 ml) hot chili sesame oil
Instructions
For the dough
- In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the flour and salt.
- Pour in the boiling water a little at a time and mix with a spoon until incorporated.
- Pour in the cold water a little at a time, continuing to mix until you have a very wet, sticky dough.
- Sprinkle plenty of flour onto a work surface and your hands. Scrape dough from bowl onto work surface and knead, adding more flour as necessary to prevent sticking, until dough is smooth. (See video for visual cues here and throughout the recipe.)
- Place dough in a clean bowl, cover with a clean kitchen towel, and let rest while you make the filling.
For the filling
- Place the pork in a medium mixing bowl.
- Remove white stems from cabbage leaves and finely shred the green leafy parts with a knife. Add shreds to mixing bowl.
- Add egg to one side of bowl and lightly beat with a fork.
- Add ginger, garlic, soy sauce, sesame oil, salt and scallions to bowl.
- Use your hands to combine the mixture thoroughly without compressing it.
To fill and shape the dumplings
- Pinch off dough by the tablespoon (approximately — don't stress).
- Roll into a ball between your palms and place onto a floured work surface.
- Roll out with a floured rolling pin into a 3- to 4-inch circle.
- Place a tablespoon of filling into the center and fold dough into a semicircle around filling.
- Use your fingers to press the edges of the dough together and then to crimp the edges. (Again, see video. It's not hard at all, promise, but a little imagery goes a long way.) This process takes a WHILE, and it's fun to have help.
To cook the dumplings
- Bring a large pot of well salted water to a boil.
- Add dumplings in batches of about 8 and boil on medium-high heat for four minutes.
- Meanwhile, set a large frying pan with two tablespoons of safflower oil over medium heat.
- After boiling, carefully shake or blot excess water from dumplings and add dumplings in batches to frying pan. Cook for a few minutes until undersides are browned, being careful for splatters.
- Blot excess oil from dumplings before serving with dipping sauce.
To make the dipping sauce
- Stir together tamari, rice vinegar and hot chili sesame oil in a small bowl.
Video
Notes
Since making dumplings is a bit of an undertaking, I love to make a double or triple batch and freeze lots of them for later. Here's what to do.
- Make a gazillion dumplings.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place the dumplings on it as if they were cookies.
- Freeze until they're solid.
- Then place them in airtight containers with as many as you think you'll want to eat at a time.
- Keep them in a nice, cold freezer for up to a year.
- When you're ready to eat them, you can either let them defrost at room temperature for a few hours or just pop them right into the boiling water from frozen. In that case give them an extra minute or so in the boiling water. Cook and eat as usual!
Nutrition
Serving: 1dumpling with sauce | Calories: 77kcal | Carbohydrates: 11.9g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 2.4g | Fiber: 0.9g