Weekend Meal-Homemade Dumplings

I bought a pasta/noodle machine recently, which costed me a fortune. But I really like it. All you need to do is add flour (up to 500g), then it will tell you how much water it needs. Push the start button, pasta comes out from the other end after 3 minutes mixing. It is gorgeous!  The pasta came out the machine doesn’t stick together, which was my primary worry. It can make 7 different kind of pastas. So far we like the penne the most. Today I am trying the dumpling/ravioli wrapping. It came out as a long sheet and you can cut into squares or circles afterwards. Oh! I am in heaven!

Ingredients:

Pork mince (500 g), prawn (a dozen, coarsely chopped), egg (1), canola oil (1 tablespoons), sesame oil (1 tablespoon), ginger (about 1 tablespoon, minced), shallot (3), shiitake mushroom (4, coarsely chopped), cabbage (200g, coarsely chopped), Chinese cooking wine (1 table spoon), water (1/2 cup), soy sauce (1/2 tablespoon), salt and white pepper, dumpling wrappings (500 g).

What to do:

1. Place pork mince and chopped prawn in a mixing bowl, add egg, canola oil, sesame oil, Chinese cooking wine and soy sauce, mix in one direction (I do clockwise, this is to help mince stuck together).
2. Place ginger, shallot and water in a blender, and blend to yield ginger & shallot water.
3. Add 1/3 of the above ginger & shallot water into pork mince and mix clockwise, then do the same 2 more times until the ginger & shallot water used up. This step to make sure water is well combined with pork mince and won’t split. At this stage the pork mince should be very easy to stir as it absorbed all that moisture.
4. Add chopped shiitake mushrooms and cabbage, and mix clockwise until well combined.
5. Season with salt and white pepper to taste.
6. Now you can start folding dumplings. Because they the square wrapping, start from folding it in half to have a rectangle shape then fold two of the bottom corner together to have the shape in the picture.
7. In a large pot, boil dumplings in salted water.
8. Serve with Chinese vinegar and chilli oil.

Chinese New Year Series 1: Homemade Dumplings

Today is the first day of Chinese New Year. To celebrate it I will be posting a series of festival foods that Chinese would normally have during New Year. On the top of the list, it has to be dumplings, which is normally served at the New Year’s Eve.

Ingredients:

Pork mince (750 g), baby squid (5, coarsely chopped), egg (1), canola oil (1 tablespoons), sesame oil (1 tablespoon), ginger (about 1 tablespoon, minced), shallot (3), Chinese chive (1 small bunch), Chinese cooking wine (1 table spoon), water (1 cup), soy sauce (1/2 tablespoon), salt and white pepper, dumpling skins (2 pack).

What to do:

1. Place pork mince and chopped baby squid in a mixing bowl, add egg, canola oil, sesame oil, Chinese cooking wine and soy sauce, mix in one direction (I do clockwise, this is to help mince stuck together).
2. Place ginger, shallot and water in a blender, and blend to yield ginger & shallot water.
3. Add 1/3 of the above ginger & shallot water into pork mince and mix clockwise, then do the same 2 more times until the ginger & shallot water used up. This step to make sure water is well combined with pork mince and won’t split. At this stage the pork mince should be very easy to stir as it absorbed all that moisture.
4. Add chopped Chinese chive, and mix clockwise until well combined.
5. Season with salt and white pepper to taste.
6. Now you can start folding dumplings. I used store bought dumpling skins. They are a little bit dry and not that easy to stick together. The trick is to brush water on the edge of dumpling skin to help it stick.
7. You can boil, steam or panfry dumplings.
8. I did panfried dumplings. To panfry the dumplings, heat 1 tablespoon of canola oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Arrange dumplings neatly in the pan, and fry until the bottom of dumplings are crispy. Add 1 cup of water and cover with lid and cook over medium heat until all the water is vaporized. Uncover and cook for another 1-2 minutes or until the bottom of dumplings are crispy again.
9. Serve with Chinese vinegar and chilli oil.