Serves : about 36 dumplings
Preparation time : 45 minutes
Cooking time : 10 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 catty minced pork shoulder (30% fat)
- 250g cabbage
- 1 small Beijing scallion
- Half catty of dumpling wrappers
- 1 tsp of sea salt for the cabbage
Seasoning
- a piece of thumb size ginger (minced)
- ¾ tsp of Demerara sugar
- 1 tbsp of organic chicken broth
- 1 tbsp of light soy sauce
- 1 tbsp of black sesame oil
- A dash of white pepper powder
- 2 tbsp of oyster sauce / 1 tbsp of oyster sauce + ½ tsp of sea salt
- 2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
Cooking (for 10 dumplings)
- 1 tbsp of peanut oil
- ¼ cup of water
Instructions
First of all, shred and chop the cabbage.
Put the chopped cabbage in a big bowl and add 1 tea spoon of sea salt inside.
Mix it up and let the chopped cabbage rest for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile chop the Beijing scallion. If you can’t find Beijing scallion, you can use spring onion or leeks.
I bought some pork shoulder with 30% fat and asked the butcher to coarsely mince the pork for me. Don’t use all lean meat because the dumplings would be too dry. Put the minced pork in a big bowl, add the minced ginger, sugar, chicken broth, black sesame oil and white pepper powder and mix in one direction for 5 minutes.
The pork should become sticky after 5 minutes. Then you can add light soy sauce and stir in one direction for another 2 minutes.
Follow with the chopped Beijing scallion. Stir for another minute.
Squeeze the chopped cabbage to get rid of excessive juice, but not completely dry.
Put the cabbage into the bowl and add oyster sauce and olive oil and mix well with the pork.
Cover the stuffing with cling film and put it inside the fridge to marinate for 30 minutes. This would also make the stuffing firmer, so it is easier to wrap.
I bought some dumpling wrappers from the market this time. You can also make your own wrappers.
Place one wrapper on your palm and put some stuffing in the middle of the wrapper.
Use another hand to dip some water and smear the water on the wrapper around the stuffing.
Dry your hand on a piece of kitchen paper, then fold the wrapper and press the centre point.
Then press the two sides.
Then hold the dumpling like this and squeeze.
Press along the edge of the dumpling to make sure it is sealed properly.
There are many different ways of folding a dumpling. I think this one is simple and easy to manage. You could check out my cooking video to see the whole process.
Heat up a non-stick pan and add some peanut oil. You could use other high smoking oil as well.
Put the dumplings inside with space between them. My pan can fit in 10 dumplings.
Use medium heat to brown the bottom of the dumplings.
Then pour 1/4 cup of water inside and put the lid on.
Let the water boil away, then take the lid off. That would properly take 5 to 6 minutes.
Then shake the dumplings in the pan to get rid of the last bit of moist, so the base of the dumplings would be crispy again.
These potstickers/ pan fried dumplings are very juicy. I prefer eating with spicy vinegar and chilly paste. These are nice lunch, dinner or breakfast. If you want to enjoy them in the morning, you could put the dumplings in a food container and leave them in the freezer. You could keep them in the freezer for 2 to 3 weeks. It takes longer to cook if you freeze them and you may add a bit more water too.
Cooking Tips:
- You can use either 2 tbsp of oyster sauce or 1 tbsp of oyster sauce and half tsp of sea salt.
- I normally make many dumplings and freeze them. Fry them whenever I want to enjoy them. When you cook freeze dumplings, add a bit more water and cook for a bit longer.
- You can enjoy these dumplings with a bowl of congee or soup. I like to dip my dumplings in chilly paste mixed with a bit of spicy vinegar.
- Don’t over cook the dumplings. Once the water is gone. They should be cooked.
