Chinese Dumplings水饺

Reverting to my comfort food after a week-long holiday feast. The Zucchini 西葫芦from the local supermarket adds a sweet, tender and refreshing flavor.

Makes about 45 dumplings

Wrappers

• 300g               all purpose flour or plain flour 中筋面粉
• 165g                 water in room temperature (substituted by carrot juice or spinach juice of your choice. If you use vegetable juice, increase the quantity to 180g.)
• 1/3 teaspoon   salt

Fillings

• 250g      ground pork
• 125g       ginger and spring onion water* (calls for 15g sliced ginger and 15g roughly chopped spring onions and 200g water)
• 1 teaspoon    salt
• 1 teaspoon   sugar
• 1 tablespoon  light soy sauce 生抽
• 1 teaspoon    sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon   cooking oil (optional)
• 250g   shredded zucchini 西葫芦 or blanched assorted mushrooms or any suitable vegetables)

Method

1. Combine all wrapper ingredients in a mixing bowl. Use your hand to mix them together.
2. Tip the dough out on a lightly floured surface and, using your fingers and palms, knead for 5-6 minutes till the dough becomes smooth.
3. Put the dough back to the bowl, cover it with cling wrap and leave to rest for 20 minutes. (you can start to make fillings while you wait)
4. Divide the dough into three pieces. Pick one piece, roll the dough into a long snake of about 1.5cm diameter then divide it into 15 equal pieces.
5. Simply use your hand to pick up each piece and pound it into the floured surface to make a small circular disc. Then use a rolling pinto smooth out each disc till its about 9cm in diameter. You can add some flour to the rolling pin to keep the wrappers from sticking.

For fillings

1. *Ginger and spring onion water – add sliced ginger, spring onions and water in a bowl. squeeze ginger and spring onions in the water, rub them in the water then drain by discarding used spring onions and ginger.
2. Place ground pork in another mixing bowl. Add 1/3 of the ginger and spring onion water, use chopsticks to stir the meat in clockwise direction for 100 times. Add the other two 1/3 of the water using the same approach.
3. Add rest of the filling ingredients and mix well with ‘watered’ ground pork.
4. Combine above mixture with shredded zucchini or other vegetables.

Assemble

1. Spoon a tablespoon of filling into the center of the wrapper, form taco shape and start .pinching one end of the wrapper to seal, heading towards the middle.

Cook (9-10 minutes)

1. Make a big pot of boiling water.
2. Add the dumplings into the boiling water and cover the pot. Fill into the pot with 1 cup of cold water every 2-3 minutes for three times whenever the water starts boiling.