Lunar New Year is one of the most important holidays in China, comparable to Thanksgiving in America, and has a strong influence in neighbouring cultures to China as well, including the Korean New Year and Tết in Vietnam. It’s associated with many customs. One such tradition is eating traditional foods with one’s family. In the northern regions of China, dumplings are prominent in their meals. Boiled dumplings are the most important dish to celebrate Lunar New year, and is comparable to eating turkey on Thanksgiving.
Eating dumplings is symbolic of wealth and good fortune. The history of the 饺子 (jiǎo zi), which is what dumplings are called in Chinese, dates back to Imperial China, where merchants distributed one of the first paper money currencies, “jiao zi.” The term was first used as a general word for money. When dumplings are cooked for the Lunar New New Year, they are made to look like money. Eating them represents the good fortune people hope for in the coming year. By “eating money,” prosperity would follow.
Here’s a recipe, adapted from how my family traditionally makes dumplings and from several online recipes, to make some delicious, comforting dumplings yourself. There are two parts that make up a dumpling: the filling and the thin dough wrappers that contain it. You can opt to make the wrappers yourself, or simply pick up a pack at your local Asian grocery store. For the filling, you can replace the pork and cabbage with whatever meat and vegetable you want, maintaining about a 1:1.5 ratio of meat to vegetable and about 30% fat content for the meat. While vegetarian options are possible, it’s easier to make them with meat since the fat from the meat keeps the inside of the dumpling juicy. This recipe should yield around 36 dumplings.
Ingredients:
Homemade Dumpling Wrappers:
– 300 g all purpose flour
– 165 g very warm water about 2/3 cups, 110ºF-120ºF
Filling:
– 1½ cups cabbage, finely chopped
– 1 tsp cornstarch
– 1 lb ground pork
– 2 tbsp ginger minced
– 2 tbsp garlic minced
– 1/4 cup green onions, thinly sliced
– 2 tbsp soy sauce
– 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine
– 1.5 tsp toasted sesame oil
– 1/2 tsp salt
– 1/2 tsp white pepper
Instructions:
- Add the flour to a large bowl and create a well in the middle. Pour the very warm water into the well and use a pair of chopsticks to whisk, incorporating the flour little by little until everything comes together into a very shaggy dough.
- Tip the dough out onto a work surface and knead until smooth. Shape into a ball, cover with plastic wrap, and let it rest for at least 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes, knead the dough again until it is smooth and elastic. You can use it right away but it will roll out even better if you let it rest for another 30 minutes. Shape it into a ball again.
- Make the dumpling filling while you wait for the wrappers to rest. Toss the cabbage with a pinch of salt in a large bowl and mix well. Let it rest for 10 to 15 minutes, then squeeze out and drain as much of the extra water as possible.
- Mix together 2 tbsp water with the teaspoon of cornstarch and stir into the pork until it forms a paste.
- Mix the ginger, garlic, green onions, soy, Shaoxing wine, sesame oil, salt, white pepper, and cabbage into the pork paste until incorporated.
- After the dough has rested, poke the center of the dough with your finger and stretch it out to create a bagel shape. Keep stretching and rotating it out into a large, thin ring.
- Cut the ring to make a long rope of dough. Roll it out until it is about 1.5 inches in diameter.
- Cut off 6 pieces and weigh the pieces of dough, about 10 to 12 grams each. Cover the rope of dough with some plastic wrap so it doesn’t dry out.
- Take each piece of dough and roll it into a ball then flatten it with your palm until it is about 1.5 inches, lightly dusting with flour as needed.
- On a lightly floured work surface, use a small rolling pin and roll out the edges of the flattened disk, rotating and rolling so that the edges of the wrapper are slightly thinner than the middle. Aim for the wrapper to be around 3 to 3.5 inches in diameter.
- Lightly flour and cover the wrapper with plastic wrap while you roll out 5 more portions of dumpling dough.
- Place 1 tablespoon of filling in the middle of the wrapper.
- Fold over into a half moon shape and pinch the edges to seal. You can also pleat or fold the dumplings: start by folding the dumpling skin in half and pinching. From the middle, fold over or pleat one side of the dumpling skin and push against the back skin to secure. Repeat until you reach the edge and pleat the other side. If you’re using store bought wrappers, lightly moisten the edges of the wrapper with water before folding.
- After you’re done making the 6 dumplings, continue to roll out and make your dumplings with the rest of your dough, 6 at a time.
- Bring a pot of water to a boil.
- Place dumplings in the boiling water until there’s as many dumplings as can fit in a single layer.
- Cook the dumplings until they float, plus an additional two to three minutes, and it will be ready to serve. Enjoy!