Homemade Dumplings
Being adopted into a white, Jewish family, I don’t have a family dumpling recipe. However, through voraciously consuming Youtube content like Asian at Home with Seonkyoung Longest and Souped Up Recipes, I’ve been able to adopt my own recipe for homemade dumplings. They freeze perfectly and are so simple to make!
Ingredients:
6 oz ground pork
4 oz of raw, peeled and deveined shrimp, smashed and coarsely chopped
2 tbsp of soy sauce
1 tbsp of mirin
Drizzle of sesame oil
About 1-inch of freshly grated ginger
2 cloves of garlic, grated
Salt and pepper
3 scallions, whites and pale green parts
Store bought dumpling wrappers
1 tsp Flour
Instructions:
In a medium-sized bowl combine ground pork, shrimp, soy sauce, mirin, sesame oil, ginger, garlic, salt and pepper. Stir in one direction until the mixture begins to emulsify slightly. In this case you want to “overwork” your meat. You want the meat to become more homogenous inside of the filling. Add chopped scallions and stir mixture until just combined.
Using water, trace the outside edge of half of your dumpling wrapper. Add about 1 tbsp of filling into the middle of the wrapper, and using the thumb of your dominant hand, hold the filling in place as you pleat the dumpling closed-- this may take a little practice to get just right, but don’t worry, every dumpling will be delicious, even if they’re not picture perfect.
Heat a non-stick skillet over medium-low heat. Grease the bottom of the skillet with 1 tbsp of oil. Add the dumplings to the greased skillet flat-side down. Stir 1 tsp of flour into ⅓ cup of water. Pour water-flour mixture into the pan with the dumplings and cover immediately. Let dumplings steam until all the water is evaporated, the skins are slightly translucent, and only a crispy skirt is left surrounding each dumpling, about 10 minutes
Serve with your favorite dumpling sauce.