Dumplings - 韭菜猪肉馅饺子

Fully in english, that’s Chives and Pork Dumplings.

Reference video: link

Ingredients

  • About 1lb of ground pork
  • Chives (1 unit)
  • Flour
  • Salt
  • One Egg
  • Oil
  • Sugar
  • White pepper (白椒粉)
  • Scallions
  • Ginger
  • All purpose flour

和面 - making the dough

  • Firstly - flour into a bowl (about 500g = 30 dumplings)
  • Add a little bit of salt, little bit
  • Add cold water into the flour in batches, bit by bit, stirring with chopsticks while you do so
  • Work in all the water until it begins to form a shaggy dough
  • Take the dough out and begin to knead
  • Keep kneading until it’s nice and smooth, this could take about 10-15 minutes
  • Add a few drops of oil to coat the dough ball
  • Cover with a bowl or plastic wrap and let it rest for AT LEAST 30 MINUTES while we make the filling

The filling (the 馅).

Before we start on the ACTUAL filling, we need to make a small seasoning water of scallion ginger juce. In a bowl, combine:

  • Scallions (cut in about 1 inch segments)
  • A bunch of chopped ginger slices
  • About 200ml of water

Set that aside and just let it soak.

Next, start the meat. Combine these in a bowl:

  • Ground pork
  • 1 spoon Salt
  • 1 spoon white pepper (白椒粉)
  • Light soy sauce (2 spoons)
  • A litttttle bit of sugar
  • A littttttlllleeee bit of dark soy sauce (老抽)
  • 1 spoon of oyster sauce (蚝油)
  • An egg
  • A small amount of water

Now, squeeze the scallion juice a bit and pour JUST the water into the bowl of meat. But not all of it. We’re going to be pouring it bit by bit into the meat as we mix.

Mix the meat by hand, always moving in one direction. It should turn nice and sticky. Bit by bit add the scallion juice.

You’ll know your meat is ready when it’s STRINGY. You can 拉丝 on the meat.

Lastly, add a little little bit of oil onto the meat to help keep it juicy. Now set it aside.

Chives 韭菜 time

韭菜 (jiǔcài) literally means “chives,” but in Chinese internet and financial slang, it’s often used to refer to gullible or easily exploited retail investors

Notice we haven’t even touched the chives yet?

  • Clean the chives, firstly
  • Chop them up pretty finely
  • Add some OIL to the chopped chives

Now, add that to the meat bowl from last step and mix it thoroughly

Making the dumplings themselves, finally

  • After letting the dough rest, roll it into a thin log(or logs) about 1cm diameter
  • Using your fingers, pinch off pieces of the log into small segments for the dumpling wrappers

Put those to the side, and sprinkle some flour on top to prevent them from sticking to eachother

  • Press each segment into a small disk with your palm
  • Use a rolling pin to roll the disk out into a thin circle
  • Make sure the edges are thinner than the center
  • The wrapper should be about 3-4 inches in diameter

Note after making: folding the dumpling is BY FAR the hardest and most important part. Next time, focus on getting this right.

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