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In college, my roommate started a tradition where we would make dumplings for Chinese New Year. We would make quite a lot, and eat them fresh and then freeze the rest.
Once you’ve eaten homemade dumplings, it’s really hard to go back to the freezer ones sold at local Asian markets.
With my former roommate now in Virginia finishing off graduate school, I’ve continued the tradition. This year, I had the siblings help out. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize how bad some of their dumpling folding skills were! They still came out quite tasty though.
We opted to use the premade skins. While we love the taste of homemade skins, they are a pain to knead and roll out, and we were too lazy to do it.
Homemade pork and shrimp dumplings
Ingredients
- 4 pounds ground pork
- 2 tablespoon minced fresh ginger root
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 pound salad shrimp, chopped
- 3/4 cup soy sauce
- 8 tablespoons oyster sauce
- 8 tablespoons sesame oil
- 2 egg, beaten
- 3 cups finely shredded Chinese cabbage
- 3 1/2 cups water
- Approximately 6 wrapper packs
Directions
-
- In a large pot, mix ground pork with 2 cups of water. It’s important to mix the pork with the water so that your filling is moist rather than dry. It may take a little bit of mixing for the pork to fully absorb the water. Adding water also gives you a lot more filling to work with.
-
- Add in ginger, garlic, oyster sauce, soy sauce, half the sesame oil, eggs. Stir until well mixed.
- Add in shrimp, cabbage, and the remaining sesame oil. Add in the 1 1/2 cups water, 1/2 cup at a time until water is full absorbed by the pork filling.
-
- Take dumpling skin and put in the palm of your hand. Have a small bowl of water by your side. Dip finger in water and wet the edges of the wrapper (So for a circle wrapper, wet edges all around the circle. For square wrapper, all four edges must be wet so that the dumpling wrapper will close)
-
- Place approximately one tablespoon of pork filling in the middle of the wrapper. Then fold wrapper closed, pinching edges to make sure it is completely closed. Then fold the edges on top of each other, starting at one end and working to the other end, to create ridges on your dumpling.
- To Cook: Put dumplings in boiling water, make sure dumplings don’t
stick to the bottom of the pot. Serve with dumpling sauce. I
make my own sauce with soy sauce, minced garlic, and a little hot
chili oil. - If you have remaining dumplings, freeze immediately. Dumplings
sitting out for more than 20-30 minutes will begin to
melt and deteriorate. Dumplings need to be frozen separately or else they will stick together.
Homemade Pork and Shrimp Dumplings
In college, my roommate started a tradition where we would make dumplings for Chinese New Year. We would make quite a lot, and eat them fresh and then freeze the rest. Once you've eaten homemade dumplings, it's really hard to go back to the freezer ones sold at local Asian markets.
Ingredients
- 4 pd ground pork
- 2 tbsp minced fresh ginger root
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 pd salad shrimp chopped
- 3/4 cup soy sauce
- 8 tbsp oyster sauce
- 8 tbsp sesame oil
- 2 egg beaten
- 3 cups finely shredded Chinese cabbage
- 3 1/2 cups water
- Approximately 6 packs of wrappers
Instructions
- In a large pot, mix ground pork with 2 cups of water. It's important to mix the pork with the water so that your filling is moist rather than dry. It may take a little bit of mixing for the pork to fully absorb the water. Adding water also gives you a lot more filling to work with.
- Add in ginger, garlic, oyster sauce, soy sauce, half the sesame oil, eggs. Stir until well mixed.
- Add in shrimp, cabbage, and the remaining sesame oil. Add in the 1 1/2 cups water, 1/2 cup at a time until water is full absorbed by the pork filling.
- Take dumpling skin and put in the palm of your hand. Have a small bowl of water by your side. Dip finger in water and wet the edges of the wrapper (So for a circle wrapper, wet edges all around the circle. For square wrapper, all four edges must be wet so that the dumpling wrapper will close)
- Place approximately one tablespoon of pork filling in the middle of the wrapper. Then fold wrapper closed, pinching edges to make sure it is completely closed. Then fold the edges on top of each other, starting at one end and working to the other end, to create ridges on your dumpling.
- To Cook: Put dumplings in boiling water, make sure dumplings don't stick to the bottom of the pot. Serve with dumpling sauce. I make my own sauce with soy sauce, minced garlic, and a little hot chili oil.
- If you have remaining dumplings, freeze immediately. Dumplings sitting out for more than 20-30 minutes will begin to melt and deteriorate. Dumplings need to be frozen separately or else they will stick together.
The nutrition information provided are only estimates based on an online nutritional calculator. I am not a certified nutritionist. Please consult a professional nutritionist or doctor for accurate information and any dietary restrictions and concerns you may have.
Did you make this recipe?I'd love to see it! Mention @KirbieCravings and tag #kirbiecravings!
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Hi Alexandra! Thanks for stopping by. I’m glad you like my blog. I’ve seen it on your blog list! =)
I agree. Store bought wrappers save so much time. I just wish they tasted more chewy like homemade wrappers.
Chicken stock would probably be more flavorful, though then I would recommend cutting down on the other seasonings like soy sauce and oyster sauce. Yes, it is time consuming…and the dumplings never last long!
wow! these look amazing! i love following your blog and i have toy on my daily reads! i love finding out new places to eat in so cal 🙂
I love dumpling! and use store-bought wrappers too. They are really much easier.
I love homemade dumplings but yeah doesn’t it just take FOREVER to fold them! I think the entire process is time consuming but entirely worth it in the end.
I’ve never heard of adding water to the pork either! I’ll have to try that next time? Would it be more flavorful to use chicken stock?
Nice tutorial!
Hi Sandy- I definitely recommend adding water. Though you may want to reduce the amounts of meat from my recipe because 4 lbs of meat plus all that water makes a lot of filling….The first year I made it with my roommate and I didn’t add water and they were dry. Then I called up my mom and she was like “You need to add water! Add water until the meat can’t absorb anymore water.” So now I always make sure I add plenty of water to my filling.
Hi Carol- It took us a few hours just to fold all the dumplings; I can’t imagine how long it would have taken to make the skins! I love pan frying mine too to make pot stickers! Sometimes I’ll also stick them in noodle soup.
You’re so lucky to have a MIL making dumplings! When I was little, my grandma would make the wrappers by hand. I remember thinking how much strength is required to roll out each of those wrappers!
You are inspiring me to make dumplings this weekend! Unless you’re willing to share? 🙂
I usually don’t add water to the meat, so the amount you mention seems like a lot. However, it makes sense to add water so the filling isn’t so dry.
I have never attempted homemade wrappers, but one of these days I’ll give it a try.
Oh, and gotta make the green onion pancakes, too.
Hi Kirbie! I don’t make my own peels either although I had thought about doing it this past New Year, but I came to my senses! 🙂 How do you eat your leftover dumplings? I always pan fry mine, sort of a pot sticker thing. We love it. The sauce I make is usually soy sauce, vinegar, minced garlic (I did pound garlic this last time) and sometimes chili sauce of some sort.
Hey Kirbie – I know what you mean about the wrappers. At least I don’t jhave to worry since my MIL is from Shandong. She’s a Jiaozi machine….. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen my post on that.
https://mmm-yoso.typepad.com/mmmyoso/2008/03/jiaozi-in-mostl.html