Without a doubt, Wendy’s dumplings took center stage at our Chinese Cooking Dinner Party. Yes, these little pockets of goodness were delicious, but there is something really magical about making this type of food. It is a labor of love and takes a great deal of patience (or good friends and Ginger Gin & Tonics in our case) to make enough to satisfy our  serious dumpling craving (which was doubled if you include Jacob’s). As we stood around the kitchen filling the pockets of frozen dough with the pork mixture, we realized this practice is universal. Masha, Wendy and I grew up from all parts of the world and still laughed about learning to wrap/fill/mend various traditional family recipes. We agreed that is no fun to do this alone. So find a friend and bond over Wendy’s dumpling recipe as soon as you can!

Wendy’s Take on Chinese/Cantonese Dumplings 

We boiled and fried the same recipe for dumplings. My favorite was the boiled dumpling. It easier to wrap these and easier to cook – so I easy start. But, both are delicious. Don’t me intimidated – it much easier than you think.

Ingredients

1 package of wonton wrappers 
2 tbsp chopped spring onions

Wonton fillings:
150 g pork mince (or 75 g pork mince and 75 g chopped or minced prawns)
Or chicken/turkey mince, basically any type of meat you want.
(Vegetarian option: chopped firm 5-spice tofu to substitute for the meat)
(optional: chopped shitake mushrooms, chopped baby bok choy – the white part works best, chopped cooked glass noodles, chopped water chestnuts, chopped dried shrimp. The first 4 also go into the vegetarian option)
1 tbsp chopped spring onions
1/2 egg, lightly beaten
1.2 tsp grated ginger
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp Shaoxing wine
Dash of white pepper

(at this stage, dont worry too much how much salt and pepper because the sauce is  soy-sauce-based, which is already salty.)

Dipping Sauce:
3 tbsp Szechuan chilli oil
2 tsp minced garlic
5 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp Chinkiang black rice vinegar
1/2 tsp ground Szechuan pepper
1 tsp castor sugar
(optional: thinly julienned ginger and garnish with chopped spring onions)

* And if you don’t want to buy new things for the pantry just to make this dish, you could use regular rice vinegar, chili oil and white pepper.

Either boil these dumplings or pan fry them in a bit of oil and then top with a splash of water to steam the rest. Here is a great tutorial on how to wrap the fried dumplings.

Fried:

Boiled: