Student food blog: Pork dumplings

Sophie Edmonds

I've been in a bit of a cooking rut lately. The gloomy Dunedin weather seems to have sucked all the inspiration out of me!

When I asked Mum for ideas, everything she suggested I had already done!

Luckily she had a few new cookbooks for me to pore over and get a few ideas from.

One of these books, Ripe Recipes: A fresh batch had a very cool recipe for pork and ginger dumplings. The only previous experience of dumpling making I had was when my family went to China in 2008 and we were invited to a dim sum cooking class. We were terrible: our clumsy Caucasian fingers made a right old mess. The chefs just shook their heads and laughed. From that point on, I swore never again to embarrass myself in the realm of delicate Asian cuisine.

My English cousin Georgia has been staying with us over the holidays, which meant I've had someone to hang out with. It was one evening earlier this week that we decided to make dumplings. We were feeling adventurous and in need of something to do (we had already baked a cake and a brownie and felt that something savoury was in order).

We scoped out the dumpling wrappers at the local Asian supermarket and a pack of 60 set us back only $3.60. The recipe also called for mirin and tamari soy sauce. I skipped out on the mirin and added a teaspoon of sugar instead. Mum had some tamari soy sauce, but in all honesty normal soy sauce works just fine.

Once we mixed the filling we had a "dumpling-off'' (who could make the best-looking dumplings). Well, of course, I didn't win! Georgia made some beautiful-looking ones so I just sat back and took photos instead.

We served this with a vermicelli noodle salad that we made up. It had coriander, carrot, capsicum, sesame seeds and limes with a satay-ish sauce tossed through it. I can't remember the exact recipe. It was good though. Perhaps you could google something similar.

There were five of us munching on these dumplings and we were definitely all stuffed silly by the end.

When you cook these you fry them for a few minutes in a splash of oil then add half a cup of water to the pan, cover with a lid and leave to steam until all the water has evaporated. Funnily enough the $6 frying pan was far better and far more non-stick than the other frying pans Mum has. Make sure you give the dumplings a little shake as they steam away so they don't stick to the bottom.

Pork dumplings
Makes 60 (serves 4-5 depending on side dishes)

300g pork mince
3 tsp fresh ginger
2 spring onions, chopped finely
1-2 red chillis, chopped, or a tsp of chilli paste
1/3 cabbage (approx. 4 cups), finely chopped (I used a food processor)
1/2 cup chopped coriander
2 Tbsp sesame seeds
3 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp sesame oil
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
freshly ground black pepper to taste
60 dumpling wrappers

Mix the filling ingredients together in a large bowl. Place in the fridge to chill for 10 minutes.

Prepare the work surface by lightly dusting an area with flour. This is where you will place the folded dumplings.

Take a small dish of water. Dip your fingers in the water and moisten the outer edges of the dumpling wrapper.

Spoon just a teaspoon of the pork mixture onto the centre of each wrapper. Fold the wrapper in half. Starting at the centre, pinch the two edges into a little pleat. Repeat down each side of the half-circle.

Place to one side on the floured surface.

To cook the dumplings, put a large frying pan on a very high heat. With a splash of oil, fry the dumplings in small batches until golden. Once golden on each side pour half a cup of water into the pan and immediately cover with a lid to steam the dumplings. Shake the pan every few minutes to loosen the dumplings from the bottom. Remove the lid once all the water has evaporated.