Weekends with Yankee Senior Food Editor Amy Traverso took a trip to Boston’s Chinatown and learned how to prepare celebrity chef Joanne Chang’s signature pork and chive dumplings on Season Eight. With just six ingredients in the filling, it’s easy to make these tasty treats a family favorite.
Make ahead: The dumplings can be made up to one week in advance and stored uncooked in an airtight container in the freezer. Prepare through step six. Then, place them on a flat plate or tray and freeze until the dumplings are completely frozen, then transfer them to a resealable freezer bag or an airtight container and return them to the freezer. Thaw in the refrigerator on a flat plate before cooking.
Makes 40 to 50 dumplings
INGREDIENTS
- 8 large napa cabbage leaves, thinly sliced (about 4 cups)
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- 1 pound ground pork (not lean), preferably coarse ground
- 1 cup minced fresh garlic chives or regular fresh chives
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon peeled and finely chopped fresh ginger (about 1-inch knob)
- 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
- One 16-ounce package round dumpling wrappers
- 4 tablespoons vegetable oil, such as canola, plus more as needed
TO PREPARE
STEP ONE. Place the sliced cabbage in a large bowl and season generously with kosher salt. Let sit for 10 minutes.
STEP TWO. In a large bowl, combine the ground pork, garlic chives, soy sauce, ginger and sesame oil, and use your hands to mix all the ingredients thoroughly together. Set aside.
STEP THREE. Take the cabbage in your hands and squeeze as hard as you can to remove the water. Add the cabbage to the pork mixture. Mix until the filling is well combined.
STEP FOUR. Fill a small bowl with warm water. Lay a dumpling wrapper on a clean work surface and scoop about 1 tablespoon of filling into the center. Dip your finger in the water and paint all around the edge of the wrapper to moisten. Fold the wrapper in half to look like a half moon. Pinch just the top of the wrapper together, leaving the sides exposed and open.
STEP FIVE. Start pleating the left side of the dumpling: Holding the dumpling by the top, fold a pleat on one side of the wrapper about halfway down the arc toward the center of the dumpling and press it into the facing side of the wrapper. Repeat the pleating almost to the bottom of the arc so that you have two pleats on the left side of the dumpling.
STEP SIX. Repeat the pleating process on the right side of the dumpling, again pleating toward the center. When the dumpling is completely pleated, you should be able to sit the dumpling on its bottom and it will look like a little loveseat, with the smooth side of the dumpling as the seat and the pleated side as the back. Continue with the rest of the dumpling wrappers and filling until the filling has been used up.
STEP SEVEN. To cook the dumplings, use a large, heavy flat-bottomed skillet with a lid or a nonstick skillet with a lid. Heat the skillet over medium-high heat and add 2 tablespoons vegetable oil. When the oil starts to shimmer, carefully add as many dumplings as will comfortably fit in the skillet and turn the heat down to medium. Cook without moving the pan until the dumpling bottoms are golden brown, about 3 minutes.
STEP EIGHT. Add about 2 tablespoons water to the bottom of the pan and immediately cover with the lid. The pan will sizzle and steam up immediately. Shake the pan from time to time to keep the dumplings from sticking. Let the dumplings steam for two minutes, at which point most of the water will have evaporated.
STEP NINE. Add another 2 tablespoons water to the pan, cover and steam again. Wait until the water has evaporated again and repeat one last time with a final 2 tablespoons water. Turn off the heat, keep covered, and let rest for one minute.
STEP TEN. Uncover and turn the heat back to medium-high to crisp up the bottoms. Remove from the pan. Continue in the same manner to cook the remaining dumplings, adding 1 tablespoon oil to the pan at a time as needed. Serve immediately.
