Dumplings are becoming more popular in Melbourne with Chinese dumplings restaurants popping around the city over the past few years. Recently, I started making my own dumplings, get inspiration from friends. What I realized is that there are many different fillings, but also many ways to prepare and cook. I investigated the differences among the Korean, Chinese and Japanese dumplings.
However I am not going to explain all the difference at this point. I will show you one of my Korean dumpling recipes. It is very clean taste compared with other pork dumplings and can be vegetarian if you exclude beef mince. Because main ingredients used are tofu and chives, excluding meat is not big deal.
Prep time 60 mins
Cook time 15 mins
Serves 30
dumplings
Ingredients for filling:
200g minced beef (Vegetarian option : add 200g of firm tofu instead of beef )
100g firm tofu
1 egg
3~4 spring onion, finely chopped
1/2 onion, finely chopped
100g/ Garlic chives, finely Chopped
3 Garlic cloves, crushed
1 tsp ginger, finely grated
1 tsp Mirin or rice wine
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp sesame oil
1/2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tbsp salt
2 tsp black pepper
30 Dumpling skin
Water
For steam cooking:
Bamboo steam or stainless steamer
Baking paper
For
dipping sauce:
4tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp lemon vinegar(Lemon juice) or rice vinegar
1 tsp toasted sesame seeds
1 tsp Korean chilli powder (Optional)
1. Combine the chopped spring onions,
garlic, grated ginger, mirin and minced beef into a bowl. Leave to marinate for
15 minutes in the fridge.
2. Drain off any excess liquid (* see
below) from the tofu then crumble it into a bowl. Add the chopped chives to the
seasoned beef, with the tofu and remaining filling ingredients. Mix together
thoroughly.
3. Take a dumpling skin and brush with a
little water. Place a spoonful of the stuffing in the middle.
Fold into a half-moon shape, crimping
the edges firmly to seal. Repeat with the other dumpling skins
4. Boiling/Seaming: Cook over a pan of boiling water in a
steamer lined with baking paper for 6~8 minutes. Alternatively, cook them in
boiling water for 3 minutes. Arrange on a serving dish and serve with soy
dipping sauce.
5. To make the dipping sauce, mix the soy
sauce, lemon vinegar, chilli powder(option) and toasted sesame seeds in a small
serving bowl
*Remove excess water from Tofu :
Crumble firm tofu and wrap them on a
couple of layer of Kitchen paper towel . Leave them on pressing heavy chopping
board for 20 minutes.
I will show how to make own dumpling dough next time. It takes some time but the taste is much better. Also other popular Chinese dumplings, such as, Pork dumpling ( Gyoza ) & Prawn Dumpling ( Har gow ).
