Derek’s From-Scratch Ground Pork Dumplings

Ingredients

For the pork filling:

• 1 lb Swift Ground Pork
• 3 Tbsp water
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 4 Tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp rice wine
• 1 Tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp minced ginger
• 3/4 Tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp white pepper
• 3 stalks green onions
• 1/2 lb cabbage, chopped

For the dumpling dough:

• 1 3/4 C all-purpose flour
• 2/3 C cold water
• 1/2 tsp salt

Directions

For the dough:

1. In a bowl, combine flour and salt. Slowly stir in water until dough can be formed into a ball but isn’t wet enough to be sticking to your hands. You want it to be similar in texture to pizza dough.
2. Knead dough until smooth, about 5-7 minutes. Place in a clean bowl covered with a damp towel and let rest for an hour.

For the pork filling:

1. In a large bowl, salt Swift Ground Pork, then add in water 1 tbsp at a time. Stir in one direction with a fork or chopsticks until the ground pork has fully absorbed the water and is nice and sticky.
2. Add in soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, ginger, sugar and white pepper. Stir together, then add in green onions and chopped cabbage. Combine to evenly incorporate all ingredients. Cover with a lid or plastic wrap and let rest in the fridge for at least 15 minutes.

Making the dumplings:

1. After your dumpling dough has rested, place it on a countertop, dusted with flour. with your thumb, work a hole in the center. Then your use your hands to work it into a doughnut shape, with the dough being about an inch and a half in diameter. Make one cut to turn this into a long roll of dough.
2. With a pastry cutter, cut out triangular shapes about 1-2 inches in length, until the all the dough is cut up. Using the base of your palm to smash into a small disk shape.
3. Using a dough roller, roll out dough form the center, to start making a circle shape with your dough, rotating the dough while rolling from the center seems to be the easiest way to get a consistent shape. Repeat until all your dumpling wrappers are complete.
4. Place about a Tbsp of pork filling into the center of a wrapper. Taking two opposite ends of your wrapper, bring them together to the center of the dumpling and pinch together. With your thumb and forefinger, begin to fold in every 1/4 inch of dough together and pinch to make pleats. Repeat on the other side of the wrapper. Repeat until all dumplings are made.

To fry:

1. In a large pan over medium high heat, add 2 tbsp of oil. Add in as many dumplings as your pan can handle while keeping dumplings from touching. Fry for a couple of minutes until the bottoms are golden brown.
2. Add in 2-3 tbsp of water, then cover with a lid to let steam. Once the water is gone, your dumplings are ready. Repeat this process until all the dumplings are cooked.
3. Top with a little chili oil, sesame seeds and green onion, and serve!