The main Chinese New Year dish made in the South Arm Cooking Club for Seniors is Boiled Pork and Cabbage Dumplings. Dumpling or jiaozi is a traditional dish eaten during Chinese New Year’s Eve and some other festivals. Family members gather together to make dumplings as wrapping dumplings is quite time consuming. Such activity also brings the family closer.

Dumplings can be boiled or pan fried. Boiling is a healthier choice of cooking.

Dumplings can be freeze on the baking sheet. Once they’re completely frozen, place them in a ziplock bag for future consumption.

Ingredients

• 12 ounces napa cabbage leaves, roughly chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
• 1/4 cup minced Chinese chives or green onions
• 2/3 pound ground pork
• 1/8 teaspoons ground pepper
• 1.5 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine (or dry sherry)
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil

• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1/2 cup water

• 1 package refrigerated round dumpling wrapper (50 pieces)

Source: adapted from Asian Dumplings by Andrea Nguyen

Prep time: 40 minutes;  Cook time: 20 minutes;  Yield 50 dumplings

Chris O’Brennan, Helena, Sdyney, Frances and Chris made these dumplings.

Instructions

Place the cabbage in a food processor and process until cabbage is finely minced. Remove the cabbage to a large bowl and mix with salt. Let cabbage sit for 10 minutes.

The salted cabbage should look moist. Take handfuls of cabbage and squeeze excess moisture out.

Combine ginger, chives, pork, pepper, soy sauce, rice wine and sesame oil in a large bowl and mix well. Add the squeezed cabbage to the pork mixture and mix well.

Mix together the cornstarch and water to make a slurry. This will be used as a glue agent to seal the dumpling.

Prepare a large baking sheet by dusting with cornstarch so that the dumplings will not stick when place on it.

Take a dumpling wrapper and spoon 1 scant tablespoon of the filling onto the middle of the wrapper. Dip one finger into the slurry and lightly moisten the top edge of the dumpling wrapper.

Bring up the bottom side of the wrapper and firmly seal the edges to create a half-moon.

Place finished dumplings 1 cm apart on the prepared baking sheet. Cover loosely with plastic wrap so the dumplings dont dry out. Charlene also showed two other ways of sealing dumplings which can be seen in the video at the end of these instructions.

The verse “too many cooks spoil the broth” does not apply here but “many hands make light work” is appropriate for this task.

Apparently, most people prefer the simpler way of making dumpling which is the half moon shape.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, then add dumplings 15 at a time. When water returns to a boil, add a cup of cold water. Bring to a boil again, and add one more cup of cold water. When the water boils for the third time, the dumplings are done. Remove with a slotted spoon and repeat with the remaining dumplings. Serve with soy sauce or vinegar. Thank you for all who help to make these dumplings.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTmcr8tQBeI&w=600&h=400]

The video above demontrates the more complicated method of sealing dumplings.