Steamed Pork Dumplings

Build the Meal Around Steamed Pork Dumplings

• A cold lager or jasmine tea
• Serve with smashed cucumber salad
• Finish with orange segments

How to Make Steamed Pork Dumplings

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1. Mix the flour, salt and warm water into a shaggy dough, then knead 8 minutes until smooth. Cover and rest 45 minutes — this relaxes the gluten so the wrappers roll thin without springing back.

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2. Toss the chopped cabbage with 1 teaspoon of the salt, leave 15 minutes, then squeeze out as much water as you can.

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3. Put the pork in a bowl with the soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, ginger, white pepper and remaining salt. Stir vigorously in one direction, adding the cold stock a tablespoon at a time, until it is absorbed and the mixture is sticky and glossy — about 4 minutes.

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4. Fold in the cabbage, spring onions and sesame oil. Chill 30 minutes.

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5. Roll the dough into two long ropes and cut into 10 g pieces. Press each flat and roll into an 8 cm circle, rotating as you go and keeping the centre slightly thicker than the rim.

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6. Place a heaped teaspoon of filling in the centre. Fold in half and pinch the middle, then make four or five pleats along the front edge only, pressing each onto the flat back.

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7. Set the finished dumplings on a floured tray with a flat base so they stand up.

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8. To steam, line a bamboo steamer with baking paper or cabbage leaves and steam over boiling water for 10 minutes.

   Mark done Start 10 min timer

9. Mix the dipping sauce and serve the dumplings immediately, while the wrappers are still translucent and springy.

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Related guide: Prep, cook and total time.

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Worth Knowing Before You Cook

Stir the filling in one direction only. Reversing breaks the protein network and the emulsion collapses.

Keep unrolled dough and finished dumplings covered; they dry out within minutes.

Freeze on the tray until solid, then bag. Cook from frozen, adding 3 minutes.

Ingredient Swaps

• Out of spring onions? A small regular onion, finely sliced, or a few chives stirred in at the end both cover the job.
• Dried chilli flakes can stand in for the chilli. Heat varies a great deal between chillies and between jars, so start with a small pinch and add more to taste.
• If you only have ground ginger, a quarter-teaspoon for each tablespoon of fresh is the ratio usually given; it tastes warmer and less bright than the fresh root.

Leftovers

Uncooked dumplings freeze 3 months. Cooked ones keep 2 days; pan-fry rather than re-steam to revive them.

Common Questions

What's in a Serving

Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.

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