About the Recipe
The quintessential Asian stereotypical streetfood, is there something more comforting than a bowl of dumplings?
This recipe is one of many countless variations that are possible and it is infinitely adaptable to your requirements.
Ingredients
For the dumplings
1/2 cabbage, grated
1 teaspoon salt
Handful of chives, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, grated
1 thumb sized piece of ginger (roughly same quantity as garlic) grated
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1:1 ratio of mince beef to pork, go for fattier options. If you don’t eat pork/beef, replace it with another meat (could be 100% one or the other, or chicken, or even finely chopped mushrooms for a veggie option)
Packet of gyoza wrappers (you could try making these. They aren’t too difficult to make, the only difficulty comes in cutting them to size, so I’d avoid making them - this warning comes from experience)
For the sauce
Soy sauce and water, slightly more soy sauce than water but almost equal amounts
Some acidic element (be it a squeeze of lemon, or lime or rice wine vinegar - ideally the latter but lemon or lime work well instead too. Don’t get a whole bottle of rice wine vinegar just for this application, is basically what I’m trying to say)
Preparation
Remove some moisture from the cabbage by salting it slightly and setting aside for 30 mins. Once the 30 mins are up, rinse then squeeze with your hands to remove excess water.
Mix all your ingredients in a large bowl then add your cabbage, this can all be done by hand.
To wrap: place one wrapper in your non-dominant hand. Scoop out a small quantity of filling (do not overstuff). Then squeeze the middle closed and fold the edges in. There are a number of more complex closing methods which you are welcome to explore but I find this to work quite well, especially as a first step.
To cook simply fry them with a touch of oil and flip. Now, you can get all fancy with adding a touch of water once the bottom is golden and then adding a lid to steam them but usually just flipping them works fine and it means two crispy edges rather than one (which is my preference). If you want to follow a slightly more traditional method then do but it might splatter a bit and is a touch more difficult to pull off.