Kid President's 5 Things That Make Summer Awesome

 When you like or share this video between now and July 31, 2015, Con Agra donates money to local food banks. Feel free to share widely! Share from the You Tube page!

 

Chinese Pork Dumplings

I don't know how I found this recipe, but I can assure you it was all Bin Xu's fault for causing me to fall in love with these dumplings.  He used to invite us all over for dumpling making parties.  We would eat ourselves silly.

This recipe makes 50 dumplings, but I usually double it and freeze about half.  They freeze exceptionally well.  So one night, when you don't feel like making dinner at all, you can thaw these out and have the most spectacular dinner ever.

Here we go.....

Ingredients:

2 T finely chopped chives
1 T sesame seeds
1 T chili-garlic sauce
1 lb. ground pork
3 minced garlic cloves
1 beaten egg
2 T soy sauce
1.5 T sesame oil
1 T minced fresh ginger
50 dumpling wrappers
1 cup veg oil for frying
1 quart water, or as needed

Directions:

Mix pork, garlic, egg, chives, soy sauce, sesame oil and ginger in a large bowl.  Prepare your dumpling wrappers.  I find lightly flowering your work surface works well.  Make sure to keep the unused wrappers covered with a damp towel while you work.  Place a wrapper on the floured counter surface.  Put about 1 T of the filling in the wrapper.  Don't overfill or your dumpling will come apart during cooking.  With a wet finger, draw a half moon around the outside of the dumpling wrapper.  Fold the wrapper in half and crimp the edges together.  Repeat until you run out of wrappers or filling.

You can freeze the dumplings by placing them individually (not touching) on a parchment-lined baking sheet.  Once they have frozen, you can put them in gallon-size freezer bags.  I have kept them like this for up to 6 months.

To cook the dumplings.  Add about 1.5 teaspoons of oil to a large frying pan.  Put 8-10 dumplings into the pan and cook until browned about 2-3 minutes per side.  Pour in about 3/4 cup of water, and cover and cook until the dumplings are tender and the pork is cooked through.  Usually, I find this takes about 5 minutes (about the same amount of time it takes the water to evaporate.  Do not overcook.

Serve with a dipping sauce (usually available at your nearest international market).