Dumpling 1.0.1

Due to the school holidays, I thought instead of doing a lunch box goodie for you, we could have dumplings together :)

My kids LOVE a good dumpling, only the ones you buy often have MSG in them or enough salt to keep you preserved for a week, so we usually try to make our own........funnily enough though, ours never seem to look as good as they do from the shop???? (shocked I know)
That is however,  until you have a wonderful friend who grew up making and eating dumplings almost every week of the year as a child, willing to walk you through it step by step.

Here's how to make a mean lamb dumpling:

Firstly blitz together 2 carrots, 1 shallot and about a 4cm piece of fresh ginger.
In a bowl, mix together blitzed veggies with 1tsp sesame oil, 2tsp cooking wine, 1 tsp salt, 1 tbsp soy sauce and 500g lamb mince.
Using a fork, mix all ingredients together until it appears quiet sticky. (this ensures it all stays together when the dumpling is cooking.

Then simply open your packet of dumpling pastries (found in any Asian supermarket) and follow below-


 

using your finger, wet the edge of the pastry with water

 

repeat folding on the other side

place onto floured surface to prevent sticking

 

And there you have it.....your perfect little dumplings all in a row! Or if you get the kids to help the below image may be more realistic :)

They are fun to make, easy to prepare and healthy for you. You can steam them (we used a bamboo steamer for ours) shallow fry them, add them into a soup or even deep fry them. You can make them using pork, chicken, vegetables or even tofu and if you make too many you can pop them, uncooked, into the freezer for another day.

Why not have a go......see how yours turn out :)