Chinese pork and prawn dumplings

My lovely boys love flavours from all around the world.  As I am supporting them to learn to cook they want to replicate some of their favourite dishes - these aren't always things that are already part of my repertoire and it takes a bit of research to find recipes that are simple enough to do with beginner cooks and that contain ingredients that are available in small town NZ.  I figure if I can get them here they are probably available in every other conceivable corner of the world.

The dumplings we ended up with were fragrant and delicious with great texture contrasts in the tasty parcel.  These were simple to make - although took a wee while to assemble and steam (a larger bamboo steamer is on my wish list the next time I'm in a town with an Asian grocery store).  We will definitely be making them again and I can see quite a few variations to try - including different cooking methods and dipping sauces.

We chose to serve these in a chicken broth with ginger, carrot and pak choy to make a meal for the family.

Ingredients 

For the dumplings - makes about 40

450 grams pork mince

250 grams raw peeled prawns

2 spring onions

1 small can water chestnuts (approx 125g)

2 cloves garlic - crushed

2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1 egg white

1/2 teaspoon oyster sauce

1/2 teaspoon chicken stock powder 

1 teaspoon corn flour

40-50 wonton wrappers (available in the freezer section at the supermarket)

For the soup

2 cups chicken stock (I used 2x 1 litre containers of ready made liquid stock - but found it a bit dark and oily for this clear broth - it would be better with a homemade stock or with half and half stock and water)

2 inch piece of fresh ginger cut into fine julienne (matchsticks)

1/4 cup rice wine or dry sherry (or rice wine vinegar)

2 teaspoons sesame oil

1 table spoon soy sauce

1 teaspoon sugar

2 carrots finely sliced 

3 spring onions cut into long strips

2 pak choy - washed and split into quarters lengthways 

Method

For the dumplings

Defrost the wonton wrappers.  Cover them with a damp cloth to prevent them drying out.

Place the pork mince in a large bowl

Chop prawns into small pieces

Chop spring onion very finely

Chop water chestnuts finely

Add to the bowl with all other ingredients and stir to make sure ingredients are well combined and evenly distributed through the mixture

Place a spoonful of mixture onto the centre of a wonton wrapper.  Use a finger dipped in water to dampen 2 sides of the wrapper and seal the parcel by folding to match corners and pressing the wonton wrapper together. 

Place parcels into a baking paper lined dish and cover with a damp cloth until you are ready to cook them.

Place a circle of baking paper into a bamboo steamer

Arrange dumplings into the steamer basket.  Put the lid on.  Place steamer over a pot of rapidly boiling water and cook until the wrappers are becoming translucent and the filling is cooked (approx 5 minutes). Check the water level between batches so that the pot doesn't boil dry.  This works best when the steamer fits snugly onto the pot.  The picture shows the steamer in a shallow pan.  We changed this with the next batch.

Place cooked dumplings on a plate and put to one side until ready to serve.  We did quite a bit of sampling at this stage too with soy sauce and sweet chili to dip the dumplings in - yummy!

To make the soup

The soup needs to be started as you assemble he dumplings - so have all the preparation done after making the filling mixture so that it all comes together easily.

Place chicken stock and ginger in a large pot.  Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 10 - 15 minutes to let the ginger infuse in the stock. Add the carrot and flavourings and leave to simmer until the carrot is cooked. 

Add the pak choy and allow it to wilt in the soup.

To serve

Place dumplings in a bowl

Spoon hot soup over the dumplings

Make sure each bowl has some carrot and pak choy

Top with spring onion strips 

Enjoy - next time I would add some coriander to the dumplings and to garnish the finished dish.  Soy sauce, chili sauce and lemon or lime juice would also be good to have on the side as condiments.