Dumplings are delicious, but I have always been intimidated by the technicalities of to make it. Here in Hong Kong, vegetarian dumplings are very hard to find. I got bored of eating at the same place all the time and wanted to be able to enjoy this dish in the convenience of my home, with the luxury of creating my own stuffing, depending on what flavours and ingredients I want! When I finally got round to creating this at home, it was a lot easier than I expected. The only difficult part was creating that perfect dumpling design, but practice does make perfect!
Wrapping your dumpling
There are several ways that you can wrap your dumplings, and in all honestly, you don’t have to follow how dumplings look like at the restaurants, you can just have fun with the designs and create your own.
However, if you do want to impress, use my video from Instagram to see how I created these beautiful butterfly designs. It is really easy, and it looks stunning after you plate it.
The sauce
I used my peanut sauce for this, but you can use whatever you like. I also added my homemade kimchi to this, and will share the recipe shortly.
Butterfly Dumplings
Equipment
- Steamer
- Pan
- Dumpling cutter or a circle cookie cutter
- Medium-sized mixing bowl
- Rolling Pin
Ingredients
For The Dumpling Wrappers
- 1 cup Unbleached, organic, all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup Hot water you want the texture of the dough to be soft, and malleable. If it is too soft and sticky, add a tsp of flour at a time. If it is too hard, add a tsp of water to soften.
For The Stuffing
- 2 tbsp Sesame oil
- 1/2 Carrot shredded
- 1 Handful Pok choy minced with the stem
- 2 Brown button mushrooms minced
- 1/2 cup Spring onions chopped
- 2 cloves Garlic minced
- 1 tsp Ginger shredded
- 1 tbsp Vegetarian oyster sauce
- 2 tbsp Organic soy sauce
- 1 tsp Chilli oIl
- Pinch of pepper
Instructions
For The Dumpling Wrappers
- In a medium sized mixing bowl, add the flour
- Gently pour the hot water while stirring the mixture using chopsticks or a fork
- Once the dough is shaggy, tip the mixture on to a clean surface and start kneading the dough until smooth
- Cover and let it rest for 30 minutes at room temperature.
- After 30 minutes, remove the dough from the bowl and place it on a flour-dusted, clean, flat surface.
- Roll the dough out until it is about half a centimeter in height
- Using a 5-7cm in diameter circle cutter, cut the dough into 15 circles. Remove the excess dough and roll it up to use again. Repeat the circle cut with as much dough as you can.
- Before you prepare the dumpling, you have to ensure that the wrapper is as thin as possible. Dumplings taste better when its a very thin layer of wrapper, and a lot of stuffing. You can do this by rolling each wrapper out a little more until it reaches 1/4 cm in height. Remember to keep dusting the bottom and top surface of the wrapper so it does not stick to the surface of the tabletop.
- Once you have the perfect dumpling wrapper, place 1 hefty tsp of stuffing right in the center of the dumpling wrapper and start wrapping away! Use my video on IG to help you with the wrapping.
For The Stuffing
- In a pan, add the oil and let it heat up on medium heat
- Add the garlic and ginger, and stir until fragrant
- Add the chopped veggies, and stir until they are semi-dehydrated
- Add the sauces, and mix thoroughly. Switch to low heat
- Switch the gas off once all the water from the vegetables evaporates.
Wrapping Your Dumplings
- Watch my IG video and see how the butterfly shape is made. You can wrap your dumplings in 4 different ways. See notes for more information. You can always use water to soften the edges and make your wrappers stick together.
Cooking Your Dumplings
- You can either steam your dumplings or pan-fry them. When you steam them, it will cook in 10 minutes, and when you pan-fry them, be sure to add some oil to the pan, and water that covers about 1/3 of your dumplings. Cover the lid and your dumplings will cook leaving that beautiful golden crust at the very bottom of the dumplings.
The Sauce
- Use this spicy peanut sauce recipe with extra chilli oil and you will fall in love.
Notes
- The video is the best way to see how you can wrap your dumplings.
- Don’t leave your dumplings out in the humidity too long, or it will go crusty. If you need a little more time, be sure to cover them with a cloth to maintain the moisture
- For the dumplings that you won’t be cooking, you can always store them in the freezer and steam whenever you want
- Be sure to freeze them individually as placing them together can make it difficult for you to defrost the dumplings, and break them apart. It will result in tearing.
- Enjoy making your dumplings!