Lucy’s Perfectly Formed Veggie Dumplings

Method

For the filling:

• Place a large skillet or wok on the stove over medium-high heat.
• Add oil, ginger, garlic, and cabbage.
• Cook until cabbage begins to wilt and shrink down.
• Add mushrooms, green onion, and carrots, along with the soy sauce and sesame oil.
• Continue to cook until liquid begins to evaporate.
• Season with pepper, to taste, and salt only if needed.
• The soy sauce tends to add enough saltiness for my taste.

For the dough:

• Into a large bowl, combine flour and salt
• Use a wooden spoon to stir in boiling water
• Continue to stir flour and water until the flour is mostly absorbed by the water
• Mixture will be crumbly. Dump flour mixture onto a clean surface to knead the dough
• Knead dough for 8-10 minutes, until dough is soft and smooth (you can add more flour to your hands if it becomes sticky)
• Shape the kneaded dough into a round disc and using a knife, cut the disc into two equal portions and cover both with plastic wrap leaving for 1 hour
• Cut the dough into 4 even portions to roll out (I used a pasta machine)
• Roll it out until you can see light passing through the dough
• Use a biscuit cutter to cut our circles of dough keeping the other dough covered in plastic wrap so it doesn’t dry out. Don’t place them on top of each other otherwise they will stick together!
• Fill your wrappers with filling >> Watch a video to show how to create the pleating shape!

Steaming the dumplings:

• You can easily steam dumplings in a bamboo steamer and line with a cabbage leaf so they don’t stick
• Place your dumplings onto the cabbage leaf/baking paper in the steamer leaving a little space between each dumpling so they don’t get stuck together
• Place steamer over a pan, wok, or pot of boiling water and cook with a rapid steam for 6-8 minutes
• To make them more like a gyoza, I quickly fry them 1-2 minutes on a high heat in a pan with a little oil!