Chinese chive dumplings

手造韭菜餃
I am so excited to share with you the recipe of traditional Chinese chives dumplings made by my Aunt.

She have also taught me how to roll, knead and wrap them. 
Never in my life I have ever made these before.
It's the most amazing thing I have done since baking my first cake!!

 

Her skills was incredible, my aunt told me that all the young girls in the village knew how to make these. To her it was nothing special. I guess now days not many people make their own dumplings. They are frozen & available in the supermarkets.

She didn't have a recipe as nothing was written down.
Everything was measured by the eye and hands. I don't think I can live without my scales!!
 But just for my reference, she weighed everything for me.

This did slow down the process but I was truly grateful that she took the time and patience for me to learn.

If you like chinese dumplings and are ready for a challenge, then try these.

But be aware that if you are trying this for the first time, make sure you are not in a hurry and have at least 2-3 hours to make this.

Send your children to the grandparents!!  haha....

Ingredients for the pastry:
430ml water
800g plain flour

Method:
Slowly add water to the flour and using your hand to combine until it comes together.
Knead for 3-4 minutes, and rest on the worktop using the same bowl to cover the dough to stop it drying out.

Move on to make the filling while the dough is resting.

kneading the dough video

You need:

500g mince pork

500g peeled fresh king prawns

2 large bunches of Chinese chives

Method:

Use half a cup of water and add into the mince pork to loosen the meat and stirring vigorously until it is all combine and the meat is sticky in texture. Do the same with the minced prawns and the add it to the mince pork.

Seasoning:

1 tsp salt

1/2 a cup of oyster sauce

1/2 cup of vegetable oil

2 tsp sesame oil

Add the seasoning to the mince and mix to combine and you really need to mix until you get a sticky texture.

I have bought one large bunch of Chinese chives, my aunt said I should have bought two.

She said the ratio should be the same with the amount of mince pork, prawns and chives.
It's entirely up to you, you can have more if you like more chives in your dumplings.

 Prepare the chives by washing in water and shaking it to get as much water out as you can and dry with kitchen paper.  Chop in to small pieces and add straight into the meat filling.
 

Here is the skillful part, I can't explain to you how this is done but I have made short videos for the  making of the pastry wrapper in 4 stages:

video 1 separating large dough into 5 mini dough balls

video 2  rolling mini dough balls into sausage shape

video 3 chopping dough into pieces

video 4 rolling dough to make the pastry wrapper

 

Yet another challenge! It's wrapping the dumplings.

Place a large teaspoon of filling in the centre and squeeze the pastry tightly together closing the dumpling wrapper from left to right.

Place onto a tray dusted with flour and freeze for at least 4 hours and pack into zip lock bags.

Cook from frozen, shallow fry and them boil with hot water in the same saucepan until the liquid have evaporated.

Here's two ways to wrap them, a short video to show you how its done.

wrapping the dumpling