Pennsic Recipes 1. Pork and chive dumplings

pork and chive dumplings (first week)


dough
3 cups flour
enough water to form dough. I usually start with a cup and work up from there.
You are looking for a dry elastic dough, bagel/pretzel/pizza dough consistency.
after kneading until the dough is smooth, let it rest.

filling
1lb pork
1lb shrimp (I omitted this at pennsic)
2 handsful of dried shitake mushrooms (my hands are small)
a pack of dried 5 spice tofu (I omitted this at pennsic)
a pack of bean vermicelli (I omitted this at Pennsic)
1 pack of dried shrimp (a handful?)
1 bunch of garlic chives
1 bunch of scallions
1 chunk of ginger about 1 to 2 inches square
napa cabbage 2 stacks of leaves about 2 inches high. this depends on how big
your cabbage head is.

soy sauce
shaoxing wine
sesame oil
pepper

1. Before you start the dough. Soak the dried shrimp, bean vermicelli and
mushrooms in hot water to reconstitute.

2. Start the dough. Mix together the flour and cold water until it sticks
together. Knead the dough adding more flour or water until you get a dry
elastic dough kind of like bagel/pizza/pretzel dough. The gluten must be
activated! This takes a while.

3. Set aside dough and let it rest.

4. Mince napa cabbage place in bowl and sprinkle with salt. Mix well and let
sit. You are trying extract the water from the napa cabbage.

5. Chop garlic chives about 1/8 inch.
6. Mince all the other ingredients and place in bowl.
7. squeeze the nappa cabbage between your hands to press out the liquid. Toss
in bowl. Repeat until no cabbage left. Reserve liquid.

8. Add condiments to taste. I usually use a about 1" on the soy sauce bottle.
1 to 2 inches on the rice wine. and a couple of squirts of the sesame oil.

9. Mix all the ingredients together. look at the filling if you think it's too
dried add some of the cabbage juice and mix again. This is especially important
if you are using the fresh shrimp. It's drier than the veggies and pork so the
filling will need to be moistened.

10. back to the dough. take a managable chunk of the dough and knead. Stretch/
roll out the dough until you get a rope/cable about an inch in diameter. cut
out about 1/2inch to 3/4 inch pieces. Make one cut rotate snake 90 degrees and
make 2nd cut. This keeps the dough round.

11. Dust both cut ends and flatten the lump with your hand. make sure the cut
end is facing up. this makes rolling out circles easier.

12. Roll out the dough into roughly 3 inch circles.

(I usually cheat at home, I use a pasta machine and a cookie cutter. hand
rolled does taste better though)

13. Put a rounded teaspoon of filling into the center of the circle. Fold
dough in half. Pinch the top of the semi circle closed. crimp the other 2
sides. pretty doesn't really matter. the most important thing is to seal the
dumplings shut.

14. while you are making the dumplings. Fill a stock pot about 1/2 full with
water and let boil.

15. when you get a good sized batch of dumplings. toss them in the pot. stir
gently once or twice so they don't stick to the bottom. Let the water come to a
boil. add cold water to the pot. Repeat 2 more times. It takes 3 boilings
usually to boil dumplings. If your pot is too small (as it was at Pennsic).
Let the dumplings boil until they float on the water. Then I let it boil for
about 3-5 more minutes (paranoid, who me?). Serve hot.

16. Dipping sauce.

I use soy sauce. Zhengjiang vinegar (black vinegar), sesame oil, and shredded
ginger and scallions usually. You can also have chili sauce on the side. it's
up to you.

17. dumplings also freeze well. at home I stick the entire plate of raw
dumplings in the freezer and let them freeze. then I pop them off the plate and
dump them into a ziplock baggie and toss the whole thing back in the freezer.
Frozen dumplings require 4 boilings.

18. you can also pan fry them.