Sunday, December 2, 2007

Tasty Healthy Chinese Dumplings



Ingredients
  • 1 lb of lean ground pork or any ground meat
  • 3 stalks of celery, cleaned
  • 2 cans of water chestnuts. drained
  • 3-5 leaves of nappa or chinese cabbage
  • 1 bunch of green onions
  • 1tbsp of soy sauce
  • 1tbsp of sesame oil
  • 2 packages of wonton wraps

Instructions for dumpling filling

  1. Using the food processor, chop the celery stalks and water chestnuts until very fine. Drain most of the juices and add to the ground meat.
  2. Chop the chinese cabbage and drain any juices. Add to the meat mixture.
  3. Chop the green onions fine and add to the mix.
  4. Using a spatula, mix all the ingredients until well mixed.
  5. Add soy and sesame oil, mix them in.
  6. Open one package of wonton wraps at a time.
  7. Line a cookie sheet with wax paper. Fill a small bowl with warm water.
  8. Using a teaspoon, spoon the mix into the center of the wrap and moisten all the edges of the wrap with the water. Fold the wrap in half and seal the edges. The wontons will look like pillows. We like to use this shape because my kids like the dumplings fried and they fry much more evenly when done in the pillow shape. Place the dumpling on the sheet and fill the rest of the wraps. Do not overfill or it will be hard to seal the dumplings.

Cooking instructions

  1. Boil a large pot of water. When water comes to a boil add approximately 10 dumplings, one at the time in the water. When the start to float to the top of the water, they are ready.
  2. Using a slotted spoon or colander spoon, remove the dumplings from the water and rest them on a cookie sheet.

Ways to serve the dumplings
A. saute them in a frying pan using canola or vegetable oil. Enjoy with Chinese Dipping Sauce.

B. place them on a cookie sheet and brush with olive oil on one side. Place in a pre-heated 400F oven and bake until golden brown. About 10 minutes. Use the convection setting, if you have a convection oven. These are lighter and crisper than the sauted version. Also re-heat really well in the toaster oven or regular oven as leftover.


C. My favorite way: Heat some chicken stock or use the water that the dumplings were cooked in as a soup base. In a large soup bowl, place sheet of torn nori, some nappa cabbage, green onions. Add dumplings, about 8. Pour the desired liquid as the soup base. For flavor, mix in soy sauce, hot sauce, sesame oil. Enjoy the wonton soup. Delicious.

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