COOKING VIDEO: PORK AND CABBAGE DUMPLINGS WITH CHEF HENRY HSU

Pork and Cabbage Dumpling Cooking Video with henry hsu

DOUGH

Hot & Cold Water Dumpling Doughs

For Chinese dumplings, there are typically 3 ways of cooking them: boiled (水餃), steamed dumpling (蒸餃), and pan-fried/steamed aka. potstickers (鍋貼). Boiled & steamed dumplings typically call for a cold water dough, whereas a hot water dough is best suited for pan-frying. Essentially, boiled skins (and steamed) get worked harder and a cold water dough has a tighter gluten structure, offering a more “Q”, al dente, texture.

For potstickers, hot water dough will suffice. The boiling water breaks the gluten, and when you work with this dough, you can sense it’s softer, more pliable and much loftier. You can get more dumpling skins out of a hot water dough batch than a cold tighter one for example.

As well, the two recipes are using two measuring techniques (weight versus “volume”) so you’ll also get to play around with different ways to be more “accurate” in the kitchen! Tip: weights are more accurate!

Tools: besides the obvious bowls, vessels for H2O, etc you will need a rolling pin. Typically for dumplings it’s easier to use small dowel type rolling pins (non-tapered) and of course, glass bottles, etc always work ;).....

Cold Water Dumpling Dough

500 grams all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
265 grams of room temperature water

Place flour in a large mixing bowl. Pour water into bowl in a small and steady stream while constantly stirring the flour mixture with a fork or chopsticks.
Bring the flour and dough together and ensure it’s all “wet” or moist but don’t yet worry about bringing it to a dough ball form. Have it all generally wet and gently pull it together into a ball and place it in plastic film for about 30 minutes
Flour a kneading surface and turn out the dough and knead for about ten minutes. The dough may get quite tight, but keep kneading till smooth.
Place dough in plastic wrap and set in fridge for minimum 2hrs or overnight to let the gluten relax.
Once you are ready to assemble your dumplings, have the dough ready at room temp. Dust a surface for kneading, and give it another three minutes of work.
When finished kneading, poke a hole in the middle like a bagel, and keep kneading the circle into a “necklace” where the whole gets bigger, then pinch it off so it is one log. Use your pastry cutter or hand to pinch off the appropriate weight (for boiled dumplings, I like to keep the dough balls at 9g, but of course, depending on filling.)
Take each ball, press with palm of hand, take the dowel and turn the disk with your opposite hand and turn it as your dowel goes back and forth along the edge. The idea here is to half flatter edged and a fat middle. Don’t worry too much about shape, but do get the middle to about 2-3mm and the edges to 1mm.

Hot Water Dumpling Dough

3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup ice cold water

(makes approx 880g of dough - 80 dumplings)

Place flour in a large mixing bowl. Pour boiling water into bowl in a small and steady stream while constantly stirring the flour mixture with a fork or chopsticks. Make sure all flour is evenly mixed in with the water. Should be fluffy loose mass of dough pieces and will be slightly dry, not tacky to the touch.
Let dough sit for at least 15 minutes. When mixture has cooled, add drips and drabs of the ice cold water while kneading to reach the right consistency, about five minutes (of course going longer always helps with the gluten!).
Cover with a damp cloth and set aside for at least an hour in the fridge. May be prepared the night before and kept in a ziplock bag in the refrigerator, which I find to be the best results. Bring back to room temperature to work with if extra cold.
Quarter the dumpling dough. On a lightly floured work surface, roll each piece of the quartered dough into a 12-inch rope. Cut each rope into 12 pieces and roll into balls; sprinkle with flour. Working with 5 or 6 balls at a time, roll into 3 1/2 inch rounds. Brush the excess flour off of the rounds. I tend to weigh mine, and for medium sized dumplings, I like to make 11gram size balls. (for small, 8-9g).
Take each ball, press with palm of hand, take the dowel and turn the disk with your opposite hand and turn it as your dowel goes back and forth along the edge. The idea here is to half flatter edged and a fat middle. Don’t worry too much about shape, but do get the middle to about 2-3mm and the edges to 1mm.

Filling and assembly

Ingredients

Dumpling Filling

2.5 lbs of Ground Pork (If you like to buy your meat from a butcher, ask for pork shank which is lean and fat separately, with a ratio of 70% meat and 30% fat, then rough ground once)
Cabbage
- 4 cups Taiwan Flat Cabbage rough chopped & salted *lighter, crisper & sweeter than wester green cabbage, then rinsed and squeezed out
OR
- 4 cups Napa Cabbage, chopped fine (I use minimal hard white part, save that for another application) and then coated in a couple of tablespoons of a neutral cooking oil
5 tablespoons Soy Sauce
5 tablespoons Toasted Sesame Oil
3 teaspoons white pepper
3 teaspoons finely grated ginger
3 scallions finely chopped from whites to greens
1 egg
Sea or kosher salt
2 tablespoons oil

Instructions

Slice Cabbage in rough, ¼” pieces if you like the texture/crunch) and place in bowl. Liberally salt and mix. Rest for 10 minutes and rinse off salt & expel water by squeezing cabbage under tap. You don’t need to rinse out ALL of the water, but you want to be aware of how much sodium is in the final mix, so give it a quick taste, too.
- OR, forgo the Taiwan cabbage if you have Napa and use the oil (no Salt) method
In a mixing bowl, slap together the pork and ground fat until combined. Do not mix right away.
Add soy, sesame oil, white pepper, and egg. Mix in a circular clockwise motion with your hand in a claw formation. Don’t over mix or heat up the mixture with the warmth of your hand. Use chopsticks if you have HOT hands! Heat will pull the moisture out of the pork and leave it mealy.
in a separate heat-safe bowl, add ginger and scallions, then pour hot oil over the mixture to open up the herbs, then add this to the meat mixture
Add in cabbage, mix in same direction quickly until combined.
This can be prepared in advance and kept in fridge for a day or so.
Assemble dumplings:

Assembly of dumplings (Pot Sticker Method) (Option 1)

1. Spoon approximately 1 teaspoon of the filling onto the center of each piece of 3 1/2 inch dumpling dough round.

2. Bring up the sides of the dough, press and pleat the edges to seal the filling. Lift each dumpling by the pleated edge, transfer to a baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough.

3. You can freeze the dumplings on top of parchment paper on small plates in your freezer. Once frozen, transfer to freezer bags and store for a couple of months. Note: Cooking instructions for frozen and fresh dumplings are the same.

Cooking the dumplings (Pot Sticker Method)

1. Use a skillet that has a fitted lid. Make sure you have an appropriate spatula to scrape and lift the dumplings off the surface of the skillet. Cast iron and non-stick are the easiest for this method of cooking.

2. Fill a tall glass of ice water with 1 tablespoon of rice vinegar. Set aside and have ready next to the stove.

3. Heat skillet with a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil. Once skillet is medium hot, place dumplings in the pan, placing them next to one another, but not touching. Cook dumplings uncovered until they become slightly golden on the bottom. When bottoms of dumplings start to become golden brown, pour a few tablespoons of ice water and rice vinegar mixture into skillet and immediately cover. Once water has cooked off, repeat once more and dumplings should be ready. When removing from skillet, make sure you don’t break the skin. Use a very flat spatula.

Makes approximately 40 dumplings.

For METHOD 2, Boiled Dumplings (water dumplings).

Assembly: similar method to the pleated moon shaped pot stickers above, but these are much simpler and formed into a half moon.

Cooking: Bring a stock pot of salted water to a boil, give the water a good swirl and start dropping the dumplings into the water. Give them a good swirl again, and make sure they are not sticking to the bottom or to each other. When the water comes to a boil and the dumplings begin to float, add a cup of ice water to kill the boil and when the pot comes to a second boil, fish the dumplings out to plate.

Recipe provided by Henry Hsu @oramasamadumplings

Hope you all enjoyed this cooking class and recipe! Feel free to comment and let us know if you try the recipe!

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On June 16, we held our second cooking class exclusively for RFF CSA members. This week, Taiwanese chef and educator Henry Hsu showed us how to make his classic pork & cabbage dumplings.

ABOUT HENRY HSU

A child of Taiwanese immigrants who settled in Houston, Texas in the ’70s, Henry currently works at Hodo Foods in Oakland though he has worn many hats. While living in Ecuador he found himself in a new place with a scarcity of good Asian food and eventually ran a dumpling business, before returning to the US to pursue his passion of food and cooking professionally. Read on to learn more about Henry’s fascinating story. (IG: @oramasamadumplings).