Scallion Oil Pork and Cabbage Dumplings

For the first recipe of Dumpling Week, a classic with a twist!

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Scallion Oil Pork and Cabbage Dumplings

Yield: 25-30 dumplings

Author: Sarah Huang Benjamin

Prep time: 30 MinCook time: 15 MinTotal time: 45 Min

A classic recipe with a twist, these pork and cabbage shui jiao dumplings are both filled and tossed with scallion oil for ultimate deliciousness

Ingredients

Scallion Oil

• 12-15 spring onions
• 1 cup vegetable oil of your choice

Dumplings

• 30 ready-made dumpling skins
• 250g (9 oz) ground pork - ideally 30% fat
• 3 large Chinese/Napa cabbage leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon light soy sauce
• Pinch of sugar
• 6 slices of ginger
• 4 spring onions
• 100ml (3.4 fl oz) water
• 4 tablespoons scallion oil (or other oil)

Instructions

Make the scallion oil

1. Wash and dry the spring onions thoroughly. Separate the green and white sections.
2. Cut them into sections, then slice the white sections open lengthwise.
3. Place the spring onion whites in a small pot with the oil, and bring to a medium heat.
4. Once the oil is bubbling, turn the heat down to low, and cook for 20-25 minutes. Make sure the spring onion whites are not turning brown.
5. When the spring onion whites turn slightly golden brown, add the spring onion greens and continue to cook for 10 minutes. Drain well and set the oil aside to cool.

Make the dumplings

1. Chop the cabbage into small cubes, and toss with 1 teaspoon salt in a bowl. Massage to mix, and leave for 10 minutes. Rinse the salt off and drain, squeezing well to get rid of the liquid.
2. Wash and cut the spring onions into sections, then place in a bowl with the sliced ginger and water, and massage vigorously, until the flavour of the ginger and spring onions have been released into the liquid. This should take 2-3 minutes. Drain the water for use.
3. Mix the minced pork with light soy sauce, sugar and salt, stirring to combine. Pour the ginger-spring onion water into the meat mixture in 4 batches, stirring well in one direction after each addition.
4. When the liquid has been fully mixed into the meat, pour in the scallion oil, and stir again to combine. Stir in the drained cabbage.
5. Place a small dollop of filling in the centre of each dumpling skin. Brush the edges with water to help seal, then fold in your preferred way.
6. Toss the dumplings in a pot of boiling water. When they start to float, add a cup of room temperature water and wait for them to float again.
7. Stir together a sauce of light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, a pinch of sugar and scallion oil to your taste, then drain the dumplings and toss them in.

Notes

Instead of cabbage, you can also add in some chopped mushroom, Chinese chives, Chinese celery – or whatever you want!

The basic pork filling also works well as a simple dumpling or wonton filling.