New Year's Dumpling Delight with Chili-Garlic Dipping Sauce

Happy New Year! Chinese that is. (Almost. The real deal is Tuesday.) 2009 is the Year of the Ox, and we decided to celebrate by making traditional steamed dumplings. They were quite delicious...although extremely labor-intensive between the slicing and dicing and one-by-one assembly. Try them though...they're something that every self-respecting home chef should make at least once.

(I actually made several different kinds last night. I'll be posting all the recipes soon. These were the best of the lot though. And the dipping sauce is fantastic. Worth making for your take-out eggrolls next time you have delivery Chinese food.)

New Year's Dumpling Delight with Chili-Garlic Dipping Sauce
From Cooking Light.
Makes 3-4 dozen dumplings (depending on the size of your wonton wrappers and the generosity of your filling method).

Chili-Garlic Dipping Sauce:

1/2 cup low-sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons green onion, minced
1 hot red chile, minced

To prepare dipping sauce, combine first 7 ingredients. Cover and refrigerate.

Dumplings:

10 ounce ground pork
3 1/2 cups shredded Napa (Chinese) cabbage
1 1/4 cups thinly sliced leek (about 1 large)
3/4 cup thinly sliced green onion
1 cup thinly sliced shiitake mushroom caps (about 3 ounces) (I chopped them roughly after slicing.)
1 tablespoon minced or grated peeled fresh ginger
1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon sake (rice wine) or sherry
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
40 wonton wrappers


To prepare dumplings, combine pork and next 10 ingredients (pork through black pepper) in a large bowl.

Working with 1 wonton wrapper at a time (cover remaining wrappers with a damp towel to keep from drying), spoon a scant tablespoonful of pork mixture into center of each wrapper. Moisten edges of wrapper with water; bring 2 opposite corners to center, pinching points to seal. Bring remaining 2 corners to center, pinching points to seal. Pinch 4 edges together to seal. Place dumplings, seam sides up, on in a bamboo steamer lined with cabbage leaves, banana leaf or carrot slices.

Arrange half of dumplings in a single layer in a bamboo or vegetable steamer. Steam dumplings, covered, for 10 minutes. Remove dumplings from steamer; place on a platter. Keep warm. Repeat procedure with remaining dumplings. Serve with dipping sauce.


Food/Wine Pairing: Perhaps I should have gone with something more Asian here like sake, but I discovered that a glass of sparkling rosé was delicious with these.