Today, I’d like to introduce you to Hungry Lindsay’s better half, Thirsty Mike.
Thirsty Mike loves to cook. He’s a guy who doesn’t believe in following recipes, so feel free to play fast and loose with his directions.
The following recipe is what Mike calls “Lindsay’s Favorite Pork Dumpling.” The name is a bit of a misnomer, since I don’t eat pork, but as you’ll see from the recipe, it’s an incredibly easy change to make these dumplings vegetarian friendly.
And now, without further ado, here is Thirsty Mike’s Pork Dumpling recipe:
Mix Filling:
- 4 cups finely chopped Napa cabbage
- 1 pound-ish ground pork (for veggies, substitute pork with MorningStar meat bitlets or pressed, chopped tofu)
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh ginger
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped garlic
- 1 tablespoon sambal olek chili paste (Buy it! Put it in everything! You won’t regret it!)
- 1 chopped green onion
- 1 egg
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- Probably some salt and pepper
- Whatever else it looks like it needs, but cut up really small
Dumpling mix (with pork)
Dumpling mix (with soy crumbles)
Fill a tumbler with:
- Some ice cubes
- 1” gin
- The rest of the way with tonic
- Lime wedge
Refill as needed throughout cooking process.
Mix dipping sauce until it looks right:
- A bunch of rice vinegar
- A roughly equal amount of soy sauce
- More chili paste
- Maybe some green onions
- I dunno, whatever else you think it needs. Some honey would work.
Get: 1 package wonton wrappers
The setup: dipping sauce, wonton wrappers, and dumpling mixes. (The veg version is in the teal bowl. The pork version is in the blue bowl.)
Put: 1 dollop of the pork mixture in the wonton wrapper. The dollop should be smaller than you think it ought to. But not too small. These still have to be fun to eat. You’ll figure it out.
Brush: Some water on the edges of the wrapper
Fold: The wonton wrapper around the pork dollop so it looks nice, like a dumpling. I’ve had best results with a diamond shape (if you’re using square wonton wrappers). Or a half-moon (if you’re using round wonton wrappers).
Dumplings folded and ready to steam. If you’d like them fancy, you can crimp them. We usually crimp the meat ones and flat-fold the vegetarian ones so we can tell the difference.
Pour: Two inches of salted water into a big pot
Put: As many dumplings into a bamboo steamer as you can fit without them touching
Boil: The pot over high heat with a top on it for 10 minutes
Completed dumplings! Want one?
Now you’re all set! Fun, right?
(As a last note, I’d like to add that these dumplings freeze very well, so you can make them ahead of time and steam them when you want to eat.)
Enjoy!
Excellent, thank you!