How to Make Steamed Dumplings and Egg Rolls

When I lived in China I was working as an Art Teacher at a Chinese National private school where I taught my subject in English. One of my students invited me, along with two other teachers to her home where we had home cooked jioze - or "steamed" dumplings. While there are steamed dumplings that are very good - what I learned to make was actually boiled, rather than steamed. Although my time in China wasn't as long as I had planned, I did enjoy getting to know more about the culture and people who live there. In addition to working there, I was able to travel to various parts of the country where I took advantage of learning about each area, including the cuisine.

For this recipe I used:

• Fish Sauce
• Rice Vingar
• Liqiud Aminos (or Soy Sauce)
• Sriracha Sauce (or hot sauce of your choice)
• Sesame Oil
• 2 Bunches of Green Onions
• 1 Nappa Cabbage
• 2.5 pounds ground pork (or protein of your choice)
• Wonton Wrappers
• Eggroll Wrappers
• Knife
• Large Bowl
• Tablespoon

First things first, you will be doing some dicing and unwrapping. Dice up the Napa Cabbage in bite size pieces from open leafy end down to the base/ root. When diced up, put cabbage into a large bowl. Next, dice up both greens and whites of the two bunches of green onions. Add the diced up onions to the cabbage and lightly mix. The "most difficult" part to this step is to unwrap the pork, and put it in with the cabbage and onions

Before mixing the meat in with the vegetables, I usually add these simple ingredients to start.

• 1/2 cup Liquid Aminos or Soy Sauce
• 1/2 cup Rice Vinegar
• 1/4 cup Fish Sauce
• 2 Tablespoons Sriracha (or hot sauce of choice)
• 1/4 cup Sesame Oil

Add each of these ingredients over the meat and vegetables in the bowl before mixing together.

**By adding the Liquid Aminos / Soy Sauce and Rice Vinegar first it helps "marinate" the meat while you add the other ingredients.

Once everything has been added, you can mix everything together in the bowl by hand, incorporating the meat, cabbage, onions and liquid ingredients until well mixed. More of each of the ingredients in Step 2 may be added as needed later on.

** Since this recipe uses raw pork, be careful to wash your hands well after mixing if you choose not to use gloves.

As you might see in the first photo, there are two basic size wrapper sizes that you can purchase from the store. If you make your own dough, you can determine how large or small you make it depending on what your final item is. In our case, we will be making two sizes - that will make up to three different items. The square shape will be used for steamed dumplings, boiled for soup or fried for wontons. The rectangular shape will be used for fried egg rolls.

You can, at this point, spoon on the filling before moistening and folding the wrapper.

For this step, you should have a bowl or other small container of water to aid the folding process. I usually like to dampen the edges of the wrapper before I add the filling by dipping one finger in the water and tracing the edges of the wrapper. Make sure that you have a consistant water line all the way around, making sure not to have dry spots along the way. Then, add a healthy tablespoon full of filling onto the wrapper. Next, take opposite corners together and press flat sides together. Finally, take the last two corners to the center, pressing all flat sides together.

In the end, the final result will look a bit like a pyramid. You can make several of these before going on to boiling, steaming or frying, depending on how many you are cooking for.

Like in the step before, you will want to wet the edges of the wrapper before filling. Yet unlike the smaller size, you will be adding two to three tablespoons full of filling along the diagnal middle of the wrapper. Once filling is on the wrapper, pick up one corner that is along the center line of the meat filling, and fold over to just the other side of the filling, to then pull the filling back into the wrapper with that corner. Then pick up each of the end corners one at a time sealing against the wrapper already there. Finally, roll up the egg roll pressing slightly down to allow for sealing the wrapper together. Before setting aside to do more, make sure that all the corners are sealed with water, so as not to allow juices to leak out into cooking oil, as much.

If boiling: once your water is boiling, simply drop your dumplings in the water. At first they will sink to the bottom, at this point make sure they don't get stuck on the bottom by stiring the water gently. As these cook they will begin to float to the top. Once you see the dumplings float and the wrapper looks almost translucent.

If steaming: you will be placing the dumplings into a bamboo steamer over a boiling pot of water. You will then steam until each dumpling wrapper looks not quiet translucent, usually about 8 - 10 minutes.

When frying, always be careful with hot oil, as it can burn skin and cause fires rather easily. Once the oil is hot, place egg rolll carefully into the oil, making sure to see the first end start to bubble up, or fry. When you lay the roll in the oil and see that the edges have bubbled up but not browned, turn roll over to cook on the other side. To brown, you may need to turn the egg roll two or three times. Now that the the egg rolll is cooked, take out of the oil and place on paper towels to take excess oil off.

WIth any leftover filling, you can freeze for another time. All you need are freezer ziplock bags and a sharpie. Simply label the contents of the bag and the date, and stash in your freezer. I found that once frozen, this filling is better cooked on its own and put over cooked rice. So, in the end you now have filling that can be used at least 4 ways - in wontons, steamed or boiled dumplings, egg rolls and over rice.