Chinese Dumplings

Tonight for dinner we are having Chinese dumplings. Emma asked the other day, "When will we get lo mein again?" So we had a discussion on Chinese food and how much we all love it. Matt said that we'd get takeout someday soon, and it could be Chinese. Then Rachel started talking about our homemade dumplings and how delicious they are, and as it so happens, I have wrappers in the freezer. So when I had to grocery shop, I made sure to pick up a nice hunk of fresh ginger and some ground pork.

They take a while to assemble, but they're not hard and they are SO good. They are about the only Chinese food I have found that tastes as good at home as it does in the restaurant.

Just mix ground pork with garlic, ginger, chopped scallions, some soy sauce and a little sesame oil--I love to put crushed red pepper too but usually don't because of the kids. Then put about a tablespoon in the middle of each wrapper, wet the edges with water, fold over and crimp with a fork to seal it up. Fry them in some canola oil (mix with sesame oil for taste, but sesame oil has too low a smoke point and will burn if you use it alone) and when they are browned, transfer to a pan with some chicken stock in the bottom, cover and steam about 5 minutes. (I go back and forth between frying all at once and then using the same pan to steam or having two pans going.)

Serve with a dipping sauce of soy sauce with chopped ginger, garlic and scallions, and a hint of sesame oil too for flavor. Remember to make about three times what you THINK you need, because you'll need them all.... :)