Pork and Leek Dumplings

I took the basic recipe from my post on Pork Dumplings and made the adjustments I thought necessary after that first trial. I think this is the optimized recipe for now! I ended up going with leeks because the napa cabbage I saw at the grocery store was extremely sorry-looking. Now, I'm pretty sure I prefer leeks to the napa.

For excellent pictures on making wrappers and wrapping dumplings, see use real butter's remarkable post here.

Filling:

1 leek (finely chopped, green and white parts, cleaned well and spun dry in salad spinner)

1 pound ground pork

1-2 tbs finely grated ginger (I lean toward 2)

3 cloves garlic, minced

3 tbs soy sauce

1.5 tbs sesame oil

a bit more than half an egg

2 dashes ground white pepper

2 pinches salt (pinched with thumb, index and middle finger if that helps to define "pinch" at all)

Mix up the filling first and then turn toward your dough. Combine:

2 cups flour (I've been weighing out flour, so this is 250 grams)

3/4 cup hot water

Knead until smooth, adding a little flour at a time when the dough feels sticky. Kneading time is probably about 5 minutes. Form ball, place back into bowl and cover with damp towel. Let the dough rest about 15 minutes.

Then divide the ball into 4 pie segments and store three back in the bowl under damp cloth to prevent drying. With the fourth, make into a fat cylinder with hands and cut sections off. I got 6-8 wrappers from each quadrant. After each cut the cylinder will flatten a little so turn it 90 degrees between cuts. Take each little section and push a little so it looks like you cut it out of a cylinder (not with the flattish ends) and then press down to form a disk. Dust both sides with flour and roll the edges out (roll a little edge, then keep spinning your disk and rolling until you have a flat wrapper).

Knowing how much filling to put in will depend on the size of your wrapper and personal experience. Too little filling is a bummer when you eat it and too much is impossible to wrap. You'll figure it out. Wet half the circle with your finger dipped into water and crimp the edges closed.

To fry:

Heat a little oil in a nonstick frying pan. Place dumplings into oil and cook until the bottoms are brown. Quickly pour in enough water so that it comes up to about 1/5 or 1/4 of the dumpling height then clap a lid on that pan and wait for the water to steam away. When the water is gone (a clear lid helps to gauge this), take off the lid and let the dumplings dry up so the bottoms get crispy again.

For the sauce I like:

Equal amounts of soy sauce and rice vinegar (I probably tilt the balance toward the vinegar)

Generous spoonful of chili garlic sauce