1carrot, grated (I used the finer side of my box grater), excess liquid squeezed out
3mushrooms, finely chopped (shitaake would be great, but I just used regular button mushrooms)
1-2tablespoonfresh ginger, finely grated
2clovesgarlic, finely grated or crushed
½block of tofu, grated
Handful of coriander, finely chopped
1tablespoonsoy sauce
2teaspoonsesame oil
For the dipping sauce:
2tablespoonsoy sauce
1tablespoonblack vinegar
1tablespoonchilli and garlic oil
Instructions
Put your sliced cabbage in a bowl, sprinkle over the salt and mix through with your hands. Set aside for about 15 minutes while you get the rest of the dumpling filling ingredients ready.
Put the cabbage into a colander and give it a thorough rinse. Then pick up handfuls of it and give it a good squeeze to get rid of as much excess liquid as you can. You'll be surprised at how much it'll shrink once you've done this.
Mix cabbage, carrot, mushrooms, ginger, garlic, tofu, coriander and soy sauce together in a bowl. I've used an egg to bind the mixture before, but it's really not necessary.
Pour 2 teaspoon sesame oil into the bottom of a large frypan and tilt to coat the bottom evenly, you'll put your dumplings in here as you go.
Put some water in a little dish, you'll use this to moisten the edge of the wrappers.
Put about 1 tablespoon filling in a wrapper, moisten the edge, fold in half then pleat and squeeze the front side of the wrapper to close the dumpling. The bottom should be flat so that they stand while cooking. No idea what i'm talking about? I don't think there's any great way to describe the method, so check out this YouTube clip which is a good demo. I've never heard of the freezer step he mentions, and had no trouble.
Continue filling dumplings until your frypan is full, you run out of wrappers, or you run out of filling. Whichever comes first.
You can set the dumplings aside for a while at this stage to get the rest of your meal ready.
Once you're ready to cook, boil your jug and put the frypan over a medium to high heat. Pour boiling water into the frypan until it comes about 1cm up the sides of the dumplings. Put the lid on. What you're doing here is steam frying. Once the water has steamed away, the bottom of the dumplings will crisp up in a most delicious way.
Cook the dumplings for about five minutes, keeping a close eye on them (burning your dumplings is known to make grown women cry). Once it looks like there's almost no water left, remove the lid and check a dumpling bottom. If they're not golden yet, leave the lid off while they continue to fry for another minute or two. Then use a large fish slice or spatula to carefully loosen dumplings from the pan and serve.
Serve with sticky white rice, steamed greens and dipping sauce.
Serves 2-4 depending on your hunger and what you serve them alongside.
For the dipping sauce:
Mix sauce ingredients together then serve alongside meal in small dipping bowls.