Ingredients:
1 pound ground pork or chicken from your local farmer’s market
1/2 head of napa cabbage from your local farmer’s market
3 Tbsp green onion, minced
1 large egg
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp sesame oil (3 Tbsp if using ground chicken)
1 Tbsp grated ginger (no need to peel)
3 cloves garlic, minced
100 dumpling wrappers (most packs have 50 wrappers, so you will probably need two packs)
A small bowl of water
Cooking oil
Directions:
- In a large bowl, mix all filling ingredients together until combined.
- Take one wrapper and place a spoonful of filling in the center on a clean cutting board or counter.
- Use your finger to dab a little bit of water from the bowl along the top half of the wrapper’s circumference. The wrapper should be damp from about 9 o’clock to 3 o’clock.
- Fold the edges of the wrapper in, sticking it to itself along the damp top half. It’s luckiest to make 8 folds because the Mandarin word for 8 (八) sounds like the word for good fortune (發).
- Gently flatten the bottom of the folded dumpling against your work surface, to make it easier for the dumpling to stand upright when cooking.
- Repeat 99 more times!
- Heat a large pan with 2 Tbsp cooking oil to medium heat.
- Add as many dumplings as will fit without crowding to the pan, and cook until the bottoms are golden (3-4 minutes).
- Add 1/3 cup of water to the pan. It will sizzle and steam a lot, but don’t worry–that’s normal. Put the lid on the pan and cook until the water has evaporated (6-8 minutes).
- Remove the lid and cook for another minute or two to let the dumpling bottoms crisp again. They should have an internal temperature of at least 165°.
- Enjoy each batch of dumplings while hot, and repeat until you’ve cooked them all!