Situ’s Recipes: Lunar New Year Dumplings

At CASL, Lunar New Year isn’t just a celebration of culture, prosperity and new beginnings – it’s a celebration of delicious food. CASL chef Situ has generously shared a tasty dumpling recipe to try for this Lunar New Year and beyond. Get out your ingredients, grab a friend and try out this new recipe!

• 1 lb of cabbage
• 1 ½ lbs of ground pork or chicken thigh meat
• 1 tsp of salt
• ½ tbsp of soy sauce
• 1 ½ tbsp of oyster sauce
• 1 tbsp of fresh minced garlic
• 1 ½ tbsp of cooking wine (optional)
• 1 tbsp of sesame oil
• 3 tbsp of corn starch
• 2/3 cup of water
• 3 tbsp of chopped green onions
• 2 packages of dumpling wrappers

1. Wash the cabbage thoroughly and blanch them in a pot of boiling water for one minute. Remove and put them in an ice bath or rinse and drain with cold water. Squeeze out water and cut into small, diced pieces.
2. Combine all ingredients except green onions and sesame oil into a large bowl. Mix well. Add green onions and sesame oil and mix again.
3. To wrap dumplings, dampen the edges of each circular wrapper with water. Put a little less than a tablespoon of filling in the middle. Fold the circle in half and pinch the wrapper together at the top. Make two folds on each side until the dumpling looks like a fan. Completely seal.

• Boiling: Bring large pot of water to a boil, add salt, drop dumplings into pot and bring back to a boil. Simmer for 6-8 minutes.
• Pan-frying: Heat two tablespoons of oil in a non-stick pan over medium-high heat. Place dumplings in pan and fry for two minutes. Pour thin layer of water into pan, cover and reduce heat to medium-low. Steam dumplings until water has evaporated. Remove cover, increase heat to medium-high and fry until bottoms of dumplings are golden brown and crisp.
• Steaming: Place dumplings in steamer basket lined with cheesecloth, perforated parchment paper or cabbage leaves. Simmer water over medium-high heat for 8-10 minutes.

To freeze dumplings, wrap baking sheets tightly with plastic wrap and put the pans in the freezer. Freeze overnight, then transfer dumplings to freezer bags and freeze for later.

For homemade sauces, combine:

• Fresh minced garlic
• Sugar
• Light soy sauce
• Sesame oil
• Chili oil
• Sesame Seeds

OR

• Worcestershire sauce
• Chili oil
• Sesame oil

We hope you enjoy these dumplings! Keep up with our blog for more amazing recipes from chef Situ!

Find the Chinese language version of the recipe here.