Steamed Dumplings

"Dumpling House" with our buddy, Peter

Too into my dumplings to smile

Chris and I fell in love with dumplings when we visited China a few years ago. One stop at a "dumpling house" and we were hooked!!
Here in the US, as you can imagine, they just aren't the same... they're more processed & more fatty... and often fried not steamed. Don't get me wrong, we will still eat them! We just don't love love love them... ha! Dumplings seem tough to make and time consuming... too much work for this mom of a one year old, but I tried it anyway. There is always nap time, right?

Well, after making them.... my thoughts were proved CORRECT. These take time and concentration!! However... I will say, it was worth the ripped wonton papers, burnt fingers and precision. They were AWESOME and closer to the real-deal than anything else we've had.

Give it a shot. It's such an accomplishment and a great reward to deliciousness!

Great Wall, duh!

STEAMED DUMPLINGS
What you need:
30-35 small square wonton wrappers
1LB ground chicken
1/2 sweet onion
1TBSP grated ginger
Optional: 1/4C grated carrots
1/2 small head cabbage - shred 1C and use the large leaves to line steamer
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 egg white
2TBSP Braggs or low-sodium soy sauce
1TBSP rice vinegar
cooking spray

How to:
Saute onion, garlic and shredded cabbage & carrots in a pan. In a seperate bowl, mix chicken and egg white. Add seasonings & sauces. Now, add chicken mixture to the pan w/ onions, cook through.

Arrange wonton wrappers on clean, dry surface (work in shifts so the papers don't dry out... I did 4 at a time). Place 1-2TBSP of mixture in the middle of wrapper. Wet fingertips and moisten the corners of wrapper, fold over and press together to seal. Repeat

Fill a pot with water, a couple inches. Put metal steamers in pot. Layer a few large cabbage leaves on top of steamer. Put wonton dumplings in steamer and cook 5-10 minutes, until wonton is soft. Unless you have an enormous steamer, you'll have to do this several times to cook all of the dumplings. Don't let them touch or overlap cause they will stick together and make a disaster (take my word for it haha).

For a dipping sauce, I simply mixed together Braggs & chili paste. It was awesome!

I could've done without seeing the "supermarket" Pretty much...yuck