Art of Making Dumplings

It's funny how some childhood food sticks in your mind. I have made a similar version before but nothing beats the fun and laughter than I have when making these with my grandmother. As a child, I would often request if I could wrapped the filling into the rounded dumpling wrappers. She would reluctantly agree. And she would point out that because I didn't wrap it tightly, the filling spills out. I would argue with her and said how would she know if I was the culprit and not hers since we did them together? ;P

But now she is here, and when she gathered up the ingredients, I know the fun begins again. My turn to wrap some prawn dumplings with her. It's perfect timing because today is New Year's eve, and I know we will be having these for our steamboat (Chinese soup fondue) dinner.

We marinate the meat. Granny was very generous with the dried mushrooms. Defrosted some prawns, prepared the egg wash and here we go!

Place a teaspoon of filling into the middle of the wrapper. Place half a prawn in the middle.

Dot egg wash around the edge of the wrapper.

Seal.

Pose.

Repeat. 

While I was finishing them up, granny proceeded to make the stock and noodles for our soup.

The result of our work! Lovely juicy prawn dumplings!

Prawn Dumplings (makes around 30 dumplings)
300 grams pork mince
5-6 hydrated shitake mushrooms chopped finely
2 tablespoons of DOM liquor 
dash of white pepper 
2 tablespoon of light soya
dash of salt
1 tsp of corn flour

Around 15 prawns halved.

30 dumpling pastry.

Marinate meat with ingredients. Follow the above instructions. Boil stock. Cook prawn dumplings for around 5-6 minutes. Serve hot with chili!

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!!!!! MAY THIS YEAR BRING YOU AND YOUR FAMILY MORE LOVE AND PROSPERITY!!!