We made these with Ms Tong, Tong Tong’s mother. You could feel her impatiently inspecting you stretch and shape each dumpling wrapper; she would have done it in a tenth of the time. We also made tofu ones with rehydrated shiitake and wood ear mushrooms, tofu, a little pork for flavour, and seasonings as below, but the pork were a slightly better flavour and texture.
Plain flour (but a high protein plain /all purpose like Marriage’s is apparently best) Hot water Filling of your choice: Minced pork Leeks chopped Garlic Ginger Soy sauce and salt Sugar -a pinch Sesame oil
Mix hot water into the flour to make a stiff not sticky dough. Need 10 minutes until smooth and ropey on texture. Rest under a cold wet cloth. Mix the filling. Season generously. Pinch out knobs of dough, round into a ball in your palms and flatten With a rolling pin in one hand and rotating the circle of dough in the other, gradually flatten the circle by rolling up to the centre before rotating a little and repeating. You can stretch it slightly ; the circle should be fatter in the middle. This is so the outer, once folded and doubled up in dumpling form, is not significantly fatter than the rest of the pastry. Place a spoon of mixture, rounded, in the middle of the dough. Using the Chinese clever method, seal the dumpling wrappers. The trick is to always do the inside first. Cool in hot water -bring to the boil, dump in some cold so it doesn’t boil, and repeat twice more. If you don’t boil them straight away freeze on trays and then store in a bag in the freezer. Serve with sauce made of soy, Chinese dark vinegar, garlic