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new Year's Dumplings

By Ying Chang Compestine

Makes 40 Dumplings

You can be creative and adventurous with dumplings. Feel free to substitute some of your own favorite ingredients in the filling and sauce. You may want to use hot chili oil instead of sesame oil to add zing to the sauce. For the filling, you can experiment with seasoned mashed potatoes, tofu, lean pork or smoked salmon. Or make some wild creation such as a sweet fruit filling and serve the dumplings as a novel dessert. You can make the filling ahead of time. It will keep in the refrigerator for 2 days or in the freezer for up to 1 week.

Traditionally the steamer basket is heavily coated with oil to keep the dumplings from sticking. I've found a delightful alternative. Take a plump, round carrot and thinly slice it into disks. Place each dumpling on its own disk. When the dumplings come out of the steamer, each has its own little serving tray. As a bonus, the carrot becomes sweet and tender during steaming. My son loves to eat his dumpling trays.

Filling

• 3/4 pound lean ground pork or beef
• 1 Tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
• 1 Tablespoon canola oil
• 4 Large napa cabbage leaves, about 5 ounces
• 2 Green onions (green and white parts), minced
• 4 Fresh shitake mushrooms, minced
• 1 Tablespoon minced fresh ginger
• 1 Cup minced leeks (white part only)
• 1 Tablespoon rice wine
• 1/4 Teaspoon pepper
• Dash of salt
• 2 Teaspoons sesame oil
• 40 square wonton wrappers

Make the filling: In a large bowl, mix the meat, soy sauce and oil. Set aside.

Trim stems off cabbage leaves and discard. Mince the leaves. Squeeze out the liquid from the minced cabbage. Mix it in with the meat filling.

Combine the remaining filling ingredients with the meat mixture in the large bowl. Mix well.

Thinly slice the carrots into disks. You'll need one disk for each wonton.

Set up a space for folding the dumplings. Place a bowl of cold water, the wonton wrappers, the filling and the steamer basket around your workspace. Cover wrappers with a moist paper towel to prevent drying. Place the carrot slices in the steamer.

With each wrapper, dip all four edges into the cold water. Holding the wrapper flat on your palm, place about one teaspoon of filling in the center of the wrapper. Bring the four corners of the wrapper up over the filling. Pinch the edges together tightly. Set each dumpling on a carrot slice, leaving a little space between each dumpling

Add enough water to a pot for steaming but not enough to touch the steamer basket. Bring the water to a boil. Set the steamer over the water. Steam until dumpling skins are translucent, 10 to 12 minutes.

TIPS:

There should be adequate water in the pot to boil for several minutes, but it should not touch the dumplings in the steamer.

If you don't have a steamer basket, you can use a heatproof plate. Elevate the plate with a heatproof bowl on the bottom of the pot. Add water to the pot. Fill the bowl with water and place the plate on top. Cover and steam.
 

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