If you and your family love Asian food, you will really enjoy these delicious home made dumplings.
Get the older kids involved in the process, and you can get a little production line going if everyone is hungry.
Dumplings can be boiled, steamed or fried – this recipe boils them, meaning that you don’t need to use any extra oil or butter in the cooking process. It also produces a lovely, tender little parcel that just melts in your mouth.
Gow Gee wrappers are available in most supermarkets. They tend to be kept in the fridge near the fresh pasta.
It’s really important to go for lean mince in this recipe, often the cheaper mince from the supermarket has a high fat content which, as well as not being an ideal choice for weight loss, can make the dumpling a little too oily.
You could crank up the ginger if you like those sorts of flavours; or if the kids aren’t into chilli you can always leave that out.
You could also get creative and mix up the contents a little. There are so many options to give these your own twist.
Some Flavour Combinations To Try:
- pork mince with grated fennel
- chicken mince with corn kernels
- turkey mince with dried cranberries
Ingredients:
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 500g lean beef mince
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
- 1cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
- 1 small red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce
- 1 packet of gow gee dumpling wrappers
- 3 shallots, ends removed, finely chopped
Method:
- Over a high heat, bring a large saucepan of water to the boil.
- In a separate frying pan or wok, heat the oil over med/high heat.
- Pop in the garlic, ginger and chilli and stir for 30 seconds before adding the mince.
- Brown the mince mixture for approximately 5 mins.
- Pour in the soy and oyster sauces.
- Set aside to cool so that you can comfortably handle the mix.
- Lay out your wrappers and place 1 teaspoon of the mince mix into the centre of a wrapper.
- Brush the edge with water and fold the pastry in half. Press the dumpling closed with your fingers. Repeat with remaining mince mixture and wrappers. If you have any mince left, set it aside to use when serving.
- Place 8 dumplings at a time into your pot of boiling water. Dumplings are cooked when they float to the surface (around 30 sec).
- Remove with a slotted spoon and keep warm in a dish while you cook the rest of the dumplings.
- Divide dumplings between serving plates. If you have any remaining mince mixture, divide it between the plates.
- Sprinkle over the chopped shallots to serve.
Serves: 4. Calories per serve: 360.
