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beef & fennel dumplings
prelude: i cook by heart and not by measurement, so these are pretty rough but it'll definitely get you close enough! i also usually do a combo of ground fatty pork/any asian veg but i haven't really been into pork for the last year so... wanted to try beef.
my parents & i recently went back to hong kong [we coincidentally overlapped] and we went back to our old neighbourhood dumpling shop but it was CLOSED?!??! so sad. but, we knew of a different store down the road where we tried the juiciest beef & fennel dumplings. this was my valiant effort of trying to recreate them but i must say... it is not even close to being there yet. so, here's my half-decent recipe and i hope to figure out what type of crack they put in their filling in order to get it soooo dark and flavourful.
dumplings are also my childhood favorite food. my nickname at home is "肥餃子", aka fat dumpling because i was chubby and ate the hell out of dumplings. needless to say, i make hundreds of dumplings every month to freeze and gift to friends. it's my go-to de-stress activity and i found myself wrapping thousands of dumplings over the course of running peko, LOL. if we're ever in the same city, feel free to hmu and mayhaps i will whip out a bag for you...
ingredients:
- filling protein: the FATTIEST ground beef possible
- filling veggie: fennel, green onions, ginger, garlic
- note: i aim to have a 75:25 ratio of veggie to protein. i usually only pick up 1-1.5lbs of ground meat and use up the entire fennel bulb AND stalk.
- spices: white pepper, salt, soy sauce. sometimes oyster sauce. sometimes an egg (rarely). sometimes whatever im feeling
- wrappers: ap flour, water
directions:
- dumpling wrappers: you can buy them premade at the store and ngl, most times it is probably worth the time you save but... if you do want to make them from scratch, i measure ap flour/water by heart, then knead. then let it sit for an hour. knead more. let it sit for another hour. knead more. keep going until you are too hungry to continue.
- separate your now very elastic dough into balls and roll into circular sheets.
- thinly dice the fennel (or vegetable of choice) and then salt heavily, leave to sit and dehydrate
- thiny slice green onions, grate your ginger and garlic into pastes (measure to heart)
- once your fennel sits for a while, squeeze that mf as hard as you can to get rid of as much water as possible
- combine all of your veggies with your ground meat and then season to your hearts content. i put a lot of white pepper
- wrap like ur 媽媽 taught u. i don't know how to explain this in words. i put a teaspoon of filling in the middle, water the edges, then i fold one side (not BOTH) into the other flat side, and it naturally curves and closes... go watch a yt video lol
- to cook: steam, boil in stock, steam/pan-fry. do what u want!
- pan frying tip: use a fair amount of oil and place dumplings onto sizzling hot pan until bottoms are golden. add BOILING hot water with a cornstarch slurry mix, iykyk, then cover and let steam. after 10-12 mins, uncover and let water evaporate and ur left w a crispy skrrrr
here are pics from my other iterations of this recipe!
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