Pork Mushroom Dumplings in Mushroom Broth

Recipe courtesy of The Yum Yum Factor.

Serves: 8-10

Pork Mushroom Dumplings

Ingredients

2 cups napa cabbage, finely shredded
1/2 tsp plus 1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 tbls grated ginger
1/4 cup finely chopped Chinese chives or green onion
1/2 cup ground pork
1/2 cup ground white button mushrooms (whizzed in a mini food processor or hand chop finely)
1/8th tsp pepper
1/4 cup chicken stock or water
1.5 tbls soy sauce
1 tbls shoaxing wine (omit if you can’t find it)
1 tbls canola oil
1.5 tbls sesame oil
31-35 wonton wrappers (about 3.5” round wrappers are best)

Directions

  1. Put some parchment on a baking tray.
  2. Toss the cabbage with 1/2 tsp salt and set aside for 15 minutes to draw out excess moisture. Drain the cabbage in a strainer, rinse with water and squeeze out all the water. You should be left with about 1/2 cup of cabbage.
  3. Add the ginger, chives, pork and mushrooms and mix until combined. In another small bowl, mix 1/2 tsp salt, pepper, sesame oil, stock, soy sauce, shoaxing wine and canola oil and fold into the meat/mushroom mixture until incorporated. You should have about 2 cups of fillings.
  4. Lay out your wrappers and spoon about 1/2 tbls of filling on each one. (if your wrappers are larger or smaller than 3.5”, you will have to adjust slightly)
  5. Dip your finger in water and moisten around the outer edge of the wrapper before you fold in half.
  6. You can hand pleat the dumplings, you can use a dumpling mold to crimp it or you can use a fork to seal the edges of the dumpling. Set aside on the parchment lined tray until they are all done.
  7. If you are not making the dish right away, cover the tray of dumplings with plastic wrap and store in the fridge for a few hours.
  8. You can also throw them in the freezer, on the tray and after they are hard, put them in a freezer bag for later. When cooking from frozen, just drop them in the water straight from the freezer.
  9. Bring a large pot of water to a light simmer and then add your first batch of dumplings – don’t over crowd the pot. When they float to the top, after 5-8 minutes, they are done so remove with a slotted spoon and place a few of them in each shallow soup bowl.

Mushroom Broth

Ingredients

  • 20 grams of wood ear mushrooms (use dried shiitake if you can’t find wood ear mushrooms)
  • 2 litres of mushroom broth or chicken broth ( two 900ml boxes of broth)
  • 10 crimini mushrooms, thinly sliced
  • 3 tbls grated ginger
  • 4 green onions, thinly sliced
  • 2 tbls light soy sauce
  • 3 tsp black vinegar
  • 100 grams enoki mushrooms

Directions

  1. Soak the wood ear mushrooms for about 10 minutes in hot tap water.
  2. Drain the mushrooms through a strainer, keep the liquid and set aside.
  3. Combine the crimini mushrooms, the strained soaking liquid, the mushroom broth, ginger, green onion, soy sauce and black vinegar in a pot.
  4. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Add in the enoki mushrooms after ten minutes.

 

To Finish:

Top the dumplings that you have put in the shallow bowls with Mushroom Broth, sliced scallions and a sprinkle of togarashi and serve.