Siu Mai Open-Faced Dumplings Part 1

One of my favourite things in the world is dumplings. Which is why I bought the cookbook Asian Dumplings: Mastering Gyoza, Spring Rolls, Samosas, and More (click here for Amazon.ca).

As I went through the cookbook I noticed so many of the dishes had ground pork in them. I tried picking some up at my store but they were always out which is why I ordered my KitchenAid Food Mill. Amazing how one thing leads to another.

Remember the ground pork I made the other day?! Yup, that is where it went. In these beautiful dumplings. This is quite the long process because I made everything from scratch. I will post Part 2 tomorrow.

How to Make Homemade Dumpling Dough

Combined 1 1/3 cups flour and 3/4 tsp salt.

You are supposed to combine 1/4 cup water and I large egg. Oops! I added the water.

And then the egg.

I actually needed more water for the dough to come together.

I did not want it to be too wet so I rolled out the dough looking like this. I kneaded it until it came together.

It did not come together perfectly but it did spring back when I pushed my finger into the dough. It was slightly tacky but not sticky which is good. I covered with plastic wrap and let rest in the fridge for an hour or so.

I cut off 1/3 of the dough and rolled roughly with a rolling pin.

I got out my pasta machine and brushed the dough with some cornstarch. I ran it through the machine at Setting #1, the widest thickness, a couple of times.

Then I folded it and put it through #1 again. This helps bring integrity and strength to the dough.

Then it went through #2, #3…. When it started to get a bit sticky I brushed on more cornstarch.

It started to get long so I cut the dough in half. I was eventually able to put it through #6! It was so thin, I could see my hand through the dough.

The hard part was cutting the dough. It was strong so it needed a cutting edge and the dumplings were supposed to be a 3″ circle. The only tool I had that was close was my new ravioli cutter!

I had to smear it around a bit to cut out the pasta but I did it! And, I was too tired to make the dumplings. I covered the dumpling skins with plastic wrap, put them in the fridge and made the dumplings the next day.

Part 2 to come!