Directions

Make the filling

1. Some of the ingredients in the filling are new to your guys so I will take some time to talk about it.

2. Sha Ge (沙葛) - It is also known as Jicama, or Mexican turnip. It tastes almost like a pear or water chestnut - sweet, crunchy, and juicy. If you can’t find it, you can use carrots, water chestnuts, or daikon radish as a replacement. We only need 1/2 of a cup, you can snack on the rest.
3. Cai Pu (菜脯) - It is Chao Zhou style preserved daikon radish. You want to get the Xian Cai Pu which is preserved with salt. There is another sweet kind that is preserved with sugar and salt. Don’t get the sweet one. If you can not get this ingredient, you can use pickled vegetables or Zha Cai (preserved Mustard stem)as a replacement.
4. Dou fu Gan (豆腐干) - compressed tofu (soybean curd). The texture is firm. The one that I get is braised in a spice brine, so it is salty and flavorful. There are other kinds of Dou Fu Gan that don’t that much flavor so you might need to adjust the seasonings base on what you use. You can look up the tofu section in your local Asian grocery, you should be able to find it. We need 1/3 cup of this.
5. Xia Pi (虾皮), translates as shrimp skin. It is sun-dried baby shrimps. They don’t have that much meat so they look like shrimp shelves. That’s why we name it Xiapi. We need 3 tbsp of this.
6. Soak 4 pieces of dried shitake mushroom with room temperature water 2 hours in advance. One they are re-hydrated, squeeze the water. Save the soaking liquid. Sliced the mushroom and diced it.
7. Marinade 10 ounces of ground pork with the following ingredients: 2 tsp of soy sauce, 2 tsp of fish sauce, 1 tbsp of Chinese cooking wine, 1 tbsp of oyster sauce, 1 tbsp of satay sauce(optional) 1 tsp of sugar and some white pepper to taste. Mix until the flavor is well combined. Set it aside.
8. Besides that, you will also need to dice 1 shallot, 2 cloves of garlic, and 1.5 tsp of ginger. Set these aromatics aside.
9. Heat your wok. Add 2 tbsp of cooking oil along with all the aromatics. Stir for a few seconds. Then add the diced shitake mushroom, preserved radish, braised tofu, and the sun-dried baby shrimps. Keep stirring over medium heat for a couple of minutes. Toss in the diced jicama. The reason I add it a little late is that I want to keep the crunchy texture. Stir for another minute then push everything to the side. So we have room for the ground pork. The pork is seasoned. The shrimp, tofu, preserved radish already have flavors so you don’t need to add any more seasonings. Just stir to cook the pork through. It will take a few minutes. Turn the heat to low. Pour in some cornstarch water in batches (1/2 cup of the mushroom soaking liquid + 2 tbsp of cornstarch). This will help to bind the filling together. Give it a taste to make sure the flavor is good. Take it out. Set it aside and let it cool completely.
10. While waiting, dice 1/2 of a stalk of celery, and 1.5 cups of garlic chives. If you don’t like the flavor of the garlic chives, you can use spinach, scallion, or fennel. Combine the celery and the garlic chives. Add a big drizzle of toasted sesame oil. Mix well. We gonna mix the chives, celery with the filling together. The oil will help to wrap the chives and prevent it from releasing moisture after it touches the seasoning. Also, you want to mix the vegetables in when the pork is completely cool down so the chives don’t get soggy.
11. By the way, the local Chiuchow Fen Guo has roasted peanuts in the filling but I personally don’t like peanuts in the dumplings so I didn’t add it. Set the filling aside.

Make the wrapper

1. As I mentioned before, this is a gluten-free wrapper but the wheat starch is not an easy ingredient to find. It is ok to use regular dumpling wrappers. You can check my dumpling from scratch video for that - https://youtu.be/Znf73dsFdC8

2. Combine 3 kinds of starch - 100 grams of wheat starch, 100 grams of tapioca starch, and 25 grams of cornstarch. This is the formula so I don’t have replacements for them but there are pre-mix products on the markets for this specific type of dumplings. You can just buy it and follow the instructions on the package to make the clear wrappers.
3. In a non-stick sauce pot, add 300 grams of water and a drizzle of vegetable oil. Put on the lid. Bring it to a boil. Don’t go away because it only takes a minute or 2. If you let it boil for too long, the water will evaporate too much. You won’t have the correct water -starch ratio.
4. Remove the pot from the stove immediately. Add in the starch mixture to the hot water in 3 even batches. Make sure to stir for a minute or 2 between each time. Some of the starch will become transparent and some of the starch will clump up together. Don’t worry a thing. Just keep mixing until everything forms into a non-smooth dough. Put on the lid. Let it rest for 5 minutes.
5. 5 minutes later, add transfer the dough into a heavy-duty pot or ceramic bowl. Use a rolling pin to punch the dough. If you feel that the dough is sticky, You can dip the rolling pin in the oil and continue punching. Flip the dough every 10 punches. By doing this, the starch chain will bind together in a deeper way and the wrapper will be gooey. In about 8 to 10 minutes, the dough becomes smooth. You can touch the dough with your hand. It shouldn’t stick to your fingers. Pull it a little bit, it should be stretchy and elastic.
6. Take it out and start kneading it on the working surface. Keep shaping it into a long log. If you feel the dough gets sticky, you can apply some cornstarch to prevent that.
7. Divide the dough into 24 even pieces. Each piece should be 20-22 grams. The cut surface will stick to each other so you have to sprinkle some cornstarch to prevent that.
8. Cover the dough pieces with a plastic wrap. Sprinkle more cornstarch. To roll each piece into 4 inches in diameter wrapper.

Close the dumplings and steam them

1. Put 2.5 tbsp of filling in the middle of the wrapper. Dip some water to wet the edge all the way around. Carefully fold the wrapper in half. Pack it tough. Fold the edge to make pleats. Continue to finish all the dumplings.

2. Oil the steamer rack to prevent sticking. Place the dumplings in one by one. Leave some space in between. Cover them. Turn the heat to high. Once the water starts boiling. Let it steam for 10 minutes.
3. 10 minutes later, you can open the lid but do not touch the dumplings. Because the wrapper is very vulnerable. You can’t pick it up without breaking them at this moment. Just let it sit there without the lid for a few minutes. Once the skin gets a litter firmer, you can pick it up.
4. Serve with dipping sauce (6 dumpling dipping sauce recipes) - https://youtu.be/aZl2oYFfmPU