Chinese Dumpling Soup

When I told John I was making Chinese dumplings for lunch, he said "You're being really adventurous!" This resulted in a 5 second stare and me asking him why. "Because Chinese dumplings take some skill to make!"

What? I didn't know that! My next 10 minutes was spent trawling the web for tips on how to fold these damn dumplings. After reading many useful entries, I realised that the key was to fold them so that no air bubbles get trapped inside. Why? Because they will explodeeeeeeee!

My first batch turned out like morbidly obese mutant goldfish swimming around in a boiling pool of water. Thank God I did a test batch. I quickly did the rest of my dumplings, making sure not a single one had air trapped in them, and into the pot they went!

And as Borat would say... Great success! I felt that the recipe called for too much pepper so I cut it down, also I did not add prawns as I am a poor student =P

Here is the recipe if you would like to try it, I modified it and have put them in brackets on the side.

Dumpling Ingredients:

• 150gm Chicken fillets, minced (Used about 400g of chicken!)


• 300gm Prawns, removed shell & vein, minced (Omitted this) (Omitt


• 3 pcs Water Chestnut, chopped


• Handful of Spinach, chopped (Used way more!) (Used quite a big more because we love our greens =) (

Marinade:

• 5 tbsp Light soya sauce


• 1 tsp Sesame oil


• 2 tsp White Pepper (Cut this down by half) (Too much! Cut it down by half..)


• 1 tbsp ShioXing Rice Wine

Soup Ingredients:

• Leftover fish bones (Hmm didn't have any at hand) (Omitted)


• One handful Anchovies


• 1 big Yellow onion


• 1 stalk celery


• 1 carrot


• 2 slices Ginger


• Baby Choy Sam

1 packet Dumpling skin (At the Asian grocery there were round and square ones so I opted for the square)

Directions:

1. Mix dumpling ingredients with seasonings (Used a food processor for this). Marinate in the fridge for 2 hours or longer.


2. Boil 1 liter of water in a pot. Add in soup ingredients except HKG Baby Choy Sam.


3. Boil for 1 hour in slow fire till soup become concentrate.


4. Drain ingredients, retain the soup and set aside.


5. Put 1 tbsp of batter on the dumpling skin. Fold into half & close the top end. You may get approximately 20 - 25 dumplings.


6. Heat up soup, put in the amount of dumplings that you want to consume at that moment. (I felt that I had to add a little more water as there was too little to boil the dumplings). Bring to boil for about 6-8 mins. Add in baby choy sam. Once the choy sam is cooked. Off the fire.


7. Dish up and serve immediately with rice or noodles. Or on its own.