The story of making dumplings

The ingredients for this 'lumpy' thing:  200gm plain flour (shifted); 150ml boiling water; 1 tbsp oil and 1 tbsp cold water (if necessary).  Put the shifted 200gm flour into a mixing bowl or any bowl you can find in the kitchen, make a hole in the center, pour in the 150ml hot boiling water and mix quickly using a wooden spoon.  This part of the process was done by my son who suddenly showed an interest in making dumplings.  After this lump is created, cover the bowl with a cloth and let it rests for 20 minutes.  There's a 20-minute wait for this 'thingy' to rest so everybody dispersed and we all agreed to gather for the kneading of the dough.  You can easily get the plain flour at the DIY Bakery shop - 1kg at RM2.70.  You need to buy more than 200gm because you need extra plain flour for kneading and when you want to divide them into smaller portions.

I prepared the filling which is shown in the bowl on the left side of the photo.  The filling includes 300gm minced pork; a small sweet cabbage (discard the veins, shred the leaves, sprinkle with a pinch of salt and let it rest for maybe 20 minutes, then squeeze out the water from the cabbage); 1 tbsp light soya sauce, some salt, 1 tbsp sesame oil, some pepper, a pinch of sugar, 1 tbsp corn flour.  Mix them all together and put the bowl into the fridge while waiting for the dough to rest.  Did I say everybody dispersed because we wanted to wait for the dough to rest for 20 minutes?  So when my son and I came back for the lumpy dough, I discovered the dough is round and smooth (as shown in the plate on the right side of the photo).  My first thought was, wow, miracle, that lumpy thing can rest and turn into something so smooth.  Then I realised that lumpy thingy was no more in a bowl but on a plate.  I asked who disturbed the lumpy thingy and way back in the kitchen, somebody answered "I kneaded it already".   People can be so 'busybodies'.  The recipe says when kneading the dough, there's a need to add 1 tbsp oil and 1 tbsp water if necessary so that means the busybody did not add this two crucial ingredients.  After kneading into a smooth dough, rest the dough for 10 minutes before using.

Roll the smooth rested dough into a roll (using some plain flour because it's very sticky), then divide them into round portions of 20gm each.  Then roll them into thin rounds.  Remember to sprinkle plain flour everywhere so the dough won't be so sticky.

Once you have the thin rounds, you can spoon the filling into the middle and close the edges.  You can just close the edges or you can fold and close them which will look better as dumplings are more rounded not like curry puffs which look more flat.

200gm plain flour for the skin and 300gm minced pork can make about 30 dumplings.  I smear the plate with olive oil before putting the dumplings on it.

This is the first batch of pan-fried dumplings.  There are three ways of cooking the dumplings.  You can steam them which is the most healthy way of eating them.  You can fry them in hot oil which is the most delicious way of eating them.  You can pan-fry them by heating the cooking pan, pour in some oil (not too much but just enough to brown them), lay the dumplings on the side and once they are browned, pour in enough water to submerge them but do not over-submerge them and cover the cooking pan.  Let it cook and boil.  Once the water is reduced, you can take them out.  They are ready for eating.  What I did was to put that little bit more oil to brown both sides, then before I pour in the water, I pour out the oil first so it's not so oily.

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