Homemade Dumplings and Baos

Sometimes my friends and I would hang out at someone's house and make dumplings.

This was one of those days.

Prawn and Pork Dumplings (Serves 4)

Ingredients:
500g peeled prawns
500g pork mince
2 packs dumpling wrappers
1 large bunch of garlic chives, or however much you want
2-3 tsp shaoxing wine
2-3 tsp soy sauce
1-2 tsp sugar
1-3 tsp sesame oil

*Measurements are rough estimates. It really is up to you if you want it to be blander and healthier, or tasty.

1. Get your ingredients ready. You can choose from a variety of dumpling and wonton wrappers from supermarkets and Asian stores. My family prefers the circle wrappers.

2. Wash and peel prawns if you haven't already done so. Take off the heads, pinch the legs off and peel from the inside curve.

3. Cut up the prawns into small pieces, not too chunky. The finer the better. Chop up your garlic chives as well. Note that garlic chives are the Chinese variety, widely available in Asian stores. My grandmother's rule of thumb is that the more garlic chives, the yummier it is. It will shock you how much she puts in there (her recipe coming soon).

4. Put everything into a large mixing bowl with all the sauces and mix well.

5. Spoon small amounts, about 1 teaspoon, of filling into your wrappers. Wet the edges with water and fold.

This video shows several ways you can wrap your dumplings depending on how you want to cook them. The way my and my friends' families all do it is the third way.

6. Now it's up to you how you want to cook them. You can steam them like we did, for roughly 8 minutes in a steamer. You can boil them in hot water until they float. You can fry them and turn them into potstickers.

7. Serve with your favourite dipping sauce. Mine is balsamic vinegar with sugar and sesame oil. My friends all have varieties like soy sauce only, vinegar only, vinegar and soy sauce, etc.

The great thing about dumplings is that they are excellent to keep and freeze for a really long time. You can cook them however you want, whichever is most convenient to you. They are also filled with protein and vegetables to help you meet those dietary requirements! You can virtually put any protein (chicken, beef, lamb) and any vegetables (carrots will need to be parboiled, but cabbage works well).

Wendy's mum and grandma were also there making pork and vegetable buns! It was fascinating to watch them work at it.