Who doesn’t love dumplings? This dumpling is filled with juicy pork and sweet, flavorful cabbage! Cabbages from Rochester Downtown Farmers Market are super tasty and they keep well in the fridge.Tips on how to make your pork fillings extra juicy included.
Winter is the season of cabbages in Taiwan, the cabbages grow slower in the winter and the result is super flavorful, crunchy, tender and sweet. Bye bye summer cabbages with big fat unchewable fiber! It’s time to make good use of all that beautiful vegetable, and what better way to do this than to make some delicious dumplings to keep in the freezer for whenever you crave that steamy hot juicy dumpling?
Meal Prep / Frozen Dumplings
Like most American household has mac-n-cheese, Taiwanese keep frozen dumplings in the freezer for those too-lazy-to-cook days. Whether it’s bought from a street market, supermarket or homemade, it’s safe to say that’s the first thing you’ll see when you open a freezer in Taiwan. My mom often has 5 bags of homemade dumplings with all different flavors ready to go!
When going out to eat, the most common dumpling combinations are pork with cabbage and pork with garlic chives. I love the one with garlic chives, but in MN it only grows in the summer.
Vegan? Try this recipe instead: MOM’S SPECIAL VEGAN DUMPLINGS | 家傳純素水餃
How to make the filling
The filling for the dumplings are actually really easy! All you need is ground pork, cabbage and some seasoning. The trick to a extra juicy filling is to add 1/4C broth or water to the ground pork a little at a time while mixing it till it absorbs all the moisture. Sesame oil not only gives flavor to the filling but also softens the meat. The smaller you chop the cabbage, the sweeter the dumplings are since it’ll mix with the pork better and it’s also easier to fold.
Dumpling Wrappers
For me, this recipe makes about 36 dumplings with EASY DUMPLING WRAPPERS | 簡單水餃皮, it’s almost perfect. But it all depends on how big you’re making your dumplings and how good you are at stuffing it. In my family, we like our dumplings big, fat, with lots of fillings and they can stand on its own.
Folding
There are few different ways to fold the dumplings, but my mom thinks this is the prettiest way. I remember when I was a kid “helping” my mom fold dumplings and I would experiment with the craziest shapes, there was square dumplings, round dumplings, triangle dumplings, heart shaped dumplings… they may be cool looking but most of them didn’t have any fillings in them by the time they were cooked since I obviously don’t know how to close them up.
Trick to folding the perfect dumpling? Dab the edge you’re closing with water then fold it and pinch it tight with your thumb and index finger.
Here’s a chain of photos of how these dumplings are folded. (Photo 3: Dab some water with your finger and go around the rim)
Need More Instructions or Video Demos?
You can check out The Dumpling Club, my online dumpling course to learn to make dumplings in the comfort of your own home! From making the wrappers, to fillings, folding the dumplings and 3 different ways of cooking them, we’ll guide you through the process via video step-by-step. It’s a fun real-time course, start rolling! 😉
Pork and Cabbage Dumplings | 高麗菜豬肉水餃
Who doesn’t love dumplings? This dumpling is filled with juicy pork and sweet, flavorful cabbage! Cabbages from Rochester Downtown Farmers Market are super tasty and they keep well in the fridge.Tips on how to make your pork fillings extra juicy included.
- Total Time45 minutes
- Yield45 Dumplings 1x
Ingredients
- 1 lb Ground Pork
- 3 Cloves Garlic (Grated)
- 1 inch Ginger (Grated)
- 3 TBsp Soy Sauce
- 2 TBsp Sesame Oil
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1/4 tsp Ground White Pepper
- 1/4 C Broth or Water
- 3 C Finely Chopped Cabbage
Instructions
- Add all ingredients (except for cabbage and broth) to a bowl and mix vigorously, until pork smooth and sticky. Use a fork, or three chopsticks. This will take about 7 minutes.
- One tablespoon at a time, add 1/4C Broth or water, mix until the liquid is absorbed. Add the chopped cabbage, the filling is ready for dumplings!
Making and freezing dumplings
- Depends on the size of your dumpling wrapper and how much filling you’re folding, this batch of filling makes roughly 45 dumplings.
- Once the dumplings are made, line them on a baking sheet, freeze right away. When the dumplings are frozen, you can easily peel them off and keep in a ziplock bag until ready to cook.
Cooking Fresh Dumplings
- Boil a large pot of water, add the dumplings and cook for 6 mins. The dumplings will float to the top
Cooking Frozen dumplings
- Boil a large pot of water, add the dumplings and cook for 10 mins. The dumplings will float to the top.
Notes
For making dumpling wrappers from scratch: EASY DUMPLING WRAPPERS | 簡單水餃皮
Want more dumpling recipes? Download this FREE Dumpling Cookbook!
- Prep Time: 45 minutes
- Category: Main Dish, Noodles
- Cuisine: Asian, Taiwanese
