Homemade Dumplings

Homemade Dumplings

first of all we wanted to say, thank you to all of those who have commented and tweeted about our brunch matrix post. We love sharing our meals and look forward to sharing more!

So its been a while now, but we need to share what we did on Chinese New Year Day. Actually, its something May has done her entire life with her family and I'm certainly all in for. I got my mom interested too and soon enough had a dumpling-making lunch up in the burbs!

Being Cantonese, my family is used to many layers of flavours and dishes so naturally my mom asked "oh! so we're only making dumplings? that's it?" yes, that is how May's family does it on Chinese New Year day; nice and simple.


may made the dough from regular flour and water the night before. It sat in the fridge and it had to be kneaded.

then shaping the dough into a log shape for cutting up into individual peices.

after a one-punch flatten to each peice, using a small pin roller, we rolled softly while rotating the dough to get an even surface and circular shape.

while some of us flattened and rolled the dough, others were adding the filling and closing up the dumplings.

here is a photo of my mom filling and shaping the dumplings. the filling is made with ground pork, long bean, ginger, five spice powder, an egg and salt

we tried different ways to close the dumplings; everyone added their own opinion and traditions but the goal is to have it look like a delicate "purse" with a combination of gathering and pinching.

according to my mom, the one i made was the prettiest. -seriously, mine as in gabe's! wuhoo!

and here are the dumplings after they've been boiled in water! you know they're done when they float to the top. May told us that traditionally you drink the broth after your meal too. We had the dumplings with a simple dark vinegar.

so what do you think? we had a lot of fun and so did my dad, mom and grandmother. I have to say, its pretty awesome to cook with your entire family; all three generations. I admit, the palm of my left hand was kinda sore the next day but I did get into a nice rhythm while churning out the dumplings. But they were so tasty! and well worth it. We'll need to do this more often than just on Chinese New Year.