Lunar Dumplings

The great thing that I love about World of Warcraft is the holidays that they set up and have throughout the year. Each one is uniquely different as it is in the real world. Currently, characters in Azeroth are celebrating the Lunar Festival. The holiday coincides with the Chinese New Year. Players can set off fireworks, honor elders, don festive dresses and suits and my personal favorite; eat good food.

Like Lunar Dumplings. Yum!

The recipe I am following is borrowed lovingly from Use Real Butter. This is a first attempt. I'm sure that if keep practicing they will come out perfect. Now you can make these with shrimp, or with pork. I'm going with pork because it's fairly inexpensive. So here we go.

What you will need:

Time, and lots of it. There is an insane amount of chopping and mincing involved as was state by the author.
2 lbs ground pork
8 large napa cabbage leave, minced
14 shitake mushrooms, minced (white mushrooms will not do as a substitute as they don't have the same flavor.) If you buy sliced shitake, you will need about a cup of minced mushroom.
1 c. bamboo shoots, minced (see a pattern yet?)
1/2 c. ginger root, ready for this? Minced.
1/3 c. soy sauce
1/4 c. seasame oil
1/4 c. cornstarch

Hey guess what! You don't need to preheat the oven.

Mix all the ingredients listed in a large bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and put in fridge while you make the dough. I had difficulty with the dough, it was either too wet or dry. When I finally got it work for me, I was be annoyed.

For the dough you will need
4 c. all purpose flour
1 c. warm water

Add water little at a time, mixing it until it's a pliable ball that peels away from the edges of the bowl. Trying to do this with nails and not get dough under them is impossible. (Getting a dough blade.)

Take pieces of dough and roll them into an oval, put a small amount of the meat mix into and follow the pinching-pleating technique shown on the site listed above. I cheated. I have a dumpling maker and was able to make the seals without too much issue. I then pan fried them in a little oil, adding a 1/4 cup of water to the pan (use caution, it will spatter.) and covered with a lid 5-6 minutes until the water mostly gone. Remove lid and cook a few more minutes to allow the dumplings to dry out.

At first I was not impressed with them, but with practice and a lot of flour, I had made a batch that was edible and not falling apart. I had a lot of meat mixture left over. Having purchased wonton wrappers from the store, I put some of the mixture in there, sealed the edges and boiled them for a few minutes.  After that, I still had meat stuff left over. So I made meatballs to go with it. Adding some flour and pan frying it over low heat.

The reason I had so much meat left over was miscalculation. However, I think I apparently had enough to make several fancy Lunar Festival platters. 

Meatballs resting on napa cabbage with green onion on top, Pork potstickers, Wonton, and dipping sauce.