You guys blew up my other dumpling video, so it’d only make sense for me to bring it back and better! We fancy this time by adding a dumpling skirt – It’s going to add another layer of texture to these dumplings. Watch your guests as they break through the crispy lace.

Not going to lie, the dumpling skirt did take me a few tries to get it right but once you got the batter, it should be a piece of cake. The trick to getting the perfect dumpling skirt is to not adding too much flour to your batter. If your batter resembles milk then it’s too floury, the skirt will be thick and stale. We want the mixture to resemble cloudy water that leads to a lighter and crispier skirt.

Ingredients

Wrapper:
240g plain flour
140-150ml hot water

Filling:
400g pork mince (or chicken)
150g prawns, peeled and minced
85g garlic chives chopped (or normal chives)
1tbs grated ginger
1tbs soy sauce
1tbs sesame oil
Salt and lots of pepper

Crispy lace:
1/3 cup water
2 tsp flour

Dipping sauce:
Equal parts soy sauce, red/black vinegar and chilli oil.

Method

Wrappers:

Place flour and hot water into a bowl and stir until just combined.

Pour onto clean surface and knead for 6-8mins until dough is smooth. Add tsp flour or water at a time if dough is too wet/dry. Shape into ball and leave to rest for 30mins (meanwhile prep your filling).

Divide dough into 20 to 24 even disks (depending on how big you want your dumplings to be). Dust with flour and flatten disks.

With a small rolling pin, roll towards the centre of the disk, only applying pressure going inwards (this allows the centre of the wrapper to be thicker and the edges thin). Rotate disk 45 degrees and roll towards the centre of the disk, again only applying pressure inwards. Repeat until wrapper is around 1mm thick. Make sure the wrappers are well floured to prevent sticking.
[alternatively, you can just roll out the entire dough ball and use a cookie cutter to form wrappers]

Dumpling filling:

Combine all the ingredients into a bowl and set aside. (In the meantime, roll out your wrappers).

Place 1 tbs of filling into centre of wrapper. Wet the edges with water and fold the wrapper in half, only pinching the middle. Make 3 pleats on each side.

Heat 3tbs oil in a small pan over medium heat. Place dumplings into the hot pan & fry for 3mins (we want brown bottoms).

Prepare your crispy lace mixture while you wait. It should resemble diluted milk.

Pour the starchy lace mixture inbetween the dumplings, just covering the pan and immediately cover with lid (you don’t need to use the whole thing). Allow dumplings to steam for 6 mins. Uncover, let the lace dry up and become golden brown. Flip onto plate & enjoy with dipping sauce.