I didn’t think I needed to spend much time explaining how to make the filling; it’s just mixing together the meat, onions, salt and pepper. But I did think it might be useful to throw in a lil’ primer on cutting onions, although anyone who is a chef and/or went to culinary school would scoff at the ridiculously clumsy and decidedly NOT small chunks of onions I produce here.

A well in the flour…so that your liquid can sit in the middle.

This is a good lesson as to why you should be patient when you’re kneading or incorporating dough. It takes a few minutes and some kneading for the flour to fully hydrate, so a lot of times when it seems like it is a tad too dry, give a little bit of time and love and see if that’s still the case a couple minutes later. In this case, as we saw, I almost immediately realized that I didn’t need to add in any more water at all.

This dough being as wet as it was, it was definitely a mistake not to put flour down before rolling it out. When the circles being cut out are so small, it makes it that much more difficult to fold them around the filling when they stick to the counter and totally lose their round shape.

As soon as the camera turned off here, I threw that shapeless torn-up lump of meat and sticky dough down on the counter in frustration. Luckily, I had a companion with me who was able to convince me to keep going and not scrap the whole project altogether because of one hiccup. This is why we need community!

Thinking about making the Chinese New Year dumplings the same night was very daunting…so, as I explain in the following video, I made the wise decision to allow myself an overnight resting period before diving into a whole ‘nother process. Good call.

Working without my uniform! Shocking and altogether untoward!

If you’re not sweating by the end of this process, I’m here to tell ya, you ain’t doing it right.

  • From what is that…
  • …to I think that’s a dumpling?

Really, really happy with how the final products turned out. It’s good to remember that even if it gets very frustrating at times, it can still come together to make something great…

…maybe a thought we can apply to the larger situation?