These dumplings evolved out of a failed recipe for what I called "shrimp balls". In my head they were going to be delicious pillows of minced shrimp infused with garlic and ginger, crunchy on the outside, mealy on the inside. So I minced my garlic, ginger and shrimp. Rolled it out into little shrimp meatballs, and shallow fried them. It didn't turn like I wanted at all. Not even close. What it ended up being was a big oily mess of extremely salty mush. I had to find another use for all this salty shrimp paste.
I needed to tame down the salt, without adding much more to it. I didn't want to make it into a bigger mess than it already was. So I added a bit of ground pork to the mix. Along with some scallions. Went out and got some won-ton wrappers and decided to make dumplings. Mind you, with all the salt I had added to my first experiment, it was still salty. I figured once the plain wonton comes into play, it should be tolerable.
I proceeded to individually place a dollop of meat-mix on the wonton and wrap it up.
After I had them all done, I set out to steam them. That's when I realized I don't have a steamer. No worries, I have a colander that has holes! I didn't have cabbage leaves to line my make-shift steamer, so I lined it with lettuce. (Note-to-self: DO NOT use a nice powder coated colander as a steamer. Steam and nice red powder coating don't seem to go well together. I ruined my colander. Get a steamer.)
Dumplings steam in about 15 mins. I could have just eaten them as is. But why eat them steamed, when you can pan fry them! So I did.
No soy sauce or fish sauce. I had enough salt to begin with. So just a dash of siracha. I little garnish of scallions, and voila!
No soy sauce or fish sauce. I had enough salt to begin with. So just a dash of siracha. I little garnish of scallions, and voila!
Bon appétit!
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