Jian Jiao — Pan-Fried Pork Dumplings

Crisp-bottomed pork and Chinese leaf dumplings with a juicy filling and tangy dipping sauce.

TIME BREAKDOWN
Prep: 1h
Cook: 15 min
Total: 1 hour 15 minutes
Vegetarian
❌
Nuts
❌
Serves
4 people (about 28 dumplings)
Difficulty
Medium

Ingredients

  • For the dough: 300g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
  • 160ml just-boiled water
  • For the filling: 300g pork mince (at least 20% fat)
  • 150g Chinese leaf, very finely chopped
  • 1 tsp fine salt
  • 3 spring onions, finely chopped
  • 2cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated
  • 1 tbsp light soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp Shaoxing rice wine
  • 1 tsp toasted sesame oil
  • 1/2 tsp ground white pepper
  • 1/2 tsp caster sugar
  • 50ml cold chicken stock
  • To cook: 2 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1 tbsp plain flour mixed with 150ml cold water
  • To serve: 3 tbsp Chinkiang black vinegar
  • 1 tbsp light soy sauce
  • Fine matchsticks of fresh ginger
  • Chilli oil, to taste

Method

  1. Put the flour in a bowl and pour in the hot water, stirring with chopsticks until shaggy. When cool enough to handle, knead for 5 minutes into a smooth, soft dough. Cover and rest for 30 minutes.

  2. Mix the Chinese leaf with the salt and leave for 10 minutes. Squeeze out as much liquid as you can in a clean tea towel.

  3. In a large bowl, mix the pork, squeezed Chinese leaf, spring onions, ginger, soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, sesame oil, white pepper and sugar. Stir in one direction until sticky, then add the stock a little at a time, stirring until absorbed. Chill while you shape the wrappers.

  4. Roll the dough into a log and cut into 28 equal pieces. Press each flat and roll into a round about 8cm across, keeping the edges thinner than the centre.

  5. Place a heaped teaspoon of filling in the centre of a wrapper. Fold in half and pinch the centre closed, then make 3 or 4 small pleats along one side to seal, so the dumpling sits upright with a flat base.

  6. Heat the vegetable oil in a large non-stick frying pan with a lid over a medium-high heat. Arrange the dumplings flat side down in a single layer and fry for 2 minutes until golden underneath.

  7. Stir the flour and water mixture, pour it into the pan and cover immediately. Cook for 6 to 7 minutes over a medium heat until the liquid has gone and the dumplings are cooked through.

  8. Remove the lid and cook for 2 minutes more until a crisp golden lattice forms and the bases are crunchy. Loosen with a spatula and slide onto a plate.

  9. Mix the black vinegar, soy sauce, ginger and chilli oil and serve alongside.