This month was my very first Daring Cooks Challenge! It was something I always wanted to make but was a little unsure how, Chinese Dumplings. The girls and I both had a lot of fun making them. A big thank you to Jen from Use Real Butter for doing an excellent job hosting and providing direction. Anyone interested in trying should check out her original post on chinese dumplings.
We went with a non-traditional filling mainly because those are the ingredients I had around at the time. (If you have ever tried a “quick” trip to the grocery store with a 3.5 year old and 9 month old I’m betting you will understand.) The filling was lamb and apple sausage with sauteed cabbage, onions and caraway seeds. Next time I’m going to use less cabbage and add some chopped tart apple to the sautee since the flavor was a little flat.
First we made the filling. C had a lot of fun chopping a piece of cabbage with her little butter knife.
Sauteed Cabbage, Onions and Caraway
Next we made and rolled out the dough. This part was a little time consuming but very fun. C has her own rolling pin but spent more time eating her dough then rolling. You will notice my wrappers are not exactly perfect circles. 
Luckily that doesn’t effect the final product.
Not Quite a Circle Dumpling Wrapper
The next step was to fill and crimp the dumplings. I was very happy with my pleats!
Dumpling with Pleats!
Since little R is still too young to handle dumplings we made her a special baby version of the filling sauteed and ground up. It was a big hit with her.
Baby Food Dumpling
Finally for the adults and big kids we pan fried them. I also tried a deap fried version but my favorite was definitely the pan frying. The deap fried was good but a pain to clean up after.
Pan Fried Dumplings
Over all this was a wonderful challenge! We had a lot of fun and I will be definitely making more dumplings in the future. (Next time I’m even going to plan ahead enough to make a traditional version.)
On a side note the leftover filling makes an excelent breakfast hash if sauteed in olive oil until lightly browned. To see more great dumplings check out the main daring cooks post.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow, these look great! I liked that panfried ones as well. These non-traditional flavors are really inspiring.
You’ve done a wonderful job with the challenge. I chose to steam mine but yours look terrific.
Wonderful, no better perfect pleating on you dumplings and lamb and apple sausage with sauteed cabbage, onions and caraway seeds WOW yes I used some sausage meat also in my dumplings. And the children were involved clever you (this makes them want to eat them) and the final results sound great. Overall a fab challenge. Love the colour you got on the potstickers. Bravo cheers from Audax
Mmm, look at those golden pan-fried bottoms! Well done on your challenge. Love the choice of filling and it’s just so fun to see what everyone is coming up with. Did I mention your pleats are gorgeous? They are
xxoo
Yum!! Your dumplings look amazing =D. I love your photos as well!!
Gorgeous photos and dumplings, especially the beautiful pleating! Nicely done, and those potstickers are golden, crispy perfection!