Pork and Cabbage Dumplings

This year marks out 15th year of making our flagship white wine - The Virgilius. To celebrate, Yalumba have collaborated with chef Poh Ling Yeow to create the prefect Asian dishes to match this beauty of a Viognier. 

This recipe feeds 2 people for a meal or 4 - 5 for a as starter. 

Special equipment required for this recipe: 

25cm nonstick fry pan with a lid

Dumpling roller (from Asian grocer or a 2cm diameter piece of dowel 20 cm in length)

Dumpling skins

1 cup of plain flour

Boiled hot water

Place flour and wheat starch in a bowl. Pour a small amount of hot water into the flour and starch mix and mix with a fork until you can tip it onto the bench top and knead into a firmish, smooth ball. If it feels a little sticky, add a small amount of equal plain flour and wheat starch mix to the dough. Wrap in cling wrap and rest for 10 minutes.

Note: If you don’t have wheat starch the traditional way is to use 1 cup plain flour (in total) but follow the same method. It comes out just as good but possibly not quite as easy to handle.

Poh Ling Yeow demonstrating how to cook her Por and Cabbage dumplings

Shaping the dumpling

Yalumba's head wine maker Louisa Rose and Poh Ling Yeow talk Asian cooking and Viognier

Dumpling filling

200g Chinese cabbage finely shredded

1/2 tsp salt

280g pork mince

1 Tbs ginger chopped finely

1/3 cup spring onions or Chinese chives chopped

1/8 tsp ground white pepper

1/4 cup chicken stock or water

1 1/2 Tbs light soy sauce

1 Tbs shaoxin rice wine

1 Tbs vegetable oil

1 Tbs sesame oil

Mix salt with cabbage and allow to sit for 15 minutes so salt can draw liquid out of cabbage. Wash cabbage briefly before squeezing to remove as much liquid as possible. Mix together with remaining dumpling filling ingredients until everything is combined.

To make dumplings, sprinkle dough with some plain flour and roll into cylinders with diameter the size of a 20c coin. Cut into 1cm thick disks flatten with the palm of your hand. Tuck the disks under an overturned plastic container so they stay moist.

With a dumpling rolling pin, roll ONLY inwards from the outer edge of each circle, so you maintain a regular circle. If you roll outwards also, you will find the circle will become misshapen very quickly. Once the dough has been rolled out to about 1mm thick spoon a teaspoonful of the filling onto the centre of the wrapper. When crimping, only pleat one side of the dumpling leaving the other edge straight. This will give dumpling an attractive crescent shape and help it sit nicely. There are a several ways you can cook these. You may steam them or simply boil them in plenty of salt water. When they float, allow them to cook for a further 10 seconds then scoop out with a slotted spoon into a colander. If you want a crispy bottomed finish, position the dumplings neatly in a fry pan filled with about 1cm of water and a dash of peanut oil. Cover to allow the dumplings to steam for about 8 - 10 minutes. When all the water evaporates, the little bit of oil that remains will help crisp up the bottom.  Serve immediately with spicy dipping sauce.

Spicy dipping sauce

1/4 cup light soy sauce

2 Tbs Chianking vinegar (must be Changking, not generic Chinese vinegar - easily found Asian grocer)

1/8 tsp sugar

2 - 3 tsp chilli oil

1 Tbs ginger finely shredded

2 tsp garlic, chopped finely

Mix all spicy dipping sauce ingredients together and serve with dumplings.

We enjoyed this special celebration with some great friends. We hope to see you all again soon!