CNY Chef: Spicy Thai Pork Dumplings by The Hutong's Sophia Du

You be the cook this Spring Festival with CNY Chef! Follow a new recipe every day of the holiday courtesy of one of the capital's top chefs.

The first recipe in our CNY Chef series comes from Sophia Du, one of the chefs at cooking and cultural space The Hutong, located near Beixinqiao.

The initial idea of these Spicy Thai Pork Dumplings came in response to boredom. Specifically, the boredom Sophia had begun to feel for traditional Chinese dumpling fillings, which inspired her to create something different.

Another motivation for creating dumplings with different fillings was the desire to give her clients a different culinary experience every time they came to The Hutong. Sophia is well known for trying many different fillings (cheese, banana-chocolate, samosa style, and so many more come to mind) and she has even created a series of cooking classes known as The Dumpling Revolution to explore these versatile snacks.

Sophia has been working at The Hutong for more than ten years, and her creativity always gets a boost from her eagerness to explore new cooking styles and cuisines from all over the world. Not surprisingly, this makes it very easy for her to adapt and create exciting fusions with dumplings.

Sophia Du's Spicy Thai Pork Dumplings

(Makes 20-22 dumplings)

Ingredients

Dough
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup coconut milk

Filling
200g minced pork (sub. mushrooms or tofu for vegetarian version)
2 cloves garlic
2 medium shallots
1 small red chili pepper
2 pieces of Kaffir lime leaf
Small handful of Thai basil
1 piece of lemongrass
5 tablespoons fish sauce
Pinch of white pepper
Vegetable oil

Dipping Sauce
Chopped roasted peanuts
Thai sweet & sour chili sauce

Method

Dough
1. In a large bowl, slowly add the coconut milk to the flour and stir to mix until dough is formed. Adjust the amount of milk or flour as needed. Knead the dough until it forms a smooth ball, then cover and let it rest for 20 minutes.

2. Once rested, make a hole in the middle of the dough and gently squeeze it into a ring and break it in half. Roll the dough until it becomes even, and then cut it into 2cm-long cubes. Roll the cubes into circular pieces for the dumpling wrappers.

Filling
1. Chop the garlic and shallots. Thinly slice the chili and kaffir lime leaves.

2. In a wok over high heat, stir-fry the chopped garlic, shallots, and chili for about two minutes or until they become aromatic.

3. Then add in the minced pork and spread around the wok. Let the pork cook for one minute before flipping to cook on the other side. Stir-fry for another minute until everything is combined or until most of the pork has changed color.

4. Next, add in the lime leaves, basil, fish sauce and white pepper. Stir everything until combined before turning off the heat. Remove from heat and let everything cool.

Cooking and Serving the Dumplings

1. Place a dumpling wrapper on a lightly floured work surface and spoon about one-two teaspoons of filling onto the middle of the wrapper.

2. Wet the edge of the wrapper with a little water, fold it around the filling, and crimp the edges together forming small pleats to seal the dumpling. Repeat with remaining dumpling wrappers and filling.

3. In a wok over high heat, warm up three cups of oil. Place the dumplings in the wok and deep-fry the morsels until the skin turns dark yellow in color.

4. Once the dumplings have been cooked, plate them and serve with the chili sauce mixed with chopped peanuts.

READ: Beijing's Winter Vegetables: Three Sweet Potato Recipes You Can Follow At Home

Images courtesy of The Hutong