Dumplings are essential to most Chinese during Chinese New Year. I was born and grew up in northern part of China. And dumplings are always one of my favorite food.  

Making dumplings is not very easy but home made dumplings taste much better than the frozen ones bought from supermarket. When I was at home, my family made every part of dumplings, from dumpling skin to  dumpling filling. My dad or my mom or sometimes my sister could chop a big pieces of meat into minced one which is ideal for fillings. And my mom would chop vegetables to match with meat:

Pork with Chinese cabbage.

Pork with celery.

Pork with leek.

Pork with lotus root.

Beef with carrot.

Beef with radish.

Mutton with carrot.

Mutton with radish.

Vegetarian:

Leek with Tofu.

Leek with egg and Tofu.

Leek with vermicelli and Tofu.

Chinese cabbage with Tofu.

Chinese cabbage with vermicelli.

Actually, I don’t know how to make minced meat. So I just bought minced pork from supermarket. Then add in a little chopped spring onion, ginger, soy sauce, salt, black pepper, oyster sauce, seasame oil, and oil. Let the filling rest for a while before using.

Divide the dough into many small pieces. 

Use rolling pin to make them into thin dumpling skins. I don’t like dumpling skins sold in market. Cos when you boil the dumplings, it’s easy for them to get broken. 

Scoop filling onto the center of dumpling skin.

Then press the two ends together tightly.

Dip the bottom of dumplings into flour before place them aside.

Dumplings stuffed with meat needs longer time to be cooked. So have a taste to see if they are cooked before serving.

For the dip, you can try mixed garlic with soy sauce, vinegar, and sesame oil. If you don’t like garlic, you can just mix a little soy sauce, vinegar and sesame oil in a small bowl. Of course, if you want it to be spicy, you can try Chinese famous chili sauce Lao Gan Ma.
Seriously, I can have dumplings everyday without getting tired of them.