Homemade Fish & Scallion Dumplings
I made these delicate fish dumplings for Chinese New Year, and to transform some basic pan fish and ground pork into something really special! These tender little dumplings are filled with a dollop of fish, juicy pork, and scallion or Chinese chive mousse.
Ingredients
- 48 each dumpling wrappers or dumpling dough
marinate together:
- 12 oz boneless, skinless fish fillets (mild white fish like cod, perch, or other firm fleshed lean fish) cut into 1-2" pieces
- 3 tbsp Shaoxing rice wine
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp finely ground white pepper
- 1 tsp salt
- ¼ tsp garlic powder
- ⅛ tsp Chinese five-spice powder
other filling ingredients:
- 4 oz ground pork substitute ground chicken, veal, or increase fish above by 4 oz for pescatarian-friendly dumplings
- 1 tbsp ginger paste (fresh ginger, peeled & minced, or use prepared paste)
- 1 clove fresh garlic (minced to paste, or prepared garlic paste)
- ¾ cup chopped scallions, white parts and green tops substitute Chinese garlic chives if you can get them
- 1 large egg
- ⅓ cup heavy cream
Instructions
make fish and scallion dumpling filling:
- Start with very cold ingredients. You can pre-chill your food processor bowl and blade if you are working in a hot kitchen.
- Fillet the fish (if you are working with fresh fish) & remove the skin if possible. To do this, lay the fillets skin-side down on the cutting board and slide a thin, sharp knife parallel to the cutting board to remove just the skin while leaving the flesh intact. Scrape the skin to get the rest if your blade wobbled... or just buy skinless fillets if your knife skills aren't there yet!
- Cut the fish into 1-2" pieces, and marinate in a small bowl with the rice wine, soy, five-spice, garlic powder, and white pepper. Keep cold in the fridge or place bowl on ice.
- Wash and chop scallions or Chinese chives. Peel & mince garlic and ginger into a paste.
- Add the marinated fish, ground meat, and garlic and ginger paste to the food processor bowl. Pulse until the mixture is finely chopped. Add the scallions or chives and pulse some more until well combined.
- Add the egg, pulse and blend until the mixture is well emulsified, then drizzle in the cream and blend until light and creamy.
- Chill until ready to assemble dumplings. You can make and chill the filling 3-4 days in advance. Keep very cold.
roll or thaw dumpling wrappers:
- Using your favorite dumpling dough recipe, pre-roll your wrappers into 3" circles, or use store-bought dumpling wrappers.
- If you are using commercial wrappers or used a lot of flour or starch to roll out your homemade ones, you will need a small dish of water to moisten the wrappers around the edges to get them to seal.
add the fish dumpling filling:
- Drop a heaping teaspoon of filling in the center of a wrapper.
- I use a #70 portion scoop, you can use a similar small cookie scoop for convenience and to keep your hands clean.
- Moisten the edges of the wrapper with your fingertip or a small brush (you may prefer to do this before adding the filling- try it both ways and see which works better for you!)
fold & pleat the dumplings:
- Fold, pinch, and pleat the wrapper over to seal in the filling. There are lots of different traditional shapes. Use whichever you prefer!
- Start with a simple half-moon fold (like a pirogi or potsticker) if you are new to these. Homemade wrappers are harder to make but easier to pleat than drier commercial dumpling wrappers.
- Once that simple fold and seal is easy, try adding more pleats and tucks to form crescent moons like these (with all the pleats on one side), alternating side pleats, or s-curve pleats (switch sides in the center), or gather all the edges into a central top-pleat to form a round dumpling.
- Pinch well to make sure that the dumplings stay sealed, especially if you plan to boil the finished dumplings.
- You can pleat your dumplings into different shapes for different kinds of fillings, so that you can easily tell them apart if you're making multiple kinds in the same steamer.
store dumplings in a single layer:
- Lay the finished dumplings on a tray or sheet pan. You can dust the pan lightly with cornstarch or rice flour so they don't stick.
- Chill the finished folded dumplings for up to a day, cook them immediately, or freeze them flat on a covered tray before transferring to a freezer bag or air-tight container.
cook & serve:
- To cook, lay the dumplings out on a bamboo or metal steamer above a pot of boiling water. You can line the steamer with a cabbage leaf or individual squares of parchment paper under the dumplings if you like.
- Steam fresh dumplings for 10-12 minutes, or until cooked through. Frozen dumplings will need an additional few minutes. You can check the internal temperature of one with a thermometer to make sure they're at least 165F to be sure.
- Alternately, gently boil in a pot of water. Remove dumplings after they are floating and cooked through (frozen dumplings will take longer).
Nutrition
Calories: 26kcalCarbohydrates: 1gProtein: 2gFat: 1gSaturated Fat: 1gPolyunsaturated Fat: 0.1gMonounsaturated Fat: 0.5gCholesterol: 11mgSodium: 82mgPotassium: 38mgFiber: 0.1gSugar: 0.1gVitamin A: 46IUVitamin C: 0.4mgCalcium: 5mgIron: 0.2mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
