Asian Dumplings

Put the flour in a large bowl. Add all the water. Using a rubber spatula, a wooden spoon, or your fingers, stir the water and flour together until a shaggy ball of dough starts to form. Now, use your hands to start kneading the dough and incorporating any remaining flour. The dough should feel slightly tacky but not damp. It should not stick to your fingers.

Dust your work surface with flour. Remove the dough from the bowl and knead for about 2 minutes. It should feel smooth. Cover the dough with a damp towel or plastic wrap and let it rest on the counter for a minimum of 20 minutes. (While it doesn’t need much longer than that, it won’t hurt the dough if it happens to rest longer.)

Alternatively, you can use a stand mixer to form the dough. Add the flour to the bowl of the stand mixer and add the water gradually while running the dough hook at medium-low speed. Once the dough comes together, knead for about 2 minutes. Cover the dough and let it rest for 20 minutes. (This dough will hold for several hours at room temperature. It will get stickier, so you will have to knead in about 1 to 2 tablespoons of flour to refresh it. It’s best to make this dough the same day you want to use it.)

Once rested, divide the dough in half. On a surface lightly dusted with our, roll each half into a rope that’s about 3⁄4 inch in diameter and about 18 inches in length. Using a knife or a bench scraper, cut each rope into pieces that are about 3⁄4 inch thick. Each piece should weigh about 9 or 10 grams.

Roll each piece of dough into a small ball and then a flatten it between your palms to create a disc that resembles a wafer cookie. Press your thumb gently into the dough to create a small indentation. Position your rolling pin between you and the base of the wafer of dough. Dust lightly with our as needed. Roll the pin forward across the dough and back. You do not need to lift the rolling pin. Turn the dough 90 degrees and repeat the forward-and- back rolling. Turn the dough 90 degrees again and repeat the rolling. This forms the beginnings of a circle.

Repeat this for the second revolution, but, for subsequent turns, roll the pin only halfway up. For the third revolution, roll the pin only a third of the way up. The idea is to leave the center of the circle just slightly thicker than the outer edges. The wrapper should end up being a circle about 3 1⁄4 inches in diameter. Don’t worry if the circle isn’t perfect; it only needs to be roundish. If it looks like an oval, then round it out. If it’s lopsided beyond repair, then bunch up the dough into a ball and start again. Unless you have an assembly line of friends or family helping you, roll out about six wrappers at a time. If you roll out too many, they start to stick to each other and the edges will dry out, which makes it harder to seal.

Dust completed circles with corn flour or potato starch to keep them from sticking as you stack them.

Place ingredients in a bowl and mix well

Place 1 ¼ tsp of the ground pork mixture into each round dumpling wrapper. With a brush or your finger slightly dampen the outside of the wrapper, and fold over the filling to seal the pork inside making sure to not get too much air inside the sealed dumpling to avoid exploding. Dust finished dumpling with corn starch or potato flour as you stack them, to keep them from sticking.

Cook in a pot of boiling water for about 1 min. Then transfer to a towel to dry off the outside of the dumpling.

Get a sauté pan very hot then add the dumpling to the pan and brown until golden brown.

Serve with Ponzu sauce or soy sauce

Place the vinegar, mirin and kombu in a small saucepan. Set over medium heat and let mixture come to a simmer.

Take off the heat and gently stir in the bonito flakes. Let mixture steep for about 10 minutes. Using a fine-mesh sieve, strain the mixture over a bowl, reserving the liquid and saving the kombu and bonito flakes for another use.

Allow to cool to room temperature, then add the citrus juices. Cover and store in your refrigerator. Will keep for about 1 week, refrigerated.