· Method ··

1 | Mix the noodles before preparing the stuffing. There is a saying in the north, "Soft noodle dumplings, hard noodle noodles." When rolling out noodles, the noodles should be hard; when making dumplings, the noodles should be soft. This is relative. The surface for making dumplings just needs to be slightly softer than the surface for rolling out noodles, but not too soft. If the dumpling is too soft, it will not be able to maintain its shape. The skin will break easily when cooked and the filling will be exposed when eating. But the noodles were hard and the dumplings were not delicious. Since flour has different water-repelling properties, it’s difficult to give an exact dosage, so you have to figure it out yourself. Today I used about 165g of water for 300g of flour, for reference only.

2 | Start preparing the filling while the dough is rising. Mince the pork at a ratio of 37 to 70%. Of course you can use a meat grinder. I think the mincing method makes the meat filling more delicious.

3 | Wash and peel the lotus root, slice it to remove excess starch and then chop it into small pieces. Use clean gauze to squeeze out the water to avoid too much water when wrapping and making it difficult to wrap. I also added two slices of cabbage, which was also delicious. You can use lotus root entirely.

4 | Chop the onion and ginger into mince, soak the peppercorns and star anise in boiling water and set aside.

5 | Add pepper, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce and salt to the meat stuffing, mix well, and add the pepper and star anise water into the stuffing one at a time.

6 | Heat the cooking oil with a few Sichuan peppercorns and pour it into the filling. I don’t like to put sesame oil in the dumpling filling, so I add Sichuan peppercorn oil to add fragrance and remove the fishy smell. Add onion and ginger.

7 | Pour the chopped lotus root into the meat filling and mix evenly with disposable gloves. The dumpling filling is ready.

8 | At this time, the noodles are also ready. Knead it a little and start filling it. You can wrap it in any shape you like.

9 | My favorite way to wrap meat-filled dumplings is like this. You can stuff a lot of fillings into them, which makes them both good and delicious.

10 | After the water is boiled, cook the dumplings. The water for cooking the dumplings should be wider, that is, more. Do not cook too much at one time to avoid breaking the skin. You can put a little salt in the water to make the cooked dumplings less sticky.