The first fifteen days of the first month of the family reunion to sit around together to eat the Lantern, dumplings, is a traditional moment in the Chinese New Year. The same white and chubby dumplings, due to regional differences, called and method is not the same. The north is called Lantern, is the sugar filling into a colander in the constant rolling and shaking, in a way similar to the snowball, so that the glutinous rice powder gradually wrapped in the sugar filling outside of the production and become. In the south, they are called soup dumplings, and are made by mixing good, delicate glutinous rice flour into a dough and kneading it into the filling.

Ingredients

Lard:

Although vegetable fats and oils are healthier than animal fats and oils, from the perspective of the traditional method, the filling is thicker, lubricated and sweeter when made with lard. So you can adjust the amount of lard according to your own situation. There is a layer of fascia on both sides of the lard, which should be torn off by hand beforehand, so it's best to buy thicker lard for ease of handling.

Black sesame:

Black sesame is relatively simple to select, you should buy complete particles of black sesame, color uniformity, and dry texture, and has a light sesame aroma, which should not have other colors of impurities for the best.

Silver:

Higher water content, easy to absorb water, and has good melting properties. So it is very suitable as a filling, and can be quickly and fully mixed with other fillings intimately.

Soup Dumpling Powder:

That is, glutinous rice powder. Traditionally, glutinous rice is soaked for a long time, then ground into rice paste with a stone mill, drained and made into dry dumpling powder. Nowadays, there are already ready-made soup dumpling powder on the market for sale, so homemade soup dumplings can save the tedious step of grinding powder, directly buy soup dumpling powder can be. There are many types and qualities of powdered dumplings, so you should choose the bagged dumpling powder that is white in color and has a uniform and fine powder. Try to avoid buying bulk powdered dumplings, which may be mixed with other powdered dumplings, the quality of which is not easy to distinguish for the average person.

Making dumpling filling

1

Take 100g of good black sesame seeds, put into a pan, stir-fry patiently over a low flame, and when you hear the black sesame seeds in the pan make a "popping" sound, and you can smell the distinct aroma of sesame seeds, the black sesame seeds even if it's fried.

2

Pour the black sesame seeds on the board spread, and then slightly cooled, and then rolling pin rolling into black sesame seeds. Or put it into a pulverizer to make crushed black sesame seeds.

3

Select 120g of thick lard, use your hands to remove the fascia from the edges of the lard, then carefully tear it off completely, then tear off the fascia on the other side in the same way, and then cut the lard into small cubes.

4

Put the black sesame seeds, lard and sugar (100g) into a large bowl, put on hygienic gloves and keep stirring and grasping with your hands, so that the 3 fillings are fully kneaded together and form a solid mass, and no white lard can be seen. (Note: There is more fascia in the lard, so if you find residual fascia during mixing, pick it out to avoid affecting the texture of the filling.)

5

Divide the black sesame filling into several equal portions by hand, each portion weighing about 10g, and then roll them into small balls by hand.

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Wrapping the dumplings

1

Gradually add 250ml of lukewarm water to 400g of dumpling mix and keep mixing with your hands.

2

Finally, form a soft and firm dough and leave it for 30 minutes, then roll the dough into a long strip and cut it into small, even-sized pieces.

3

With your hands, roll the dough into a ball.

4

Keeping your hands dry, put the dough into your hands and carefully knead it into a wineglass-shaped dumpling skin.

5

Place 1 black sesame seed filling cube into each dumpling skin, and fold the edges of the dough toward the top until the black sesame seed filling cube is completely encased.

6

Then roll the dough into a ball shape to make the dumplings.

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Cooking the dumplings

1

Place the soup pot with water and bring to a boil over high heat.

2

Push and turn with a spoon along the sides of the pot and cook over high heat for about 3 minutes, until the dumplings gradually float.

3

When the soup comes to a boil, pour in a little more cold water and continue to cook over high heat for about 3 minutes, and finally wait for the dumplings to float all the way up again.

4

After the soup boils at the end, serve the dumplings and soup together in a bowl.

END

Precautions

The soup dumplings are delicious, and only by chewing slowly can you savor their smoothness and sweetness. In addition, the filling contains lard, melting temperature will be very high, and wrapped by the outer skin, the temperature is not easy to drop, if swallowed in one gulp will have the risk of scalding the mouth and tongue, you need to be more careful when tasting.

The authentic Ningbo soup dumplings, the last in the out of the soup dumplings will also be blended into a little sugar and sugar cinnamon, according to the preferences of the people, discretionary additions.

After learning how to make black sesame dumplings, you can also add other fillings to make a variety of delicious dumplings, such as bean paste, hawthorn, and salted pork.