Home Made Dumplings is the Best!

It’s time for Chinese Dumplings! And I’m so looking forward to dumplings made by my mum. It’s a show of her love for us because making these dumplings take so much effort. From buying huge bulk of the ingredients such as bamboo leaves, bamboo veins, glutinous rice, pork, mushrooms, chestnuts and spices. And she needs to chop up the meat and pluck out the bitter veins from the chestnuts. Saved for the spices and meat, she needs to soak all the ingredients in water overnight to soften them. Then she spends lots of time wrapping the dumplings and cooking each batch for 3 hours. The whole process takes more than 12 hours. And yes, the kitchen is so hot.

Despite the tedious work, she wants to make these dumplings for her children because we are so fussy about the dumplings we eat. We only eat dumplings made by our mum. I had brought dumplings from restaurants and stores, and none manages to make me go back a second time for them. Too oily, too salty, you get the drift.

Thus I want to post about the best dumplings (to me), made with most amount of love, here 💖

Dumpling Festival

Homemade dumplings are absolutely the best! Because they are made with lots of love. While they are so delicious that we can finish them in minutes, making them takes planning and days of preparation.

It starts with getting ready all the ingredients: bamboo leaves (or banana leaves for some), strings, glutinous rice, meat, mushrooms, chestnuts, five-spice powder, condiments, garlic and other additional ingredients.

The meat and mushrooms need to be marinaded in soy sauce while rice must be soaked in water before being drenched in five-spice powder and soy sauce. Toss in some chopped garlic to additional oomph.

Even the bamboo leaves and dried plant stems to be used as strings are required to be washed, boiled and soaked in water overnight.

Then comes the day of wrapping!

It takes almost the whole day to wrap the dumplings. And so do the cooking of dumplings. Each batch needs minimum 3 hours to be cooked to sticky goodness. So first batch goes into the pot at 9am, and the last batch comes out of the pot at 11pm.

The tremendous amount of effort needed to make these dumplings is a show of love. Love you, mum! Your dumplings are the best!