Winter melon, also known as white gourd or ash gourd, is a melon with a light and delicate taste. In Chinese cuisine, it is often prepared in soups, typically with beef or pork bones for soup base. Because its taste is very delicate, winter melon tends to take on the flavors of other ingredients, and is usually prepared with meats, which it complements well. In this Chinese dumpling recipe, the winter melon offsets the heavy and greasy taste of pork, and gives the dumpling a refreshing taste and smell.
Ingredients:
Pork, 1 cup
Winter melon, 3 cups
Salt, 2 teaspoons
Soy sauce, 1 tablespoon
Cooking wine, 1 teaspoon
MSG, ½ teaspoon (optional)
Ginger, 1 teaspoon
Green onion, 1 tablespoon
Sesame oil, 1 tablespoon
Vegetable oil, 1 tablespoon
Instructions:
1. Grind pork into 1 cup of ground pork using a meat grinder. Pork shoulder or pork belly meat is preferred.
2. Remove the skin and the seeds from the winter melon. Cut it into large slices.
3. Boil a pot of water. Put winter melon slices into boiling water and cook for 2 minutes, then remove from water, allow to cool down, and chop into small pieces.
4. In a bowl, add ground pork, salt, soy sauce, cooking wine, MSG ginger and mix well.
5. Add the cooked winter melon, sesame oil, vegetable oil in the pork and mix well.
6. Wrap the filling in dumpling wrappers.
7. Add a dash of salt to a pot of water, and boil.
8. When the water has begun to boil, add the dumplings and cook for 15 minutes.
9. Strain and serve with your favorite condiment.
This dish is very good in summer, when the light delicate taste of winter melon has a refreshing and cooling effect when eaten. Winter melon takes on other tastes and flavors easily, so this is a good dumpling to dip in your favorite dipping sauce.
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