Remove the center stem of the cabbage and slice the cabbage leaves thinly. Add salt and mix it well, then let it sit for 20 minutes. The salt is going to pull out the moisture from the cabbage. Then we are going to squeeze the cabbage. The trick here is not to let the cabbage sit for too long. You want to remove just enough water and the cabbage still able to provide moisture for the filling. For 600 grams of fresh cabbage, after the squeeze, I got about 350 grams of cabbage left.
Put all the ingredients together: ground pork, egg, grated ginger, diced scallion, soy sauce, sesame oil, the cabbage that we just prepared, some homemade garlic chili sauce (This is an optional ingredient. It is something that my family uses all the time. It provides a little spicy kick. If you decide to skip it, make sure you adjust the salt amount and add some grated garlic in this recipe.)
Here comes the tricky part, We seasoned and squeezed the cabbage so it is hard to know how much salt is left in the cabbage. If this is the first time you are making it, you can cook a small amount in the microwave. Taste and adjust the saltiness.
Stir and throw the filling to develop the texture. And I will show you an extremely easy way to wrap dumplings. Just fold the wrapper in half and pinch the edge to close it. This recipe is enough to make 40-50 Dumplings.
I pan fried them which is my favorite way to cook dumplings. I like how they are nice and golden brown, Super crispy. I always think cooking is like magic. You will never guess how delicious this can be just by combining some common ingredients together. Cabbage provides a lot of moisture while cooking, with pork together, they create an amazingly juicy and incredibly soft filling. No wonder why it is the NO.1 classic filling that you must try.
