Lunar New Year was on February 11, 2021. The Lunar New Year has always been a big deal for my family. Every year we prepare a huge feast of all sorts of food, but one thing that always had to be on the table were dumplings. My mom’s side of the family is from the Beijing area, and its tradition in Northern China to eat dumplings during the new year. Having moved away from home for college, I’ve been trying to find out how to keep in touch with the traditions without my family’s help. This year I tried to make dumplings myself and it turned out pretty well! This is what I did:
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I kept it simple because, you know, the broke-college-student budget got me. My dumpling fillings only had two things: pork and chives. I bought some ground pork and chives from the local Chinese store, minced the chives, and mixed them together. My mom told me to stir the meat and chives in one direction only. I have no idea why, but I trust her expertise. That’s all there is to it, really. After that, I put about half a teaspoon of filling into each dumpling wrapper and tried my best to make it look pretty. Then, boil them in hot water until the wrapper looks translucent and the dumpling floats! It should take about 5 minutes.
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Well, there’s my dumpling recipe. It was pretty successful if I do say so myself, so I think I’ll stick to this recipe for a while! Give it a try sometime, making dumplings is a really great bonding activity to do with friends and family! I wish you all a great Year of the Ox, xīnnián kuà ilè (Happy New Year)!