Swiss Streetfood Dumplings

Swiss Streetfood

Dumplings are the one thing I order at every street food festival. Not exactly on brand for a Swiss cooking channel, so I made them Swiss: a Ghackets filling, a cube of Gruyère in every one and a Maggi dipping sauce.

• Serves 4
• 2 hours

I break one dumpling rule

Every dumpling recipe uses raw filling. Mine is cooked all the way down first, until there's no liquid left, then cooled so it firms up. You get much more flavour, and a wet filling would tear the dough. And the sauce: apple sauce, soy sauce and Maggi, which a Swiss guy invented 140 years ago.

The recipe

Ingredients

• Dough

• 250 g flour
• 150 ml hot water
• 1 tsp salt

• Filling

• 500 g minced pork
• 2 large onions
• 3 garlic cloves
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 100 ml white wine
• 200 ml stock
• 100 ml apple juice
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp flour
• Gruyère, cut into 1 to 2 cm cubes, one per dumpling

• Dipping sauce

• 3 tbsp apple sauce
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• A few dashes of Maggi
• 1 tbsp water
• 1 tbsp xylitol or sugar

• Apple slaw and garnish

• 1 apple, grated
• A portion of the cooked onions from the filling
• 1 tbsp lemon juice or vinegar
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• Fried onions
• Spring onion, finely sliced
• Chili oil, optional

How to make it

1. Filling first: sear the minced pork in oil over medium heat until it has a good crust. Add the finely chopped onions and cook briefly, then the pressed garlic and the tomato paste. Set a few spoonfuls of onion aside for the slaw.
2. Deglaze with the white wine. Once it has reduced a little, stir in the flour, then add the stock, apple juice and soy sauce. Cook over low heat, or in the oven at 150 °C for about 45 minutes, until the filling is very thick with no liquid left. Let it cool completely.
3. Dough: mix flour, hot water and salt, knead for 5 minutes and let it rest while the filling cools.
4. Mix the dipping sauce. For the slaw, mix the grated apple with the reserved onions, lemon juice and soy sauce.
5. Roll the dough out very thin, about half a millimetre, and cut rounds of about 10 cm.
6. Moisten the edge of each round, add a walnut-sized portion of filling and a cube of Gruyère, fold over and press to seal, pleating the edge as you go.
7. Steam the dumplings in a bamboo steamer over simmering water, or in a covered pan over medium heat with a splash of water, for about 8 minutes.
8. Spread some apple sauce and dipping sauce on each plate, add the slaw and 4 to 6 dumplings. Finish with fried onions, spring onion and chili oil.

Cool the filling completely. Warm filling softens the dough and the dumplings tear.

Make a double batch and freeze them raw on a tray. They steam from frozen in about 12 minutes.