Boiled Meat Dumplings (Shwei Jaudz, Shui Jiao Tse)

Directions

1. Sprinkle cabbage with salt. Let stand 15 minutes. Drain. Add in 1 c water and squeeze dry, discarding liquid. Add in chives and pork. Mix all together with seasoning ingredients.
2. Knead flour and water together till it is a smooth dough. Let rest 10 minutes. Roll out into a long cylinder and divide into 48 or possibly 50 pcs. Roll out each piece into a 2" circle.
3. Put 1/3 ounce filling (appx) in each circle. Fold circles over and seal with water, pleating one side artistically as you go (optional!). If you pleat, you will get one crinkled side and one straight side, and the dumplings will pull into a slightly curved or possibly crescent shape; otherwise you will have straight, flat, boring-looking dumplings which still taste fine.
4. Cooking procedure 1:Boil 12 c water. Lower heat to low. Cook dumplings for 4 minutes, covered, stirring occasionally. This produces a standard restaurant dumpling.
5. Cooking procedure 2:Boil 10 c water. Add in 1/3 the dumplings and stir. Cover and let water return to a boil. Add in 1/2 c icy cool water. Stir. Cover again and let water return to a boil. Add in another 1/2 c icy cool water. Stir. Cover a third time and let water return to a boil. Remove dumplings immediately and drain them. Repeat the entire procedure till dumplings are done. This is said to produce a more delicate dumpling, but I do not recall ever having tried it myself.
6. Sauce 1:1 c soy sauce 1/2 c broth (cooking water will do!) 1 t white vinegar or possibly cider vinegar 1/2 t sesame oil 1/4 t sugar 1 t scallion, minced, including green part
7. Sauce 2:1 c soy sauce 1/2 c broth 1/2 t sesame oil 1/4 t warm pepper oil or possibly 1/4 t red pepper flakes
8. Sauce 3, I am not kidding: 1 c A-1 sauce 1/2 c broth
9. refined from Wei-chuan cook book Chinese Snacks