Golden Beet and Pork Dumpling Satchels

Preparation

Make purple dough

Take purple cabbage and chop into rough pieces so it easily blends. Throw cabbage into a blender with 1 cup of water and blend until smooth. Strain mixture through a fine sieve into a container so you get a concentrated purple cabbage water. Save 3/4 cups of liquid for your dough, store the rest in the freezer (easily defrost for later dough making sessions).

To make the purple dough, pour flour and 3/4 cups of purple cabbage water into a mixing bowl. Using a silicon spatula or chopsticks, incorporate the flour and water until it's loosely combined. Then, use hands to incorporate the rest of the flour and begin kneading the dough (it'll be messy to begin with) until it becomes smooth and the surface is uniform, around 10 minutes. When you press into the dough and it bounces back a little, you know it's done. When ready, wrap your purple dough baby in plastic wrap and let it proof for 20-30 min.

Prep beets

Preheat oven to 400°F. Peel off the skin of golden beets with a peeler, then cut into thin slices (the size of a thick potato chip) using a knife or mandolin (careful with those finger tips!). On a sheet pan covered with parchment paper, evenly arrange beet slices, coat in some olive oil, and throw into the oven for 12-15 minutes until soft. When cooked through, remove and dice beets into small pieces for your filling, set aside.

Prep cabbage

Finely mince the cabbage and put into a large mixing bowl, throw in 1/2 teaspoon of salt and mix with fingers, incorporating salt throughout. Let cabbage sweat out water for about 5-10 minutes. Then, using your hands and brute strength, squeeze out as much excess water from the cabbage as you can through the towel.

Make filling

In a mixing bowl, place all filling ingredients along with diced beets and squeezed out cabbage and stir with hands in a circular motion until all the ingredients are well mixed and the filling looks sticky and homogenous.

Make wrappers

Lightly dust a work surface with flour. When your dough is ready, cut dough into quarters and roll into four cylinders with the thickness of hot dogs, then cut into 1 inch pieces.

Turn each piece cut side up and with the palm of your hand, press down onto it to flatten to make a roughly flattened circle. Dust each side with flour and then with a rolling pin, flatten to create a circular wrapper to desired thickness. Repeat with the rest of your marshmallow dough pieces until you have a bunch of wrappers. Make sure to flour each wrapper as you roll them out, so they don’t stick to each other and cover with plastic wrap, so they don't dry out.

Assemble dumpling

To create the satchel fold, place a small scoop of filling (about the 1/4 of the size of your wrapper) onto the wrapper. Create small pleats around the filling until its enclosed by the wrapper so it looks like a little bundled package. With a single chive, carefully tie your shumai so that its enclosed, (do this part slowly so that the chive doesn't break). Repeat with the rest of the wrappers. (See folding GIF below)

Cook dumplings

If pan frying: Add a generous dab of oil and place dumplings bottoms down and fry on medium heat for 1-2 minutes. Add 1/2 cup to 1 cup of water (it should hit about 1/3 of the dumpling) and place a lid on top and steam for 6 minutes on medium high heat. Once the water has evaporated, fetch the dumplings out of the plan, then serve with some extra Fly by Jing Chili Crisp oil and fresh herbs, serve.

If steaming — In a bamboo steamer place parchment paper underneath each shumai (or get steamer liners with holes in them) and place shumai's on top. Place your steamer with dumplings on top of a shallow pot with boiling water. Steam for 5 minutes until wrappers and filling have cooked through, serve.