I first tried steamed pork dumplings at my local Chinese restaurant. I was obsessed with Chef’s Table at the time and made a documentary about them for my video art class. Dumplings are deceptively simple, and I’ve been dying to make them from scratch for a while now. During the pandemic, I started following Frankie Gaw, a designer and cook on instagram. I saw his incredibly beautiful and colorful dumpling photographs and was blown away. I resonated a lot with him and really implore you to check out Little Fat Boy! And his first cookbook, First Generation. 

I remember when I got it in the mail. It was a big day for me in a lot of ways. I woke up that day in Rockland, about an hour from my home, at a hotel. The previous day was my first gallery show ever. It was a self-driven collaboration with a restaurant. But I had contacted Wolfpeach, a cutting-edge restaurant in Camden that was nominated for awards right out of the gate. The team there was so interested in supporting local businesses and artists, so I took a chance. I offered them a gallery show of my work. And they said yes! I was so inspired to create something unique. It was September of 2022. 

Perfectionism + Pork Dumplings

I was going through a period at the time where I was really lost. Which was a common theme throughout the pandemic. And my post-college life. I think we all go through this, but all of my friends had moved away and I had constantly been surrounded by people since birth. We are socialized with daycare, school, jobs, college, and suddenly I was back in my childhood home during a pandemic. I was experimenting a lot with art, but didn’t know where I was headed with it. Did I even want to be an artist? It was the early stages of my burnout, and I was thinking more about money and success than what I wanted to make. Which, I think, is the true purpose of art. To make what makes you happy.

Anyway, my goal was to sell out of an entire collection of my work. Purchase a new suit and strut around at this fabulous restaurant with a glass of wine in one hand, schmoozing my art-loving guests. I would get offers for commissions and make connections with fancy people and I would be showered with praise. The journey did not end up like that. At all. It started with a toxic month of overworking. 

A Basement Art “Studio”

I went to work with a few sketches of ideas for a new direction for my art. I wanted to make wood cutouts of foods and paint them with oil paint. A blend of pop art, academic oil painting, sculpture, and still life. I spent sunrise to midnight some days carving, sanding, priming, painting. The first one I made was a tomato. I carved out the “innards” of the tomato and painted the entire thing while listening to podcasts. Back problems. Lots of sighs. I even poured in resin to set them and to make the tomato look wet. It ended up amazing. But it completely drained me of creativity and energy. I made a sourdough slice, a carrot, two cucumbers (one I accidentally ruined), a mushroom, red onions, and another failed candy cane beet. After all this, I was ready to present. 

When I arrived at the restaurant on a very cloudy day, I was suddenly alone with heavy wooden paintings, many nails, a hammer, a leveler, and wall text tags I had printed. I carted the paintings in old plastic bins with newspaper wrapped around them. As it turns out, newspaper ink transfers onto oil paintings… After about an hour I had encountered studs in the walls, mis-measured, became sore from squatting, my stomach was rumbling, and I called my dad while having a full on anxiety attack. Trying not to cry. I had only a couple hours left before I was going to drop. And I still had to hang 8 paintings and 8 framed watercolors. It was my personal hell.

Learning as I Go

Later that day I drove home after managing to haphazardly hang all my paintings. So I crashed, from the exhaustion of anxiety and art burnout, and slept. For the next few weeks I woke in the middle of the night and panicked regularly that my paintings would fall off the walls and knock someone in the head. Onto their food. Start a fire. Something awful. And one did fall off the wall. Thankfully when no one was there. So, fast forward to the day before I got Frankie’s cookbook in the mail. I was in Camden for the opening of my gallery at the restaurant. It was Halloween.

I excitedly posted on Instagram that the show was finally ready. I couldn’t wait for customers to show up. After a few minutes of pacing around, I decided to hang out outside and brace for the impending mob. I sat in an outdoor chair and quickly realized that there wasn’t much traffic. I saw a family with two kids. The parents were dressed like Mario and Luigi. There were teenagers hanging out after school. Lost tourists. An occasional car in front. I would get excited that they were here for me. They weren’t. Finally after about an hour, I became dejected, and incredibly sad. Then, a retired couple from the South showed up.

My First Art Show

We walked around the restaurant and they marveled at my watercolors. They didn’t understand my oil paintings. I worked so hard on them. They told me a story about vanilla after seeing my vanilla bottle watercolor. They were super nice, and I held onto hope that they would buy it. For nostalgia’s sake. After a few minutes, I realized they had come in to find a dinner menu, and they thought I worked there.

After 2 hours we closed up shop and I headed back to my car. I sat there in silence for a few minutes, trying not to cry. Ignoring “how did it go” texts. I had booked a hotel room at a fancy place to celebrate. A cart ahead of the horse situation. To pump myself up. To celebrate Halloween. I drove away listening to sad songs and stopped to buy Chinese food. I ignored more texts. After checking into my hotel, I learned that I had to park on the street overnight. I had a massive headache. The cake slice I had packed to celebrate with had been smushed.

When I woke up the next day, I checked out of the hotel and took an hour-long walk. I nearly got chased by a dog. Then I was headed back home after feeling like a complete failure of an artist. To a dentist appointment. Where I would have my very first cavity filling at age 26. I was exhausted, disappointed, and bitter. And after a somewhat painful dentist visit, I came home and a package was waiting for me. It was First Generation. I remember sitting in bed and piecing through the colorful pages. I fell in love with nearly every recipe. Inspiration hit me. I felt happy. And hungry.

Green Apple + Steamed Pork Dumplings

Long story short, that’s what I think of when I see dumplings. Steamed pork dumplings specifically. The magic of that cookbook and the sadness of feeling like a failure. I never sold any of those paintings, but I’m happy that I made them. And I’ve realized that life has ups and downs. I am not a failure. I just haven’t had my moment yet. Everything worked out. I’m so proud of myself for my hard work.

I was really excited to make these fried and steamed pork dumplings, and have anticipated making them for so long. So, I knew I wanted to make colorful dumplings, which are Frankie’s signature. I studied the options in his helpful cookbook diagram. Finally my mind settled on green, because I had a bunch of spinach to use. From there, I wanted to create a filling that reflected the essence of green. Basil? Spinach? Some kind of meat? I looked in our fridge and found a green apple, which gave me an idea. Pork, apple, and maple. A perfect mix of a classic filling with something bright and acidic and sweet. I also wanted to use maple to represent Maine.

How to Make Colored Dumpling Wrappers

Firstly I blended spinach with water and straining out the remaining solids. I soon added the beautiful, rich, green liquid to a bowl of flour and kneaded for 10 minutes until the dumpling dough came together. While resting, I mixed ground pork with diced green apple, maple syrup, salt, basil, garlic, ginger, and black pepper. I set it aside and rested briefly while waiting for the dough to finish resting.

Then I cut the dough into four pieces, like the cookbook demonstrated. I rolled each into a log and cut each log into 6 pieces. I coated them with flour so they didn’t stick and placed them on my cutting board while one at a time rolling them. Even after seeing many videos of dumpling making, I couldn’t quite get the hang of twisting the circle while rolling. So, the first few wrappers were very oblong and abstract. I also didn’t flour them enough and they stuck. Finally I got into a rhythm of rolling the dough! About the size of a coaster. I studied the cookbook diagram again and began folding the dumplings around the pork filling. 

The first attempt was very messy and I couldn’t quite grasp how the folds worked. Then, I fell into a groove. They didn’t end up looking professional, but I liked them. I keep confronting my perfectionism, and I’m learning to let go of it. Next I took a 10 minute breather in the living room with a small bottle of champagne my mom insisted I drink to help with my back pain. It helped.

Testing Steamed Pork Dumplings

Then, I got back to work. I flipped on the heat on the stove and grabbed two pans to cook my 20 dumplings in. I drizzled the bottoms with a little bit of oil. After a few minutes, I placed the pork dumplings in the pans and listened to them sizzle. I eagerly checked the bottoms for crispiness and forced myself to relax. Then, I poured in water and covered them as steam furiously erupted. 

After a few minutes, we enjoyed our steamed pork dumplings with a little soy sauce and chili crisp. And leftover duck sauce from our local Chinese restaurant. They were delicious! I’ve edited the recipe slightly to improve the flavor, and today I remade them again for lunch, because I haven’t had enough back pain and I’m a masochist. I added a little more maple syrup, less salt, and more apple, and they turned out incredible. If you get a chance to make them, I hope you love them like I did! Craving for steamed pork dumplings squashed!

As always, my goal for this week is to connect more with my inner child. To be creative. Make more recipes I’ve always wanted to make. To throw perfectionism out of the window and to be authentic and vulnerable. To not worry as much, and to enjoy the simple things. Because little things are worth celebrating. Although I’m sure I’ll worry a little.

We now officially have an extra hour of sunlight in the day, so I can’t wait to see how my mood improves. We made it through winter! I’ll be eating pork dumplings for a few days.. I can’t complain!

Check out my Etsy for my watercolor prints and cards. Use code THEFORKEDRING for 25% off. Thank you for reading!

Print Pin

Green Apple, Pork, and Maple Dumplings

A sweet and salty pork dumpling with a green wrapper (adapted from Frankie Gaw's pork and basil dumplings)

Course Appetizer, Main Course

Cuisine Chinese

Keyword dumpling recipe, potstickers

Prep Time 2 hours hours

Cook Time 10 minutes minutes

Author theforkedring

Ingredients

• 2 cups AP flour
• 3/4 cup spinach juice
• 1 lb ground pork
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup Maine maple syrup
• 1 Granny Smith apple peeled + diced
• 2 tbsp fresh chopped basil
• 1 tbsp fresh chopped ginger
• 1 tbsp fresh chopped garlic
• 1/2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• Soy sauce for dipping

Instructions

• In a blender, pulse 2 handfuls of spinach leaves with 1 1/4 cups water.
• Strain spinach liquid through a mine-mesh strainer and reserve liquid.
• In a large bowl, combine flour with 3/4 cup spinach liquid using a chopstick.
• When dough comes together, transfer to a floured work surface and knead for 10-15 minutes until smooth.
• Wrap dough in cling film and rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. It can last up to a day.
• In a large bowl, combine ground pork with salt, pepper, maple syrup, basil, garlic, ginger, vinegar, and diced apples.
• When ready to roll the dumplings, remove dough from fridge. Cut into 4 equal pieces.
• On a floured work surface, roll each piece into a log (about 8″ long).
• Cut each log into 6 pieces. Roll the pieces in flour.
• One at a time, press down on your piece and roll with a rolling pin into a round wrapper, about the size of a drink coaster.
• Fill each wrapper with about a tablespoon of filling. Press the dough together in the middle and crimp the edges on both sides. Follow a diagram online for best results.
• When the dumplings are ready, heat 1 tbsp oil in a non-stick pan over medium-high heat. If cooking all at once, use two pans (each pan should have a lid).
• When oil is heated, place dumplings flat side down in oil and cook for 2 minutes until crisp.
• Carefully add 1/3 cup water to each pan and immediately cover with a lid. Turn heat down slightly and cook for 6 minutes.
• Serve with soy sauce or your favorite dipping sauce.

Notes

• I would use about 80% – 90% ground pork for this recipe. If you want a more moist filling, you need to add more fat. If you would like, blend bacon and add to filling (about 1/4 of a pound). 
• I like to garnish with soy sauce and chili crisp. If you want to get fancy, you could try to fry apple skins or shallots!
• If you want to make the same recipe with a dumpling skirt, add about a tablespoon of corn starch to your water mixture before adding when steaming the dumplings.