Shao Mai Dumplings

My honey loves steamed pork dumplings so last nite I made some with mandarin fried rice. If you've never made dumplings they can be time consuming, but the end product is better than most from a restaurant. I will give credit to ArLoi Dee Thai Restaurant in Mason, because they have the best that I've ever had. Anyway, this is a simple recipe, so if you have some time on a Saturday or Sunday you might want to give it a try. This recipe will make about 35 dumplings. You can deep fry them, but we prefer to steam ours. For the sauce you will need: 1/4 C soy sauce, 1 tbs sesame oil, 2 tbs honey, 1/4 tsp roasted sesame seeds, 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper, 2 tsp finely minced ginger, just mix it all together and set to the side. For the dumplings you will need: 1 head of Napa Cabbage chopped to line the bottom of your steamer 1 pkg of wonton wrappers (I use the round ones for this recipe, if you can only get the square wraps you will have to cut the edges, otherwise they will be too big and unsightly), 1 lb of ground pork, 1 can rinsed and drained water chestnuts finely chopped (I put them in food processor), 2 tsp grated ginger (you can use you a fine cheese grater for this), 1 tbs cornstarch, 1 tbs sesame oil, 1 tbs soy sauce, 1 tbs rice wine vinegar, 1 tsp kosher salt, 2 tsp sugar, 1/2 tsp ground black pepper. Mix all together by hand in a med size bowl. You will need a small cup of water to moisten the edges of the wrappers. Tools needed: some type of steamer- I like to use the bamboo steamer, a sheet train lined with parchment, a large skillet to immerse the bamboo steamer, 1 teaspoon, fork for pinching sides of the dumpling. Before we make the dumplings, go a head and line the steamer trays with the cabbage, place bottom tray of steamer into the skillet. Add water to the skillet until it reaches the middle of the bottom tray of the steamer. You will need to add more water between batches. Let's make some dumplings. Lay out 6 wrappers at a time on your surface (they tend to dry out, so that is why I only do 6 at a time), dip your index finger into the water and moisten the edges of the wrapper, take a spoonful of you mix and place in middle of wrapper, fold the wrapper over and with you fork pinch the edges together and place on your sheet tray. Repeat process until all of your dumpling mix is gone. You will have leftover wrappers, you can save them for later use. Next bring the water in the skillet to a rolling boil. In each steamer tray place 7-8 dumplings and make sure they don't touch one another. They need to steam for a total of 20 minutes, but 10 minutes into steaming you will need to rotate the trays. BE CAREFUL it is very hot, use your oven mittens for this. Once your dumplings are finished steaming, place them on a serving tray with your sauce. BTW, if you don't want to steam all of your dumplings you can store them in a sealed container in the refrigerator up to 7 days or you can freeze them. Sihk faahn!!