Text and Photographs by Billy Cheung

This series is named Po Po’s Kitchen. Po Po (婆婆) is the Cantonese term for one’s maternal grandmother, and what I call my grandma. The name Popo’s Kitchen (婆婆廚房) brings together two of the most important things in my life. Through this series, I will be sharing some of my grandma’s top secret family recipes and my personal experiences behind these dishes so that you can also enjoy Chinese cooking and join our food family!

I want to start off the series with something everyone must have had before either at home or at a restaurant: dumplings! Jiaozi (餃子) are Chinese dumplings, typically filled with ground meat and vegetables, wrapped in a thin dough sheet. These are a staple food in my household and we always have about 50-100 dumplings frozen in my freezer ready to boil and eat!

Although jiaozi seems like an easy and simple dish to make, there are some major techniques involved, from mixing the perfect filling to creating beautiful creases in the folds of each dumpling. When folding dumplings, my grandma’s hands move like they’re dancing and as if she’s made these millions of times (which she probably has). Watching her work made me realize that you should always appreciate the simpler things in life.

Here’s my Grandma’s Recipe for Pork and Chive Dumplings:

Ingredients:

2 pounds of ground pork

1 pound of shrimp, peeled, deveined and roughly chopped

1 pound of chinese chives, finely chopped

1 large piece of ginger, finely minced

2 tablespoons of cooking wine

2 tablespoons of light soy sauce

1.5 tablespoons of oyster sauce

1 tablespoon of sesame oil

1 tablespoon of salt

1 tablespoon of sugar

1 tablespoon of chicken bouillon

Half a tablespoon of white pepper

1 to 1.5 cups of water

100 pre-made dumpling wrappers