Asian Dumplings aided by Little Fingers

Some foods are a lot more fun if you have little hands to help. This dish had been in the back of my mind for a couple of weeks actually, but I didn't want to make it by myself. The process was simple and too much fun for a grown man to do by himself. Plus I enjoy having little fingers to help me cook sometimes, I feel like I am passing something along. It was a quiet Saturday afternoon, my son needed (fought it but needed) a nap, so did Kris only she didn't fight it as much. I put the boy down while Kris went into my youngest daughter's bedroom to nap with her. I laid down on the couch with a cup of nap juice (3 oz of Vodka with 3 ice cubes) and a dull book kind of hoping to do the same. After about 15 minutes my girl told me that she couldn't sleep, she was trying as hard as she could but she just couldn't do it. I couldn't either so asked her if she wanted help me cook, what else would you do with a seven year old? Actually it is a good distraction, watching TV only would have held her attention for a few minutes until she remembered how boring I can be and then she would have started looking for a way to accidentally wake people up. Besides we have a lot of fun cooking together, eating is another thing but I will take what I can get.
We had ground pork in the freezer to start with for the Wontons we used:

2 Cloves of Minced Garlic

2 tsp Vegetable Oil

3/4 pound of Ground Pork

1 TBLS Minced Fresh Ginger

1 Carrot

1 head of Napa Cabbage

Soy Sauce to taste

Grated rind from one Lemon

1 pack of Wonton Skins

The process is a a simple one; heat the oil on a saute pan and start cooking the Garlic once that is done add the Ground Pork. While those are is cooking together shred a Carrot and cut the Napa Cabbage in a Chiffonade. Once the Pork is cooked through add the the Carrot, Napa Cabbage, Ginger and Soy Sauce and saute until the Napa Cabbage is wilted maybe 3-4 minutes, I didn't time it. Remove your pan from the heat and add the grated Lemon Peel. Mix it all together and let it sit to cool while you get the Wonton skins ready. Take the mixture a tsp or so at a time and put it into the center of a Wonton wrapper then wet the edges, I like to fold them neatly into perfect triangles and set aside. I was told however that I am uptight and other ways work better. Some of those suggestions were folded like an envelope, rolled up with the ends open, corners pulled to the top and my favorite wadded up into a tight ball.

Usually I would drop these dumplings into boiling water but I think some of them with improved shapes and wrapping techniques would have had trouble standing up to the rigors of boiling water. I decided to steam these to finish the cooking process. After they steamed for about 5 -7 minutes they were ready to go. A lot of fun to make and they tasted good the fresh ginger is such a nice flavor, of course the girl treated them as if they were stuffed with hemlock.