The Chinese pork dumpling recipe, which I just finished posting here, is so versatile: the filling can be used for pot-stickers, spring rolls, soups and stir-fries. It can be boiled, steamed, fried, or fried-then-boiled (pot-sticker method). You can make it meat-filled, or a combination of meat and vegetable, or completely vegetarian. It is a mainstay of dimsum houses everywhere. In the Philippines it is served as siomai, and dipped in fish sauce and calamondin juice. Though I love it served Pinoy-style, there are times when I prefer it with the Szechwanese sauce shown here.

Yes, pork dumplings are available frozen at Asian stores (and now even at organic co-ops and regular supermarkets). But if any of you are like me, and you’re either too far away from Asian stores to make a casual stop when you feel like it, or you want to control what goes in your dumpling, or you have fun making these itty bitty things just because, you may want to give these a whirl.