I lived in Hong Kong for two years, and my favourite celebration beside the Chinese Lantern Festival, which is just so enchanting, is Chinese New Year, because the main highlights is Food. Each item has special symbolism, for example, mandarins symbolises abundant happiness, deep-fried sesame balls mean good luck for the whole family and dumplings are number one because they symbolize wealth. Why? Because they look like ancient Chinese money..

So to wish you a very happy and wealthy 2013- Year of the Snake, I offer you my easy Dumpling Recipe:

For 40 dumplings

½ pound of ground pork

½ pound of small shrimps, minced

2 garlic cloves, crushed

¼ cup of water chestnuts, minced

2 scallions minced

Ginger root, about 2 cm grated

2 tablespoons of fresh coriander leaves, minced

1 egg beaten

2 tablespoon of tamari sauce (or soy sauce)

1 pinch of Cayenne pepper

40 dumpling wrappers (you can find them in the frozen section of any grocery stores)

Mix all the ingredients into a paste.

Moisten the sides of a wonton wrapper with water and put a teaspoon of filling in the center.

Wrap by bringing the corners together in the center, into a little parcel.

Steam the dumplings in a bamboo steamer, lined with a lettuce leave, to avoid sticking, for a bout 12 minutes.

Serve with sesame soy sauce.

Sesame Soy Sauce:

2 tablespoons of tamari (or soy sauce) mixed with 1 teaspoon of grilled sesame oil. You can add some grated ginger if you like and top with sesame seeds, if you have any.

If you have left over, click here for how to make Deep-Fried Won-Ton 

This post is also published on my In Good Taste Blog @YummyMummyClub

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