Originally Posted by rootboy

The base of the filling is bai cai, or white (Napa) cabbage. Chopped fine. The trick is to not add it to the filling until the last minute before wrapping. And add no salt until last minute either. If the chopped cabbage is added to the meat or shrimp mixture too soon, it will seep water and ruin the skins, causing the dumplings to be mushy or fall apart. Salt leaches out the water too so add it last. Other than salt, it is just finely chopped fresh ginger and green onions. That's it. Dunk in some fine Chinese vinegar and a dash of hot chili sauce to eat. You can use garlic chive and if you live near a China town you can probably find it. Not to everyone's taste. Pronounced, roughly " joe tsai"

As for the skins, it's simply flour and warm water. Let sit covered with a damp cloth in a bowl to rest, then roll out one inch logs of it with hands and yank off hunks roughly the size of , uh .... one inch diameter, roll into balls and flatten with hands. Then, she brushes oil on one side with the back of a spoon and layers two of them together. Roll out with the little, tapered pin....the "hard" part....then separate the two skins, fill with filling and shape your dimples, closing the two sides of the little "tacos" together. (Harder than it looks, I've found ) With home made dough you don't need it but with store bought skins require wetting the skins with water where you pinch them together, so it sticks.