recipe: cheeseburger dumplings

these dumplings are pretty much the best damn thing i have made in my kitchen in... .... ... as long as i can remember. i've been on a big dumpling kick, with bags and bags of em in my freezer. after getting a little inebriated a few weeks back, i was struck with dreams of homemade cheeseburger dumplings, turkey cranberry dumplings, philly cheese, sausage & pepper dumplings, oreo cheesecake dumplings... the list goes on. i literally have a list on my phone of about 15 different dumplings that are haunting my dreams to this day.

first at bat in the kitchen was the cheeseburger variety, since i had a little burger meat in the freezer just begging for a good time. and cuz you know, cheeseburgers. after they were assembled (which was not too bad at all, no where near my scratch-made pierogi fiasco ), i fried a few up and threw the rest in the freezer. they were SO damn good. like amazingly delicious. like i can't wait to make about 50000 more dumplings. like when i open my slider and tini bar, it might just become a slider-dumpling-tini bar because i can't love them any harder. aaah. don't steal my idea. (c) 2014 that's my jam.

we served them with a little diy fry sauce (half ketchup, half mayo, touch of Sriracha), which seemed to be the just-right little fix for this asia-merican fusion delight.

ingredient list: (makes about 36 dumplings)
- 1/3 lb (roughly) lean ground beef
- 1 cup shredded pepper jack cheese
- 1/2 cup red onion
- 2 tbsp ketchup
- 1 tbsp Worchestershire sauce
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
- 1 green onion
- salt & pepper to taste
- 30 (or so) gyoza / dumpling wrappers
- 3 tbsps vegetable or canola oil, divided
- 1 & 1/2 cups water, divided




to make:
brown ground beef in a large pan over medium heat, adding red onion for the last few minutes of cooking. cook until beef crumbles and is no longer pink. drain excess oil/fat, if needed.

combine beef mixture with cheese, ketchup, Worchestershire, garlic powder, red pepper, green onion, and season with salt and pepper to taste.

lay gyoza wrappers on non-stick surface, and wet edges with water (i did this in small batches to make sure non of them dried before i prepped them). place 1 heaping tablespoon of filling in the middle of each wrapper. fold the sides of each wrapper together to form a semicircle, and pinch sides together until completely sealed.

to cook, heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. add about 12 dumplings, and cook for about 2 minutes, or until the bottom starts to get golden brown. pour 1/2 cup of water to the pan, covering the pan and cooking until water has evaporated / been absorbed (about 5-7 minutes). repeat process with remaining dumplings.