Steam-Fried Dumpling/Wontons are one of my favorite things at Asian restaurants. And recently, thanks to my Thai friend Cye showing me how she makes hers (fried, not steam-fried though), I’ve decided “I can do that!”

For my filling, I just kind of threw some junk together. I wanted to use ground pork, but our commissary didn’t have any. So I got a package of plain breakfast sausage (which is basically just ground pork anyway). I added some very finely chopped green beans, zucchini, and eggplant from our garden (just because it was lying around), and mixed in some soy sauce and a little oyster sauce.

To make my dumplings, I spread out a few wonton wrappers at a time (ready-made, from the store), and spooned a tiny bit of filling onto the center of each one.

Here they are, all ready to be closed!

I dipped my finger in some water and “painted” the edges of a wonton wrapper…

…then folded it over and pressed the edges to seal it. You don’t want to trap air in there, if you can avoid it.

Keep wetting and sealing, spreading out, filling, wetting, sealing…. until…

You have a whole pile of wontons ready to cook!

To steam-fry them, first drizzle a little bit of oil in the bottom of a pan. Not too much! Then arrange some dumplings in there so they can get crispy on one side.

Evidently I don’t have pictures of the rest of the process… but after they get crispy on one side, cover the pan with its lid and squirt in a little bit of water with a turkey baster (just so the steam won’t escape), immediately closing the lid again. Let the dumplings steam for a few minutes. Then, uncover and let the rest of the water evaporate if there is any, and let your dumplings crisp up again. You can flip them if you want to.

It took a while to make all the dumplings, but they were OH SO GOOD.

The dipping sauce was soy sauce mixed with rice vinegar, which I really think is the only way to go (unless you’ve got some duck sauce).

These are really delicious… and I bet you could make up a whole bunch, freeze some, and re-heat them in the oven, though I haven’t tried that.

They’d also be great finger fare for a party.