Egg-dough Rice Dumplings

Wash rice and soak it in plenty of warm water for 3 hours.

Break egg in flour and add about 1/2 cup of water. Knead well into smooth dough and cover it with a wet cloth for an hour.

2) Steam plumped glutinous rice on high flame to cover for 40 minutes.

Heat pan on fire. Put in lard and minced pork, and stir-fry till mince is well scattered. Add minced scallion and continue to stir. Follow with soya sauce, cooking wine, salt, sugar and gourmet powder. Stir-fry till it gives out an aroma. Add steamed rice and mix well and this becomes the stuffing.

3) Divide dough into 20 equal portions, coat evenly with dry flour and roll with a rolling pin into 20 round wrappers about 4 inches in diameter, thin at the edge and slightly thicker in the middle. Holding the round with left hand, fill in the middle with a tablespoon of stuffing, gather up the edge little by little with the right hand by pinching small pleats one after another until the edge is gathered on top like a bud about to blossom.

Arrange the dumplings on a wet muslin-covered porous rack and steam to cover on high flame for 10 minutes.

Notes:

(1) If crab meat is added to (or used instead of) pork for the stuffing, the dumplings will be "Grab Meat Dumplings".

(2) If the glutinous rice feels hard after steaming, a little water may be added to the mince during stir-frying before rice is mixed in. The stuffing will become soft after dumplings are steamed.