Fold and Pinch

Learning the art of dumpling today with a friend from China. First you make the filling, which involved a lot of fine chopping of vegetables and frying them off with spices. Then came the tricky bit - taking small circles of pastry, adding a spoon of filling, then carefully folding along the top edge to seal it in. The art is in using one hand to make the "crinkle" in the top half of pastry, and then using the other to press this together. Safe to say it took me a few attempts to try and get it right, and you could definitely tell which ones were made by me!

Once cooked, they were enjoyed out in this little sun trap of a garden, with some plum wine to wash it down. Perfect!