Darn you, dumplings

I haven't expressly talked about it before, but one of my favorite hole-in-the-wall restaurants in Macau is this place, Peking Dumplings (missing a few vowels on the sign, but whatever):

It's convenient (just a block away from Senado), cheap (20 boiled dumplings cost 18 MOP, about $2.25 US), and pretty authentic - I've seen them hand-wrapping the dumplings and they even make their own fresh soy milk. Last week, I stopped by after work to get some take-out dumplings for dinner, and I decided to also get some non-cooked dumplings for later, figuring I could cook them at home for lunch the following day or something like that. Something to note that will become important for the following paragraphs: these dumplings were fresh-wrapped, never frozen, so I just put them in the fridge.

On my first attempt a few days ago, I just used a thin layer of hot oil in the pan (it's supposed to be a non-stick pan, but at this point I think the non-stick coating has worn off). The outsides crisped beautifully, they smelled and tasted delicious...but the inside filling wasn't fully cooked. I didn't realize this until I looked more closely at the last dumpling and saw some of the pork still looked pinkish, but by then I had already eaten six. Oops. In any case, I didn't get sick, so I figured I was ok.

My second attempt tonight also involved just oil, but I kept it at a lower heat, figuring that would help cook the insides more without charring the outsides. You would think that frying in hot oil for 10 minutes would cook just about anything, but nope, same problem. Lovely-looking crispy dumpling skins on the outside, stubbornly pink-ish filling inside. I even opened one up to check the inside, saw it was pink, and put it back in the pan, but the meat still didn't cook! I opened each of the six dumplings to check, but they were all like that, so I just ate the skin, scraping out the filling and setting it aside to separately cook more later.

Before my final attempt with the last five dumplings, I Googled "How to pan-fry dumplings" and the first few links all suggested the same thing: Fry until one side is golden, add water and steam for a few minutes, then finish frying until it's as crispy as you want it to be. This sounded somewhat like what I remember Mom doing at home (in a cast-iron pan), so I decided to give it a go.

The result? Perfectly golden, crispy outside, and...only slightly more cooked inside -_- Susan came to check on me and complimented how they looked on the plate, but then ran to get her camera so she could photograph me dissecting each dumpling and eventually frying the filling (which I should note is still slightly pinkish even though I know it's fully cooked). Seriously though, I don't understand why this is such a problem...I've made potstickers before just fine (my roommates from summer 2006 can vouch for this); these dumplings are very tasty when fried at the restaurant, and the point still remains that I was cooking them for over 10 minutes!

Gah. Maybe next time I'll just boil the heck out of them.