Saturday Night is Dumpling Night

Obviously I have not been doing very well at keeping up with the meals we create. I was supposed to be writing this up last weekend when it was made.
These are a weekend favorite. Chicken dumplings. It's been a few years that we've been perfecting these. It used to take a cookbook and a long time. We've got it down to a science now. No cookbook, no measurements. We have gone through a couple bamboo steamers, but they are pretty inexpensive.

Dumpling night is by all means a joint effort. Nathan steams the cabbage leaves to line the steamer so it's easier to fit the 8,000,000 little purses that will soon fill it. I'm in charge of mixing the meat, which consists of beating one egg white with some soy sauce, sesame oil, and cornstarch. Nate shreds the carrot and cabbage, minces the garlic and ginger and I get to get my hands all sticky with ground chicken goo. Once the prep is taken care of the assembly ensues. I lay out the wonton wrappers, Nate quickly wets the outer edges to ensure a good seal, I get to spoon the meat mix teaspoon by teaspoon onto all the wrappers. Nathan purses them all up and pops them in the bamboo basket.
To cook them, it takes about 7-9 minutes per steamer layer. We usually have two stories to our dumpling fiasco. Normally we steam off some baby bok choy on the side, make a spicy thai chile soy dipping sauce and plop some hot chinese mustard on a plate and then proceed to eat the 8,000,000 dumplings in front of the T.V. most likely watching Cops (if nathan has anything to do with it).