Sonia's Dad favorite soup

From the mail from Sonia:
Sooo.. :) i promised you some cookie recipes, but i haven't had the time yet (however today I plan to make some cinnamon buns so i will take some pictures and send you the recipe :)... for now i realized that about 4 weeks ago i was making these soup dumplings that we absolutely loved when we lived in taiwan.

The 'broth'

2 quarts of water
2 pounds chicken bones (wings/back/neck)
2 ounces of Virginia Smithfield ham (or cured Chinese ham if you can get it), cut into 4 pieces
1/2 pound of pork skin & fat (you can ask your butcher for this, he’ll most likely just give it to you. you could also use pork belly, or just a fatty cut of pork)
1 inch piece of ginger, sliced into 4-5 ginger “coins”
2 green onions, cut into 3″ pieces
2 large garlic cloves, smashed with side of your knife
2 teaspoons of Chinese rice wine (or dry sherry)

add some gelatin to help it setttle

The Filling
1 lb ground pork
1/4 lb shrimp, shelled, deveined and minced finely
3 stalks green onion, finely minced
2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 teaspoon grated fresh ginger (use rasp grater)
1 teaspoon Chinese rice wine (or dry sherry)
1/4 teaspoon sesame oil

Hot Water Dough
(makes about 40 dumplings)

400 grams of all-purpose flour (but please re-read the part above re: dough)
3/4 cups boiling hot water
1/4 cup cold water
1 tablespoon cooking oil

To make the broth put all the ingredients into a large pot. After it starts to boil, reduce the heat and cook for another 3-4 hours. Keep cleaning the surface from impurities in order to have a nice clean broth. When finished, add a little bit of gelatin into it and pour it into a deep baking pan. Put it into the fridge (for example) to help it settle. Once settled, take a fork and run through the broth to create little squares.

Put all the ingredients for the filling into a bowl and mix it well. Then add the broth gelatin and mix the entire mixture one more time.

For the dough: Put 90% of the flour in a large bowl. Pour about a third of the hot water in the flour. Stir vigorously. Add more hot water. Stir more. Add the last bit of the water and stir vigorously until the dough begins to form. Add the cold water and oil. Keep stirring vigorously. Stop when you can’t stir anymore.

Roll the dough until very thin, then put the filling in and make little dumplings out of it. :) 

Bring some water to boil and use the bamboo steamer to steam the dumplings. Let them steam for about 15 minutes or until done. 

Serve the dumplings with a dipping sauce that consists of a mixture of soy sauce and red vinegar (can be rice vinegar if you don't have a red one). Don't forget to grind some fresh ginger as well :) enjoy!