swei jows

All you have to do in my family to reduce any of us to salivating weirdos, is to say two words.

Swei Jows.

Let me explain. Swei Jows are our family dish. My dad went to Taiwan on his mission for the LDS church in the olden days (sorry Dad, hehe), and he ate these almost every day. They're kind of like boiled pot stickers...at least that's the way we usually try and explain them to newcomers. That, or we shove their faces in it and yell, "See? Aren't they yummy!?"

You should be so lucky.

Anyways, my dad had his birthday last week, so we celebrated by cooking up a couple hundred or so of these yummy treats, and then gorged ourselves.


Here's how you make them, if anything for future generations, should the Swei Jow love get lost in the shuffle somehow.

Swei Jows

1 lb of ground pork
1 egg (per lb of pork)
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp garlic
1/2 head shredded cabbage
1 package wonton wraps

Mix ingredients together in a large bowl, fill wraps, and press edges together with water. Boil in water for 5-6 minutes until edges are sealed together and they float to the top. Eat with soy sauce, hot pepper oil, and/or vinegar. (see my lovely instructions below for step by step directions)

Yes, this is really how much filling we use. (I think we usually quadruple the recipe)

You'll need: (as shown in the picture below)

Thanks to my brother Justin for his lovely swei jow instructional hand modeling. He has a future, I think.

So, take some of your filling, and plop it in the middle of your wrapper. (not too much or it will burst open while cooking and everyone will blame each other)

dab some water around the edges, and press together into a half circle shape.

crimp your edges like so...although Justin didn't do the neatest job, it will still taste delicious.

Repeat a bajillion times until you've run out of meat or wrappers, whichever happens first! Once in awhile you run out of both at the same time. I call that the Perfect Storm.

Prepare your bowl...with some soy sauce, hot oil, and vinegar, whichever combo you prefer. I usually do soy sauce with some hot oil. YUM!

Boil for 5-6 minutes or until they float to the top. Next: eat (with chopsticks unless you are chopstick-handicapped like Rory) by dipping into your soy sauce mixture, and try and eat as many as you can before the tray disappears. We have two trays on either end of the table, and everyone is always after the coveted middle spot that gets to eat from both trays.

By the way, liking Swei Jows is one of the requirements for marrying into the Lance family. That, and you have to like camping. Just so you know. In case any of you want to marry one of my siblings someday.

(and yes, Rory passed both tests)