This recipe is as much a tasty treat as it is a study in traditional, royal Thai cuisine. These are savoury dumplings filled with a sweet-salty pork and peanut filling, wrapped in a tender butterfly-pea-flower-dyed dough. It's a LOT of work, and I'm not gonna pretend it's something you can pull off on a Wednesday night. But if there's a special occasion coming up, the deliciousness and the wow-factor of these might very well be worth the effort, and they're also gluten-free and dairy free!
P.S. If you want super tasty dumplings that don't require nearly the amount of skills and time as thes, try my easy shumai recipe that's perfect for dumpling beginners!
The Chor Muang Tweezers
The only annoying thing is that this recipe requires a special tool to make the petals. These brass tweezers come in 2 styles: the squared and the leaf shape. You can use either one to make the 2 different styles, but the squared one is the most common, and is the one shown in the video.
Where to buy Chor Muang tweezers? If you have a Thai grocery store that sells a lot of specialty Thai ingredients and tools, they might sell them. They're hard to track down online, but I did find this one listing on eBay.
These tweezers can also be used to make "bird dumplings" as shown in my "Royal Thai Cooking Livestream" with Chef Farm at the Royal Thai Consulate.
Where does the purple colour come from?
"Chor" means bouquet, and "muang" means purple. And the purple colour comes from steeping butterfly pea flowers, which are actually blue, but lime juice is added to turn the water purple. If you have access to fresh ones, great, but dried ones work perfectly well and can be purchased online.
Spreading out the work
These take HOURS to make if you do it all in one go. So if you're wanting to make them for a special occasion, here are some things you can do to spread out the workload:
- Make the filling up to a week in advance. You can also allow for two days to make the filling and form them into balls on the second day. You can also freeze the filling balls.
- Make the dough and shape the dumplings one day in advance, then keep them ready-to-steam in an airtight container in the fridge. Be careful not to pack them too tightly or the flower petals might be squished.
- Make the fried garlic up to 2 days in advance. Keep the oil and the garlic separate in their own tightly sealed container.
How to Make Flower Dumplings
Here's a bird's eye view of the steps involved in making the chor muang dough and shaping the dumplings, so you get an idea of how to beautiful flowers get their shape and how the tweezers are used. I highly recommend watching the full video tutorial before you make these because you're going to need all the tips and techniques for this one!
Storage and Reheating
The dough has to be used the day it is made. If refrigerated it will be more difficult to work with, but if well wrapped to prevent drying it will last at room temp for several hours. Once you've made them into dumplings you can store them in the fridge.
It's best to cook these right before serving. Serving them warm is the best, but room temp is okay as long as they haven't been sitting out for too long as the petals can dry out.
If you have leftovers that have been refrigerated, the best way to reheat them is to steam them again for a few minutes. Microwaving tends to dry out the exterior of the dumplings.
Just wanna know what they taste like without the work?
You can totally just make balls! If you're not trying to impress anyone and just curious about the flavour, simply wrap them in dough and steam. Since you are not constrained by the need to make petals, you can get away with a little bit less dough; which I think would make them even better.
Alternatively, make the filling and have it with Thai sticky rice! I've done it before with my leftover filling and was so surprised by how good it was! Sticky rice is great for eating with this sort of thing. Keep the lettuce though; it really helps to lighten and brighten it up. Here's a video on 7 ways to make sticky rice in case it's helpful.
Watch The Full Video Tutorial!
All my recipes come with step-by-step video tutorials with extra tips not mentioned in the blog post, so make sure you watch the video below to ensure success - and if you enjoy the show, please consider subscribing to my YouTube channel. Thank you!
Royal Flower Dumplings - Chor Muang
- Prep Time: 2 hours
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours 20 minutes
- Yield: 40 dumplings
Description
Beautiful, intricate flower dumplings created for royalty. Sweet-salty pork and peanut filling wrapped in a flower-dyed, tender, gluten-free dough.
Ingredients
Filling
- 1 tsp white peppercorns
- 6-8 cilantro stems, chopped
- 5 cloves garlic
- 1 Tbsp toasted white sesame seeds, optional
- ⅓ cup roasted peanuts
- 250 g. (9 0z.) lean ground pork or ground chicken
- 2 Tbsp oil
- ¼ medium onion, minced
- 80 g. (2.8 oz.) palm sugar, chopped
- 1Tbsp + 2 tsp fish sauce
Dough
- 100g (1 scant cup) rice flour (plus ~¼ cup for dusting)
- 25g (3 Tbsp) arrowroot starch (or sub tapioca starch)
- 12g (1½ Tbsp) glutinous rice flour
- ¾ cup hot water
- 3 Tbsp coconut milk
- 1 Tbsp dried butterfly pea flowers (about 20 flowers)
- 2 tsp lime or lemon juice
For Serving
- Fried garlic & garlic oil (use 1 head of garlic, recipe below)
- Green leaf lettuce
- Cilantro (optional)
- Thai Chilies, sliced into rounds (optional)
Special tools: Chor muang tweezers
See a list of my kitchen tools and ingredients
Instructions
Make the filling:
Note: I recommend making the filling a day or two ahead to help spread out the work and to allow it time to chill in the fridge, which will make it easier to form into balls. The filling will last several days in the fridge.
- Using a mortar and pestle, pound white peppercorns until fine, then add garlic and cilantro stems and pound into a paste. Remove this from mortar, but don’t clean it yet.
- If using sesame seeds, add to the mortar and lightly crush them to release the aroma. Then add peanuts and pound until coarsely ground, making sure the big pieces are no larger than ⅛ inch. Alternatively you can grind them in a small food processor or chop them with a knife.
- In a mixing bowl, use a fork to mash the ground pork and mix with the fish sauce.
- In a wok or a saute pan, add the oil then sauté the herb paste and onions until the onions are translucent.
- Add the ground meat and stir until the meat is fully cooked; breaking it up as finely as possible. You do not want any large chunks of meat.
- Add palm sugar and cook until the sugar is dissolved.
- Add the peanuts and sesame seeds and continue cooking and stirring until the mixture is dry and the colour has darkened slightly.
- If the meat is too fatty there might be some excess oil that has separated from the filling; in this case push the filling to one side and tilt the pan to separate the oil out, then spoon the filling into a bowl, leaving the oil in the pan. You can keep this oil for frying the garlic.
- Let the filling cool completely, or preferably till chilled. While the filling cools, I recommend making the fried garlic and prepping for the dough.
- Once cooled, roll the filling into 6-7 g. balls (or a little more than a tightly packed teaspoon.)
Make the fried garlic and garlic oil:
- In a small pot or a wok, add ¼ inch of oil and turn the heat on to medium. Add one piece of garlic as the “test”, and once the test garlic starts to bubble add the remaining garlic and turn the heat to medium low.
- Fry the garlic slowly, stirring frequently, until golden and the bubbling has subsided. Drain the garlic from the oil through a metal sieve and keep them separate. The oil will keep in the fridge indefinitely, but the garlic won’t remain crispy if stored.
Make the dough:
- Put butterfly pea flowers into a bowl, then measure out ¾ cup of off-the-boil water and pour it over the flowers. Steep for at least 15 minutes, or until the water is at most lukewarm.
- Prepare the steamer. Cut the parchment into a circle a little bit smaller than the steamer rack, then cut/punch several holes in it to allow steam to come up through the paper.
- Remove the flowers from the water pressing out as much water as possible. Add lime juice to turn the water purple.
- Prepare your work station: combine about ¼ cup of rice flour and 2 tablespoon tapioca starch in a bowl; this is your dusting flour. Prepare a clean work surface and dust it lightly with the flour mix.
- Cook the dough: Off heat, add all the flours into a non-reactive pan, preferably non-stick. Add the cooled butterfly pea water and coconut milk then stir to completely dissolve the flour. Turn the heat on to medium-low and stir constantly with a rubber spatula; scraping the bottom and folding it onto itself until it clumps into a rough dough. It shouldn’t be smooth at this stage, but it should not be wet anymore.
- Transfer the dough onto your prepared work surface, dust with a little more flour on top and then knead just until it’s smooth. The dough will be hot, but the trick is to do this fast so you’re not touching the dough for a long time. You can also use a bowl scraper or rubber spatula to help knead it if it’s too hot. Knead just until smooth. It shouldn’t stick to your hands, but you can add a little flour if it feels a bit sticky.
Wrap the dumplings:
Note: You can wrap the dumplings a day in advance of serving and store them in a tightly sealed container in the fridge.
- Pat the dough into a ¾ inch thick rectangle and cover the dough with a damp towel or plastic wrap to keep it from drying while you’re not using it.
- Pinch or cut off a 7-8 gram piece of dough. Roll into a ball and flatten the dough into a 1½ inch circle, then flatten only the edges so that it expands into a 2-inch circle. Dip your fingers in the dusting flour as you work if the dough sticks to your hands.
- Place one ball of filling in the flattened dough, closing the seam well, then push the seam side against the counter to flatten so you have a sort of a bell shape.
- Dust the exterior of the dumpling with flour, then pinch with the chor muang tweezer into petal shapes; dipping the tweezers into the flour about every 3 tweezes to prevent sticking (you’ll probably need to watch the video for this technique).
- Place the formed dumplings directly onto the lined steamer. Repeat with the rest of the dumplings.
- When ready to serve, steam the dumplings on high for 5-6 minutes, the dough will become more translucent once cooked. Remove them from steamer onto a serving plate and immediately brush with garlic oil to prevent them from drying out.
- When ready to serve, top with fried garlic, and serve with green leaf lettuce, cilantro, and sliced Thai chilies if desired. This is best served warm, but room temp is okay too.
phinn markson says
I am sooo going to try these as soon as I get back home for my partner. I already have the pea flowers as tea at home. This will be a fantastic present for her to have put up with the burden of me leaving and being gone. By the way like all things these days, the special tweezers are on the site that shall not be named ;).
I noticed in your video, and I do not know why this had not occurred to me years earlier, that you are using your portable gas burner. I know that a home stove does not kick out enough BTUs to make a wok do the glorious things a wok can do. I have three portable burners, and finally, watching you and listening to you talk about sugar drying and caramelizing, it hit me. Right. Duh! Thank you for your fantastic narrative. I really appreciate it!! 😉
Chloe says
Hi, after making the dumpling, how long can we keep in the freezer?
Pailin Chongchitnant says
If you freeze them raw and then steam, I find the texture suffers and becomes more mushy. I have not tried freezing after steaming.
Pam says
Can you freeze them at all?
Pailin Chongchitnant says
If you freeze them raw and then steam, I find the texture suffers and becomes more mushy. I have not tried freezing after steaming.
Moon says
I've made the filling to serve over rice two times now - it's absolutely delicious!
Pailin Chongchitnant says
So glad you're able to take advantage of the filling! Try it with sticky rice too, it's great!
Betty Viser says
If you can not find the original thai tweezers, you can use ‘fondant crimper’ instead. It is available in shops that sells cake decorating supplies.
Pailin Chongchitnant says
Super useful! Thanks for the tip!
C says
Can these be frozen after made please?
Nome says
Can you use food coloring for the color??
Pailin Chongchitnant says
Most definitely!
François-Xavier Caill says
Hi, this recipe is really good, I made with 1,250kg of pork so taking really long time to finish(taking a lot of time to put meat inside paste). Finally I was really lazy to make flowers. Will do next time in smaller quantities... khop khoun khrap and happy new year from France
Pailin Chongchitnant says
That amount would've made a whole garden of flowers 🙂 Glad you enjoyed it!