My Vietnamese friends introduced me to this tasty dim sum bite of seasoned ground pork wrapped in a soft mochi wrapped shaped like a half-moon.  I was told it's called a football and went with it, I'm sure there is an official name for it. There is skill in shaping the football and need to keep practicing.  I may need to accept that I don't have the skill to make it look like the dim sum place, but at least it tastes better than it looks.  I may have to shape my version into small flat pancake balls :-). 

Ingredients

Filling

• 2 oz Dried shiitake mushrooms
• 3 oz Ground pork, pan fry or microwave 5 minutes
• ¼ bunch Green onions, chopped
• 2 T Sesame oil
• 1 T shoyu
• 1 T oyster sauce
• 1 t Chinese rice wine (Shaoxing )
• ½ t monk fruit
• ¼ t white pepper
• Water chestnuts, small can, chopped

Dough/wrapper

• 12 oz glutinous rice flour, green label
• ½ C monk fruit
• 2 t baking powder
• 1C water
• 3 t vodka

Directions

Filling

1. Rehydrate the dried shiitake mushrooms in hot water about 30 minutes, squeeze water out and chop
2. Pan fry or microwave (5 minutes) the ground pork, breaking up to a crumble.
3. In a medium bowl combine the mushrooms, pork, green onion, sesame oil, shoyu, oyster sauce, Shaoxing wine, monk fruit, salt and pepper, set aside until ready to fill dough.

Wrapper

1. In a large bowl, add the rice flour, monk fruit, and baking powder. Make a hole in the center.
2. Combine the water and vodka and slowly pour into the hole of the flour, stirring until it forms a dough.
3. Roll dough on to a work surface and knead until smooth about 5 minutes, tough arm workout.
4. Divide dough to 2 balls and roll into 2 cylinders and cut 10 pieces each for a total of 10.
5. Roll each dough into a ball and cover on a pan with plastic wrap.
6. Place the dough ball on a surface to roll about 2” to an oval shape, fill about a teaspoon and wrap dough by pinching edges. Lessons learned – don’t overfill and keep filling dry or with minimal moisture, these expand, keep it small!

• Fry filled dough in cooking oil between 325-350 F about 2 minutes per side or golden brown.
• Cook on a wire rack, it stays hot so being patient is important NOT to burn your mouth.  The heartiness of the pork and the mochi softness makes my belly happy.  They also reheat in an air fryer nicely, too.