Our host for this month’s challenge is Jen from userealbutter. She chose Chinese Dumplings/Potstickers (aka gyoza in Japanese).

As Jen tells us, the concept is quite simple: It’s a basic concept: a filling inside a dough wrapper, sealed, and cooked. One need only chose a dough recipe (we were given regular flour and gluten free recipes), decide upon a filling (we had recipes for pork, shrimp, and vegetarian fillings, although Daring Cooks came up with all kinds variations with many recipes available on the internet), and finally to choose a cooking method (one can boil, steam or pan fry).

We used a food processor to whir up our dough. I did some kneading to make it come together, adding a bit more water to get everything to stick together. My dough didn’t feel quite as smooth as I though it should, but eventually I’d had enough and wrapped it up to let it sleep overnight.

We started official dump day by making a pork filling. Again using the food processor we whipped together a few leaves of napa cabbage, garlic, ginger, shitake mushrooms, leeks, bamboo shoots and ground pork. We also added a bit of soy, sesame oil, and corn starch. I think we were perhaps a bit too zealous food processing and the filling seemed a tad mushy, but it still tasted fine in the end.

Dumpling production began with three sections of dough. I rolled each section into a long dough-snake and then sectioned off pieces about 1.5 inches wide. I squished each of these pieces (one at a time) into a little disk and then flattened each into a circular shape using my rolling pin. The first few were oblongular rather than circular, but eventually a got the hang of this operation.

Mr. Rabbit was in charge of filling and pleating. He put a small bat of filling in the middle of the dough round, then put a bit of water around the edge of the dough. He folded the dumpling in half like small taco and gradually pleated his way along the edge of the taco until he had pleated and sealed the dump. We got some help from this excellent video from Chef Anito Lo (although Mr. Rabbit proved a natural):

http://www.epicurious.com/video/holidays/holidays-chinese-new-year/1915458790/filling-and-pleating-dumplings/1915433392

We tried both steaming our dumplings using our new $10 steamer (thanks T&T! - www.tnt-supermarket.com), it took about 12-15 minutes to cook the dumps.

Boiling was faster although dumplings were perhaps a slight bit mushier when boiled.

Mr. Rabbit made a delicious sauce for our dumps using vinegar, soy sauce and plenty of chili.

We got out our sticks and the result was fabulous.

For the next few days dumpling soup also proved great lunching.

This recipe is a bit time consuming (rolling and pleating fatigue does set in at a certain point), but overall it’s very easy and we’re definitely making these again. Many thanks to our hosts! And check out more blog post at The Daring Kitchen.

Chinese Dumplings (from Jen at userealbutter.com)

Equipment: A rolling pin.

Time: Prep for the filling takes me 30 minutes. When steaming, I can cook a dozen at a time in about 10 minutes. Boiling takes about 6 minutes per dozen depending on size of pot.

Pork filling:
1 lb (450g) ground pork
4 large napa cabbage leaves, minced
3 stalks green onions, minced
7 shitake mushrooms, minced (if dried - rehydrated and rinsed carefully)
1/2 cup (75g) bamboo shoots, minced
1/4 (55g) cup ginger root, minced
3 tbsp (40g) soy sauce
2 tbsp (28g) sesame oil
2 tbsp (16g) corn starch

Shrimp filling:
1/2 lb (225g) raw shrimp, peeled, deveined, and coarsely chopped
1/2 lb (225g) ground pork
3 stalks green onions, minced
1/4 cup (55g) ginger root, minced
1 cup (142g) water chestnuts, minced
1 tsp (5g) salt
3 tbsp (40g) sesame oil
2 tbsp (16g) corn starch

Dough: (double this for the amount of filling, but easier to make it in 2 batches - or just halve the filling recipe)
2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (113g) warm water,
flour for worksurface

Dipping sauce:
2 parts soy sauce
1 part vinegar (red wine or black)
a few drops of sesame oil
chili garlic paste (optional)
minced ginger (optional)
minced garlic (optional)
minced green onion (optional)
sugar (optional)

Combine all filling ingredients in a large mixing bowl and mix thoroughly (I mix by clean hand). Cover and refrigerate until ready to use (up to a day, but preferably within an hour or two).

Make the dough: Place the flour in the work bowl of a food processor with the dough blade. Run the processor and pour the warm water in until incorporated. Pour the contents into a sturdy bowl or onto a work surface and knead until uniform and smooth. The dough should be firm and silky to the touch and not sticky.[Note: it’s better to have a moist dough and have to incorporate more flour than to have a dry and pilling dough and have to incorporate more water).

Knead the dough about twenty strokes then cover with a damp towel for 15 minutes. Take the dough and form a flattened dome. Cut into strips about 1 1/2 to 2 inches wide. Shape the strips into rounded long cylinders. On a floured surface, cut the strips into 3/4 inch pieces. Press palm down on each piece to form a flat circle (you can shape the corners in with your fingers). With a rolling pin, roll out a circular wrapper from each flat disc. Take care not to roll out too thin or the dumplings will break during cooking - about 1/16th inch. Leave the centers slightly thicker than the edges. Place a tablespoon of filling in the center of each wrapper and fold the dough in half, pleating the edges along one side. Keep all unused dough under damp cloth.

To boil: Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add dumplings to pot. Boil the dumplings until they float.

To steam: Place dumplings on a single layer of napa cabbage leaves or on a well-greased surface in a steamer basket with lid. Steam covered for about 6 minutes.

Posted on June 14th, 2009 by rabbit
Filed under: Uncategorized