Passport & Plate - Pan-Fried Northern Style Chinese Dumplings
USA | Friday, March 14, 2014 | 5 photos
Ingredients
Ingredients
For the dumpling skins:
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1-1 1/2 cups warm water
For the dumping filling:
4 cups minced Napa cabbage
1 teaspoon salt
1 pound ground pork butt
2 cups minced Chinese garlic chives
2 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
1 1/2 tablespoons Chinese rice wine
1 1/2 tablespoons minced ginger
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
For the dipping sauce:
1/2 cups soy sauce
1 tablespoons chopped garlic
How to prepare this recipePREPARATION
For the dumpling skins:
1. Place flour in large bowl and gradually add warm water until a soft dough forms. Knead dough for 5 minutes and let sit for 15 minutes. Then knead dough for a minute and let sit for 5 minutes.
2. Sprinkle flour onto dry chopping board, knead and roll dough on it into a long 1" round rope, and cut it into 3/4" pieces. Press pieces into round discs. Using rolling pin, roll dough into 3" diameter discs.
For the dumpling filling:
3. Place minced cabbage in a bowl, add salt and mix evenly. Let sit 30 minutes, then grab handfuls of cabbage and squeeze out water.
4. Return cabbage to bowl, add ground pork, minced chives, 2 1/2 tablespoons of soy sauce, sesame oil, rice wine, ginger and 1 tablespoon of cornstarch. Stir vigorously until well combined.
5. Place a teaspoon of the filling in the center of a dumpling skin. Fold skin over to make a semicircle (with opened edges facing up) and pinch two sides together at the center. Use index finger to form small pleats along one edge and thumb to press the other edge against pleats to seal.
6. Pour 2 tablespoons of oil into a non-stick pan and lay as many potstickers as fit in pan comfortably, ensuring that all the bottoms of the potstickers are coated in oil. Pour enough water to cover the bottom third of the potstickers. Cover with a lid and cook at medium heat for 7-10 minutes. Lift the lid to allow water to evaporate and fry the dumplings until the bottoms are golden brown. Remove from heat and serve.
Dipping sauce:
7. Mix 1/2 C soy sauce and chopped garlic for dipping sauce.
YIELD: 50 dumplings
The story behind this recipeMy go-to comfort food is Chinese dumplings, jiao zi (steamed or boiled dumplings) and guo tie (potstickers). Though I grew up in the U.S., I have inherited my parents', or better yet, my great grandparents' taste buds. My mom's side of the family lived in Harbin, in northern China. My great grandfather spoke Russian since he was involved with trade at the Chinese-Russian border. I have never met my grandparents or great grandparents but it is through my utter love of northern Chinese foods (wheat based foods are a staple in northern China) such as dumplings, steamed buns, noodles and pancakes that I feel connected to my great grandparents and to my roots.
I first learned how to make dumplings from scratch at about eight years old. My aunt, uncle and cousins had just moved into the apartment downstairs from ours and, to my cousin's chagrin, I was always over. My aunt was renowned for her petite dumplings that had a burst of wonderful flavor and umami. I was beyond excited on the day that my aunt taught me to make dumplings from scratch, from beginning to end. The softness of the dough; the smell of pork, chives and oil all melding together; the aroma of garlic, ginger and soy sauce are all indelibly marked in my memory. I also remember first biting into the juicy, fragrant packet of bliss.
You just cannot beat the texture and chew of home made dumpling skins, which is why you will never find store-bought dumpling skins in my refrigerator. The skin used to be (and pretty much still is) my favorite part of the dumpling. My mom would look at plate in horror, so much so that she once said, "Don't ever do that in public." It was carnage on my plate, I had pulled out and eaten every filling, leaving a pile of dumpling skins that I would slowly savor, keeping the best part for last.
