Chinese Dumplings (饺子 jiǎozi)
Cheap, tasty and almost instantaneous to cook, frozen dumplings are the staple of the Chinese student’s diet. Whilst the process of making them from scratch takes considerably longer, the end result is well worth the effort; and with Spring Festival occurring so early next year, prospective jiaozi cooks should get their practice in early for this key Chinese New Year dish.
As with most dough or pastry based dishes, jiaozi can be made with just about anything you choose or, more likely, anything that happens to be in the fridge. I decided to make the batch in the photographs on a Saturday morning, and so their fillings - bacon and onion - are designed to give a breakfast/brunch taste.
Ingredients
For the dough:
1 cup plain flour
1/4 cup water
For the filling:
50g cooking bacon
1/2 a small onion
Sesame oil
Soy sauce
Notes: (1) Jiaozi dough should be very dry, if in doubt use less water and add only if the dough won’t combine otherwise; (2) Any bacon is fine, cooking bacon tends to be easier to dice; (3) Sesame oil gives the filling a distinctive Chinese flavour, but can be omitted if not available; (4) I only used half of the dough for this recipe, should you need more or less the ratio is 4:1 flour to water, scale up or down accordingly.
Instructions
Combine the flour and water in a mixing bowl, mix together until you have a small ball of dough. Knead the dough for 10-15 minutes, folding over onto itself and squeezing it together, turn the dough every time you finish this movement. The dough will be ready when it becomes springy and the surface is smooth and soft. Roll the dough into a tube of about 1 inch diameter and set aside.
Dice the bacon and onion as small as possible, combine in a bowl and add a splash each of sesame oil and soy sauce, season with pepper.
Microwave the filling mixture for 30 seconds on high to remove any excess fat from the bacon. Refrigerate while you prepare the wrappers.
Slice the dough tube into 1/4 inch segments. With a rolling pin, flatten the segments into circles of dough, as thin as possible without breaking.
Take a teaspoon-full of filling and place in the middle of the wrapper, wet a finger in water and run along the edge of the top half; taking hold of the bottom, fold it over the filling and press onto the wet dough, pinch both sides together to seal.
Cooking
Jiaozi can be steamed, boiled or - as in this recipe - fried and steamed. This particular type of jiaozi is commonly known as a pot-sticker, and has a much harder texture compared to other methods.
Heat a little butter or oil in a pan and add the jiaozi.
After you add the jiaozi, put a kettle on to boil. Fry the jiaozi on a high heat until they begin to brown. Add a small amount of boiling water and cover the pan to steam the dumplings.
When all the water has cooked off, the jiaozi are ready for serving.
Jiaozi are traditionally served with a soy-vinegar dipping sauce, this is also ideal for this non-traditional recipe as the vinegar helps to moderate the saltiness of the bacon. Mix a little soy sauce and balsamic vinegar and either pour over your dumplings or place in a small dipping dish.
Extra
Jiaozi can also be boiled, this gives an entirely different texture to the pot-sticker method and will be more familiar to those used to cooking frozen dumplings.
Add the jiaozi to a pan of boiling water (with a dash of oil) and cook for approximately 2-3 minutes, stir regularly to avoid sticking. Drain in a colander and serve with soy-vinegar dipping sauce (see above).
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