I’ve almost always bought the potstickers (which are similar to the Japanese gyoza), whether cooked and ready to eat or frozen. I’ve never really made them myself. Mostly because I thought the pleating would be a difficult thing to do. I’m a perfectionist so anything that doesn’t look good to me is a disappointment (reminds me of the mini-melt down I had when I first made carrot cake whoopie pies. It involved a quiet scream and the throwing of the poor, innocent ice cream scooper!). To avoid the disappointment, I just don’t do things.
But lately, I’ve been fairly adventurous (helped along by Alan’s encouragement!). Last week, I made siomai. This weekend, it was Chinese pork potsticker dumplings. I must have watched a lot of “how-to-pleat” videos on youtube to mentally prepare myself for the exercise. The dumplings turned out really well and has (probably) been given the Alan seal of approval. I used store bought dumpling wrappers – the next time I’m doing it, I’m doing EVERYTHING completely from scratch!
Ingredients:
- 110g ground pork
- 1 tsp fine sea salt
- 1 tsp dark soy sauce
- 1 tsp rice wine
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1 tsp sugar
- ½ ground white pepper
- 1 tbsp corn starch
- 1 egg white
- 1 clove garlic, grated
- 1 tbsp freshly grated ginger
- 1 heaping tbsp chives chopped finely
- 18 dumpling wrappers
Directions:
- In a bowl, mix all the ingredients together until well incorporated.
- Taking a dumpling wrapper, dampen the edges of the dumpling wrapper. Place 2 teaspoons of the mixture in the center of the wrapper, and holding the wrapper like a taco, start pleating the edges of the wrapper, pinching with each pleat to seal the dumpling well. Place on a parchment paper-lined baking tray and set aside until ready to cook.
- My version of cooking the dumplings might be different from most people, but it works for me. There are other ways, so feel free to cook them any other way that works for you. I place water and vegetable oil in a wok (or shallow saucepan) and allow the water to heat up to a gentle rolling boil. Place 6-8 dumplings in the boiling water and allow to boil covered for 5 minutes. Uncover the dumplings and swirl (carefully) around to make sure that the dumplings aren’t sticking to the bottom of the pan. Allow the water to evaporate and add a little oil to fry the dumplings until they’re golden brown.
- Serve with your favourite dip!
Yellywelly 