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At noodle bars, yo sushi etc you can get these tasty dumplings, jiaozi or gyoza (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiaozi). They seem to command a fairly high price, some places charging a fiver for four dumplings. I finally got round to writing this post as a quick guide to making them at home with no need for fancy ingredients from Chinese supermarkets (you can get the skins ready made, but they're easier to make from scratch in my mind). The filling for these dumplings can be any meat, shellfish or vegetable. They're delicious and cheap, and go very well with a pint of beer
Skins (make dough an hour before):
300g strong white flour (bread flour)
0.5 tsp salt
200ml boiling water
Mix salt and flour in a bowl, then make a well and pour in water. The water should be just boiled, and when it hits the flour you'll see it almost start to cook - quickly mix with a knife or chopstick into a ball. Let it rest for a min to cool down slightly, knead a bit more with the implement then cover bowl with clingfilm for an hour. This lets it cool down and gluten react with the water.
Incidentally this dough can be used to make homemade noodles, or you can make the dumplings out of other things. An egg in the dough will make wanton skins. Making the dough out of tapioca starch and rice flour will make a translucent gelatinous har-gow dumpling.
Gyoza mix:
Can be anything, but make sure its well chopped and seasoned. These ones in the picture are hand-minced chicken breast, spring onion, sesame oil, soy, salt and pepper. Other mixes could be pork and prawn, beef, venison and red wine, duck and hoi sin, etc
Making the gyoza:
After an hour, take the dough and knead on a floured surface for 5 mins. The combination of boiling water and kneading makes a super stretchy dough. Divide dough into four and then roll each one out, turning the dough and flipping to stop it sticking. The rolled out sheet should be pretty thin, about 1-2 mm. Using an upturned glass cut out circles. They can be any size within reason, but go for maybe 1.5 - 2 inch diameter.
Put the filling in the centre leaving a gap around the edge for sealing. Fold over to make a pasty shape, sealing the edges. Alternatively I got these 'dumpling folders' from a cheap cookware shop, costing around a fiver for three different sizes.
Cut out remaining circles and make the dumplings, then use the remaining dough. Reuse dough off cuts by rerolling. This amount of dough can make about 30-40 gyoza. Refrigerate/freeze (once only) unused dough for another time. Or I think you could even make a large batch and freeze whole gyoza as long as the filling hasn't been frozen before.
Cooking:
Best way imo is fry-steaming (below) but you can just steam them (use a lettuce leaf in the steamer as a base) or cook them directly in a flavoured stock for a dumpling soup.
Get a nonstick frying pan, put oil in enough to coat the base thinly, and heat to medium heat. Place the gyoza in the pan, browning one side and then flip to brown the other if you like. The dough can burn easily so keep an eye on them going too far. With a plate ready to quickly cover the frying pan carefully (its going to start spitting!) pour a cup of water into the pan and quickly put the plate on top. The water will vaporize pretty much instantly and steam the dumplings. Keep it cooking for a couple of mins, then take the plate off and cook for a couple of mins more. Don't put your face directly over them whilst cooking as if you've left an air pocket and it bursts you'll get disfigured; just take care!
Serve on a plate with dip. A good dipping sauce is rice vinegar, soy and sesame oil in a bowl. Or go for some sweet chilli. Or heretical mayo or ketchup
. Serve with a beer. omnomnomnom
