I’m always inspired to write in the silence of the night. As much as I love reading and writing, I’ve never really been good at semantics. Just writing the above sentence, I think I’ve corrected myself twice. But that’s besides the point. Just today, I had a shot at making Chinese ‘jiaozi’ or commonly known as dumplings. I had a huge craving for it while I was on my way back from Berlin, so after spending 2 days hibernating at home, I decided to take a walk outside my Finnish apartment and head to the grocery store to purchase some of the ingredients to make my jiaozi.
I’m no Gordon Ramsay or Jamie Oliver, and to make the filling for the jiaozi, I followed the directions from one of the food blogs which I randomly chanced upon. I did not follow the exact directions that was on the e-recipe,I kinda tweaked it here and there to appeal to my taste buds.
Ingredients:
100g minced beef
White pepper powder (to taste)
2 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil
3 cloves of garlic diced
1/4 onion diced
50g cabbage chopped
Dumpling skin:
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup warm water
Mix well and knead till dough is soft
Method:
Combine the minced beef, garlic, onions, lettuce and all seasonings together. Set aside while preparing your dumpling skin.
To make jiaozi, place a spoonful of the filling in the center of the skin. You can fill as much as you like, just make sure the filling does not spill out when trying to fold and knead the dumpling.
For steaming: Arrange the dumplings and place them in a bamboo steamer. Another alternative is to use a rice cooker.
For panfrying: Use a a teaspoon of vegetable oil to oil the pan. Place the dumplings in a wok. Fry till golden brown.
Serve with black vinegar dipping sauce (preferred) or you can try chili padi with soy sauce.