![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Jun. 15th, 2009
The Challenge: Chinese dumplings/potstickers (aka gyoza in Japanese)
Ok, so the last time I cooked this, it was pretty much a so-so event. My sister had come up to the house and we made a day of it. Some pork chops had been in our fridge and nobody was cooking them, even post my brother's "marinading" attempts (note to self: brother shouldn't be allowed to marinade ANYTHING. ever.) with some random beer that I'd bought and immediately disliked. So, industrious kiddies that we were (I was 22 at the time, my sister, 21), we ground up the pork in a food processor, used whatever recipes we could find and bought everything-- hoisin sauce, sesame oil, bamboo shoots. Did it up right. Rolled out the dough as thin as we could get. All said and done, we steamed a third in our rice steamer (strange contraption, didn't do what we planned, took longer to steam than necessary), fried 2/3 in our wok and basically stood on our feet for HOURS. The pork tasted funny to me, but only because I hadn't realized it was marinated in NASTY NASTY BEER. Plus, we may have gone and added too much sesame oil. But I swear it was the beer.
So, anyway. So-so memory. But I LOVE DUMPLINGS. So this challenge was a walk in the park.
It's a basic concept: a filling inside a dough wrapper, sealed, and cooked. This delicious theme runs through many cultures and is among the more popular bites at Chinese restaurants - especially dim sum. The plan was to roll out the dough to a ridiculously thin wrapper, then fill with the desired filling. I made mine by hand (which was apparently a no-no, but since I called this challenge done after I'd finished, I didn't go back and retry. Besides... I DON'T CARE.
Fillings: the beauty of the Chinese dumpling/potsticker is that the filling is very versatile. That's why there are so many different kinds of dumplings when you go to dim sum. The two most common are pork and shrimp. You can make them with other ground meats (beef, chicken...) or vegetarian (tofu, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, glass noodles, Chinese chives - oh yum!). The important thing to keep in mind is that the filling needs to "stick" to itself or else you will make your life incredibly miserable wrapping up filling that keeps falling apart. When I made mine, I filled it with what I had in the fridge: some scallion, some shredded parmigiana, some ground beef, oregano, and some egg to bind it. Very Italian Meatball-esque.
So, ( Dough recipe for Potstickers/Gyoza )
Ok. So, that was pretty much where the recipe left off. Here's my rundown of the ( Good, Bad and Ugly )
And the other ugly? My lack of camera. Photos taken with my Treo. ( Photos below )
So, next time? Probably will try some new fillings. I've gone from beer-soaked pork (worst dumplings ever... too much sesame oil, nastiest beer ever) to random ground beef. Could also, maybe, try out rolling the dough thinner. Granted, I don't like standing on my feet that long, so maybe I'll bring in my favorite little helper and her mommy again. We'll split the work effort, and boil more this time. Should turn out fine, yeah?
Ok, so the last time I cooked this, it was pretty much a so-so event. My sister had come up to the house and we made a day of it. Some pork chops had been in our fridge and nobody was cooking them, even post my brother's "marinading" attempts (note to self: brother shouldn't be allowed to marinade ANYTHING. ever.) with some random beer that I'd bought and immediately disliked. So, industrious kiddies that we were (I was 22 at the time, my sister, 21), we ground up the pork in a food processor, used whatever recipes we could find and bought everything-- hoisin sauce, sesame oil, bamboo shoots. Did it up right. Rolled out the dough as thin as we could get. All said and done, we steamed a third in our rice steamer (strange contraption, didn't do what we planned, took longer to steam than necessary), fried 2/3 in our wok and basically stood on our feet for HOURS. The pork tasted funny to me, but only because I hadn't realized it was marinated in NASTY NASTY BEER. Plus, we may have gone and added too much sesame oil. But I swear it was the beer.
So, anyway. So-so memory. But I LOVE DUMPLINGS. So this challenge was a walk in the park.
It's a basic concept: a filling inside a dough wrapper, sealed, and cooked. This delicious theme runs through many cultures and is among the more popular bites at Chinese restaurants - especially dim sum. The plan was to roll out the dough to a ridiculously thin wrapper, then fill with the desired filling. I made mine by hand (which was apparently a no-no, but since I called this challenge done after I'd finished, I didn't go back and retry. Besides... I DON'T CARE.
Fillings: the beauty of the Chinese dumpling/potsticker is that the filling is very versatile. That's why there are so many different kinds of dumplings when you go to dim sum. The two most common are pork and shrimp. You can make them with other ground meats (beef, chicken...) or vegetarian (tofu, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, glass noodles, Chinese chives - oh yum!). The important thing to keep in mind is that the filling needs to "stick" to itself or else you will make your life incredibly miserable wrapping up filling that keeps falling apart. When I made mine, I filled it with what I had in the fridge: some scallion, some shredded parmigiana, some ground beef, oregano, and some egg to bind it. Very Italian Meatball-esque.
So, ( Dough recipe for Potstickers/Gyoza )
Ok. So, that was pretty much where the recipe left off. Here's my rundown of the ( Good, Bad and Ugly )
And the other ugly? My lack of camera. Photos taken with my Treo. ( Photos below )
So, next time? Probably will try some new fillings. I've gone from beer-soaked pork (worst dumplings ever... too much sesame oil, nastiest beer ever) to random ground beef. Could also, maybe, try out rolling the dough thinner. Granted, I don't like standing on my feet that long, so maybe I'll bring in my favorite little helper and her mommy again. We'll split the work effort, and boil more this time. Should turn out fine, yeah?