Friday 6 January 2017

The art of making chinese dumpling

Dear Family & Friends

When we lived in Bejing, I learned to enjoy eating jiaozi (dumpling). If I were organized enough in the morning, I could even buy a few for my preferred breakfast...because it makes a merry heart:) 

Once, a local family invited us to their home to teach me how to make them. It all looked easy and they made a lot at a very fast rate. It was a family activity:)

Each dumplings individually filled and sealed artistically by my own hands!

Sadly I didn't pursue and practice making this myself...With our first baby to look after, plus a situation where cooking was not a need or priority that time, I never bothered. Food was cooked for us on weekdays and we were always eating out on weekends!

Here they are all cramped into my tiny frying pan...

Oh the good old days...but how I miss this food now. After searching for more knowledge...I relearned making them. It's really easy to do and I am even perfecting my pleating and folding skill...It's not essential, if it's not perfect...it's only for aesthetic reason. It took me a while to learn how to make it beautiful but with many practice...it was only for good because we ended up eating jiaozi on weekly basis!


....browning beautifully in no time at all:)

We pan fry it brown or boil it till it floats...whatever way, it's good. I also have the freedom to fill it with veggie or meat fillings...or even sweet fruit fillings. There is the 'traditional way'...but I don't live with a system, nor would be happy to be in a box when doing things. Being creative is always fun.

If you want to make this, you can get more information on how-to here: http://cookingsimplechinesefoodathome.com/2011/04/71-jiao-zi-chinese-dumplings-chinese.html

It's bitterly cold here but that's is expected...it's our winter season. We had snow overnight and  we're expecting temperature to go down to -17C these few days. With dry winter air, it actually feels better than what it really is. Hope your new year is going on head start with all good things:)


Yours

6 comments:

  1. I tried once.. but I didn't get any success.. i don't want to use those frozen wrapper.. again I think I should give a try.. Thanks for the recipe link.. :)

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  2. That looks very good, never made myself dumplings before.

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  3. I love these dumplings but have not tried making them. Thank you for the recipe. Hope to try one day.

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  4. yummy I love dumplings. What was the filling you made? They look very professional.

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    1. I always precooked minced meat in big batches to save time...flavour it as curry mince, or soy sauce with vinegar, garlic and bit of sugar, or with herbs etc... many variations comes out from imagining:) I freeze them and if we fancy dumplings, they're ready to use. I know freshly prepared raw mince as filler is the norm, but I just feel my meat have to be well cooked! = double cooked in this case!

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  5. Bravo! Look like expert hands. I love home made ones as i can stuffs the things i like into the dumplings

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