Today on ZaaghiFoods We’re going to be exploring the art of making dumplings as delicious and small as these are there’s a lot of work that goes into making a single dumpling. Doing that was based on few youtube videos that we watched on today’s episode.
Instructions:
So to start off we’re gonna be making the dumpling dough from scratch normally the ratio is two to one in terms of white flour to hot water.
- So here we have 2 cups of white flour and we’re using 1 cup of water if you’re doing does feel a little bit too sticky just add in a little bit more flour once the dough starts to smoothen out we can just shape it into a little dough ball.
- At this point we’re gonna cover it the tight with a plastic wrap
While our dough is resting for 30 minutes we’re gonna be checking out the vegetables that we’re using for the filling today, which is the Chinese Nutter cabbage. I’m just gonna add a small handful of salt this may look like a lot of cabbage but after this the volume will decrease just before we continue prepping the rest of the vegetables.
We’re going to be bringing out the meat now we’re just going to set this one aside and put in the vegetables as we chop them next up we’re going to be chopping the green onions.
We also have here some shiitake mushrooms and this is just garlic we’re going to be adding in some ginger this is a rather large piece of ginger the flavor is really strong.
I’m going to be using only half of this ginger now that we’ve prepped all the other vegetables. We can go back to our very first one they chopped napa cabbage.
- I’m going to be using a sieve to drain out all the water to our bowl .
- We’re gonna be adding in a bit of sugar some soy sauce some salt to taste and some sesame oil now that we’ve put our meat into the fridge to chill .
We’re gonna be preparing the dough at this point in time it’s had plenty of time to rest so this is a lot easier to work with. In order to continue off we’re going to be using a cookie cutter here. I just have a circle one I got the largest size I could and we’re just gonna go around and cut out as many as we can.
Now we’ll begin making our very first dumpling from scratch.
- Start by taking one wrapper have a small spoonful of the film and at this point if your wrapper does get too dry in that case you can always just wet around the edges with some water but these are still fresh soI think they’re okay to go for this technique.
- We’re gonna make it look like a pot sticker or a gyoza dumpling start by pinching one end and just folding over using only one side of the wrapper and if you have any excess meat this just means that your dumpling is super full which is always a good sign and you squeeze it right back into the bowl
- Then simply finish off that fold give it a good pinch all around
and the main focus for this is obviously you want to have a nice representation but on other hand you also wanted to be fully sealed so none of the juices on the inside leaked out.
We’re going to be cooking these dumplings in three different ways
The first way will be steaming the dumplings. if you don’t own a steamer at home, here’s the cool little trick:
- Just take a pan and put a little bit of aluminum foil on the bottom and place another bowl on top fill the pan with some water.
- Place the dumplings inside the bowl. You’re just kind of look for a wet texture in the outside you may notice the dumpling starting to balloon up steamed dumplings are best served hot. Please note that if left out too long you may notice the skin start to dry out really quickly
Second way of cooking dumplings:
- The first step in getting a really nice
pan fried dumpling is getting that
sesame oil nice and hot before adding a
dumplings in - We’re just going to want to very lightly Brown the bottom side of the dumpling.
- Next part is to have the pan lid nearby because you’re gonna be pouring in about a half cup of cold water when most of the water has evaporated.
- Just cook out any extra water and get them nice and crispy again and then take them out of the pan
- The result of the pan-fried dumplings leaves you with a nice and crispy dumpling with a nice and juicy interior
Tip: if you’re looking to take that crispness to a whole new level you’re going to have to teach your dumplings to grow some wings to do this combine a little bit of flour with some water strain it out into another measuring cup to get rid of any lumps.
Third method of cooking the dumplings. With this method we’re going to be cooking the dumplings very similarly to the pan-fried method the only difference is we’re using our special mixture. Its very important for you to make sure to immediately cover the pan as water an oil tends to splash line.
To also form the weight once most of the water has evaporated out simply take a spatula and flip the dumplings onto a plate of course. If your pan has a handle you can put the plate upside down on the pan and flip it all together in order to get all the dumplings out in one motion.
Now once those beautifuly tasty dumpling are cooked/steamed then we’re going to design/garnish them. To go alongside the dumplings we’re gonna prepare a simple dip made from two parts soy sauce and 1 part sesame oil . Oh also DO NOT FORGET YOUR CHOPSTICKS 🙂
Enjor your food and hopefully you find this article helpful and interesting. Please share it with your friend’s and family.
