Daring Cooks' Chinese Dumplings

My weekend ended with the posting of Daring Cooks June 2009 Challenge: Chinese Dumplings/Potstickers. Exciting because it is my first cook challenge. In the beginning I was wondering whether I could cope with the extra challenge other than baking. Well, I guess I could ... for now and I met the deadline.

And I had plenty dough badges to play with. Altogether was about 4. I was happy playing around with the pleating especially, which is in my regards the highlight of the challenge itself. Filling is quite tedious when it comes to deveining the shrimps. Other than that just fun fun fun, and my breakfast menu had been changed to dumplings ever since my first experiment. It is time to stop!!

Thanks to Jen from Use Real Butter for hosting this challenge. The following recipe is an adaptation from Jen's original recipe. Have fun pleating :-)



CHINESE DUMPLINGS
Makes 36 pieces

1. Filling
Choose shrimp or pork
Sufficient to fill 46 dumplings



A. Shrimp Filling
Ingredients:
- Shrimp – peel, devein, chop coarsely > 135 grams (from 240 grams raw shrimps)
- Minced chicken > 140 grams
- Water chestnut – steam, chop > 80 grams
- Spring onion – chop > 2 stalks
- Salt > 3 grams
- Sesame oil > 1 tablespoon
- Corn starch > 10 grams
- Red chilly – chop > 2

B. Pork Filling
Ingredients:
- Minced pork > 225 grams
- Water chestnut – steam, chop > 50 grams
- Shitake mushroom – chop > 21 grams
- Spring onion – chop > 2 stalks
- Ginger – remove skin, mince > 5 grams
- Soy sauce > 2 tablespoons
- Sesame oil > 1 tablespoon
- Corn starch > 10 grams

Method:
- Combine all ingredients in a big bowl and mix thoroughly.
- Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.



2. Dough
Need a 3.5 inch (9cm) cake ring and a rolling pin.

Ingredients:
- All purpose flour > 250 grams
- Warm water > 140 grams
- Flour for surface

Method:
- Place flour in a cake mixer fitted with a dough hook.
- Set to low speed and fold in warm water, one teaspoon at a time.
- By the time the water is completely folded, dough will be completely sticked to the hook.
- Remove from hook and place it on a floured surface.
- Knead for 4 minutes until dough surface is smooth and shape into a ball.
- Cover with an inverted bowl for 15 minutes (dough could be sealed with cling film and refrigerated if it is not used on the same day).
- Uncover and shape dough into a long cylinder by grabbing one side of the dough with one hand and drop the other side fall to gravity. Pull the other side with another hand to make it longer.
- Cut into pieces, each weighs approximately 13 grams. Keep cut dough pieces inside the inverted bowl to avoid becoming dry.
- Press dough piece flat with fingers and slightly form into a circular shape. Put it on a floured surface and roll to flat circle with diameter around 9 inches or more.
- Press a 9 inch cake ring into the flat dough. Remove the excessive dough.
- Pleat and fill as instructions. Each circular dough requires half tablespoon of filling.
- Cook.



3. Cooking

It depends on your preference. You could either steam, boil or pan fry the dumplings.

Steaming
- Turn on steamer.
- Put dumplings on a well greased plate and place plate in the steamer.
- Cover and steam for 6 minutes.
- Serve hot.

Boiling
- Bring a large pot of water to boil and add dumplings to pot.
- Boil dumplings until they float.
- Serve hot.



Pan frying
- Preheat frying pan at high fire and fold in 2-3 tablespoons of vegetable oil.
- Place dumplings in a frying pan and fry for a few minutes until the bottom is golden.
- Add ½ cup of water and cover pan.
- Cook until water has boiled away. Uncover and set to medium fire.
- Continue cooking for 2 minutes more.
- Remove from heat and serve hot.

If the dumplings are not to be cooked after pleating, they could be frozen for later consumption.

Freezing
- Rub the base of dumplings with a bit of flour.
- Assembly dumplings on a plate lined with a baking sheet.
- Freeze for 20-30 minutes until dumplings are no longer soft.
- Place dumplings in Ziploc bag and freeze up to a couple of months.



4. Dipping

Ingredients:
- Soy sauce > 2 parts
- Vinegar (red wine or black) > 1 part
- Sesame oil > a few drops
- Chilly paste or chilly sauce > optional
- Minced garlic > optional
- Minced spring onion > optional
- Granulated sugar > optional

Method:
- Combine all ingredients together and mix thoroughly.
- Refrigerate until ready to serve with dumplings.