Handmade By friends

on monday i made dumplings… and somehow they came out ginormous. i made the skins too big and so i ended up stuffing them with more meat, and eric called them meat-loaf dumplings. hahaha~  so, for over a week i had this urge to make dumplings from scratch, the filling and the stuffing, for some reason. i was searching for a good recipe for the skin and  had found two, but both were not working for me so i had to modify it and started to make my own recipe. it was easy because it’s basically water and flour, just varying by how much you add. i think i found a good and easy way to work the dumpling skin dough. i found the recipes from other people to be too dry and hard to work with. so here is my solution…

dumpling skin

ingredients

3 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup boiling hot water

1/4 to 1/2 cup cold water

1 table spoon cooking oil (optional)

ok in a mixing bowl pour the sifted flour and add the hot water and stir well with a wooden stick or chop stick. if you have a dough mixer it is much easier, but it can be done by hand; it just takes a lot of work. if you are working with the mixer, keep the speed at slow to medium. when it becomes dough-like add the cold water (start with 1/4 cup) and oil. if you feel it’s too dry add the rest of the water. it should not be too wet, but just enough to work with the dough. stir until you can’t any more. dust the counter with flour and knead the dough. if you have the mixer knead it on the counter for about 3 mins and use the mixer for the rest, much easier. total kneading should be about 10 mins or until the dough is soft, smooth and bounces back when you press with your fingers. wrap the dough with plastic wrap and let it sit for about 30 mins. you should make the stuffing while you are waiting for the dough to be ready. then cut the dough in half, roll on the floured counter into a cylinder shape, to both halves, about 1 1/2 inch thick depending on how big you want your dumplings to be. wrap the one you are not working with plastic wrap so it won’t dry up. in a medium size bowl put about one cup of flour and start cutting the cylinder like you would cookie dough into about quarter-inch wide pieces and coat with flour in the bowl, one by one. with your floured rolling pin, roll it out to dumpling skin thickness… it’s hard to roll it out to store bought thickness, so as thin as you can roll it out. and try to maintain the circle shape.

dumpling stuffing

ingredients

1 1/2 lb meat, you can use pork, beef, shrimp, chicken, or you can even mix the meats you like. good combos: pork & beef, shrimp & pork.

1 medium size onion, diced and caramelized with oil

3 -4 scallions/green onions, finely chopped. also can be subbed with chives if you like.

2 tsp sugar

2 1/2 tbsp soy sauce

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground pepper

1/2 tsp grated ginger

2 tsp grated garlic

1 tsp rice wine

1/2 sesame oil

glue

3 tbsp water

1 tbsp starch

fill the skin with the stuffing in the center leaving about 1/2 inch room to close the skin. brush glue around edge of the skin well. after applying the glue start closing the dumpling. you might have to adjust the meat. hold the center edge together first and then start closing the ends. make sure they are sealed well…

after you are done making them you can either steam or fry them, or even store them. put them in a ziploc bag and freeze them in. just make sure to flour them when you put them in the bag so they wont stick together.

dipping sauce

ingredients

2 tbsp soy sauce

1/2 tbsp rice vinegar

1/4 tsp sesame oil

1/2 tsp minced garlic

pinch of red pepper flakes

pinch of sesame seed

mix all the ingredients together in a small bowl and start dipping~

TA – DA~

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 at 1:31 PM and is filed under recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.