Chinese Dumplings, Daring Cooks Challenge #2
I have a soft spot for dumplings. I am also covered in a soft layer of dumpling fat, thats how much a like them. So you can imagine my joy and hoorays when I saw that this months Daring Cooks challenge was dumplings (Hooray!). The point of this challenge was to make the wrappers yourself. And this was my downfall.
Beautiful fresh Shiitake Mushrooms from Eveleigh Market, ginger, Spring Onions
I have a friend who tells me that I’m almost Chinese (hi Alex!) because I like cooking and eating Chinese food, want to go back to China and am learning Mandarin. I think this challenge has proved that I am emphatically NOT almost Chinese. Not even a little bit. I must have eaten double my weight in dumplings in the last few years, but as hard as I tried, I couldn’t wrap them properly (just as I had a little trouble folding these earlier in the year).
I rolled out a whole lot of dough ready to wrap my dumplings production-line style, the first few were fine, but as my wrapper-stack dwindled the dough stuck together and I had to roll 3/4 of it out again, which I’m sure did nothing for the tenderness of my pastry. Then, when it came to making folds, arggh! It was not my day, is all I can say.
I guess I never really assess the folds too closely before they get dunked in chilli and vinegar and gobbled up, so I don’t have much of a mental model to run from, fold wise.
All of that said, I think I got the hang of it after a while, and ended up with a few that turned out all right and crisped up nicely on the bottom when panfried. My wrapper to filling ratio was way off though, as I didn’t roll the dough out thin enough, so my dumplings were really heavy and filling. And I had a huge amount of pork, ginger and shiitake mushroom mixture left over after all the dough was used up. You better believe I wasn’t going to put myself through more kneading/rolling/wrapping pain, so I turned the rest into meatballs.
Despite the kneading/rolling/wrapping horror, I really liked this challenge, probably because it involved dumplings, you know, eating them.
Recipe is available here. Thanks to Jen at Use Real Butter for hosting.
This work, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
14 Comments
These are impressive, folding them is an art in it self. The meat ball idea sounds good, or make wontons!
I love potstickers (This type of dumpling is called potstickers, direct translation from Chinese because the bottoms stick to the pot) especially the crispy fried bottom bits! Yours look so good! Can’t wait for my first Daring Cooks challenge next month. Nice meeting on Friday although didn’t have much chance to talk to you.
They look perfect! I always use ready-made wrappers =P
pigpigscorner’s last blog post..Simple Spicy Anchovies
Great effort! The crispy bottoms look very delicious.
Belle@OohLook’s last blog post..Masked revels at Wagaya (and happy birthday)
they look great
Simon Food Favourites’s last blog post..Paddington Arms Hotel, Paddington (11 June 2009)
Nice work! They are a gorgeous golden brown color. I love seeing what everyone else did with the challenge! Your blog is great, I enjoy finding new sites through the Daring Cooks. It’s nice to “meet” you
Amy I.’s last blog post..Sesame Noodles
Hey Lili – awesome job on the dumplings, looks like a lot of work. There seem to be a lot of us dumpling fanatics around. I mostly like to eat them
Tina’s last blog post..Tripping vivid visuals
I soy awesome crunchy bottoms mmmmm ^^!
The bottoms of your potstickers look so crunchy and delicious! I wish I had tried out potstickers rather than just steaming.
Megan{Feasting on Art}’s last blog post..Hiroshige’s Prawn Dumplings
Beautiful pixs especially the mushroom picture. Love the colour of potstickes. Cheers Audax
Audax Artifexa’s last blog post..Daring Cooks’ #2 Chinese Dumplings
Oh they look perfectly done. The colour on those dumplings is great! And the folding is good enough to make my mother nod in approval (I say my mother cos hers are good and mine are crap – they’re easily better than mine).
Forager’s last blog post..Vietnamese eating tour – Ho Chi Minh (part 1)
Howard: Thanks! Yeah, if the filling tastes good then meatballs are an awesome way of getting out of filling and folding dumplings.
Ellie: Thank you and lovely to meet you too
pigpigscorner: Hah I will be using pre-made wrappers in the future no doubt.
Belle@OohLook: Thank you, they definitely were.
Simon Food Favourites: Thanks!
Amy I.: Thank you! Daring cooks is wonderful for finding new blogs.
Tina: Thanks! I definitely am a dumpling fanatic
FFichiban: yum, wish I had some now!!
Megan{Feasting on Art}: Oh, I love fried dumplings, always pick them over the steamed variety.
Audax Artifexa: Thank you!
Forager: Oh thank you, lovely to have a nod of approval
Oh yum, yum, yum, yum, yum! Both your photos and your food are delightful and refreshing – fab blog, thanks for sharing!
.-= Kyle´s last blog ..Rice Cracker Infinity-Screen Experiment: =-.
I love Chinese food very much. My favourite is fried dumplings. I think sea food is very good as well.LOL