Thursday 20 February 2014

Chinese chive dumplings

手造韭菜餃
I am so excited to share with you the recipe of traditional Chinese chives dumplings made by my Aunt.
She have also taught me how to roll, knead and wrap them. 
Never in my life I have ever made these before.
It's the most amazing thing I have done since baking my first cake!!

 

Her skills was incredible, my aunt told me that all the young girls in the village knew how to make these. To her it was nothing special. I guess now days not many people make their own dumplings. They are frozen & available in the supermarkets.


She didn't have a recipe as nothing was written down.
Everything was measured by the eye and hands. I don't think I can live without my scales!!
 But just for my reference, she weighed everything for me.
This did slow down the process but I was truly grateful that she took the time and patience for me to learn.
If you like chinese dumplings and are ready for a challenge, then try these.
But be aware that if you are trying this for the first time, make sure you are not in a hurry and have at least 2-3 hours to make this.

Send your children to the grandparents!!  haha....

Ingredients for the pastry:
430ml water
800g plain flour

Method:
Slowly add water to the flour and using your hand to combine until it comes together.
Knead for 3-4 minutes, and rest on the worktop using the same bowl to cover the dough to stop it drying out.

Move on to make the filling while the dough is resting.

kneading the dough video



You need:
500g mince pork
500g peeled fresh king prawns
2 large bunches of Chinese chives

Method:
Use half a cup of water and add into the mince pork to loosen the meat and stirring vigorously until it is all combine and the meat is sticky in texture. Do the same with the minced prawns and the add it to the mince pork.
Seasoning:
1 tsp salt
1/2 a cup of oyster sauce
1/2 cup of vegetable oil
2 tsp sesame oil
Add the seasoning to the mince and mix to combine and you really need to mix until you get a sticky texture.

I have bought one large bunch of Chinese chives, my aunt said I should have bought two.
She said the ratio should be the same with the amount of mince pork, prawns and chives.
It's entirely up to you, you can have more if you like more chives in your dumplings.

 Prepare the chives by washing in water and shaking it to get as much water out as you can and dry with kitchen paper.  Chop in to small pieces and add straight into the meat filling.
 

Here is the skillful part, I can't explain to you how this is done but I have made short videos for the  making of the pastry wrapper in 4 stages:
video 1 separating large dough into 5 mini dough balls
video 2  rolling mini dough balls into sausage shape
video 3 chopping dough into pieces
video 4 rolling dough to make the pastry wrapper
 

Yet another challenge! It's wrapping the dumplings.
Place a large teaspoon of filling in the centre and squeeze the pastry tightly together closing the dumpling wrapper from left to right.
Place onto a tray dusted with flour and freeze for at least 4 hours and pack into zip lock bags.
Cook from frozen, shallow fry and them boil with hot water in the same saucepan until the liquid have evaporated.

Here's two ways to wrap them, a short video to show you how its done.
 

 


4 comments:

  1. I love Chinese dumpling with a lot of chives. Thanks for sharing :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for stopping by Ann and I love your blog.
      Yes, chinese chives dumpling are really tasty with lots of chives.

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  2. Hi,

    Do we have to freeze the dumplings first before cooking it?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Only freeze what you cannot eat as there's over 100 dumplings in this recipe. Best to keep in fridge fresh for a day or two. Once frozen, shallow fry it until the bottom of the pastry is golden brown and forms a crust then add hot water to it covering half the dumplings and put a lid over the saucepan and simmer until all the water have evaporated.

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