Litle Chinese Dumplings or Pot Stickers

I was watching an episode of The Chew last week, with guest Danielle Chang. Until watching that show, I had never heard of or seen Danielle Chang, so I wasn't initially paying close attention. So when she started making Chinese Dumplings, I missed the beginning of what was happening. However, once the ingredients started going together, I got interested. The mixture sounded good, and the dumplings didn't seem too difficult to make. 

I went online to get the recipe. 

Chinese Dumplings or Pot-Stickers

And then, I searched around for other recipes for Chinese Dumplings, only to find that the type Chang made, called Jiaozi or Jiao Zi, had pretty much the same mixture for the filling no matter where I looked. Hmmm. There were some few places that used no meat and there were a couple that used shrimp or a combination of pork and shrimp. Other slight variations used the addition of one or all of water chestnuts, egg white, cornstarch and/or dried (reconstituted) shiitake mushrooms. 

While the main ingredients of Napa cabbage, ground pork, scallions, garlic chives, garlic, ginger, soy sauce and Asian sesame oil were in just about every recipe I saw, only the amounts varied. On reading Chang's recipe from The Chew website, I immediately felt that more ginger and Asian sesame oil would suit me better, and the fact I had no access to garlic chives meant I would use more regular garlic and more scallions. So I had already changed the recipe in my mind before ever sitting to create something of my own. I felt that the addition of some shiitake mushrooms and an egg white, along with a little dash of cornstarch and some water chestnuts would be nice. Ultimately, I am not sure that the water chestnuts made any real difference. I was expecting a tiny crunch, but never noticed that while eating, so I might just skip that ingredient next time.

There most certainly will be a next time! These things were fabulous. The recipe turned out 85 dumplings. We ate nearly 60 of them between the two of us. Admittedly, that was way too much. I would estimate that anywhere from 12 to 30 per person as a meal, depending on appetite, would constitute a meal. They were just so good, and we just kept marveling at how delicious they were - that we just couldn't stop. 

Chinese Dumplings or Pot-Stickers

These particular dumplings can be made steamed, whether in a bamboo steamer or other steamer. They can be set into a pan with water and cooked or if the cooking continues until the water is gone and they are allowed to brown on the bottom, they are called pot stickers. I chose the simplest method, making pot stickers. I think these would be great made in any of these methods, so it's entirely up to the individual.

These dumplings can be made in advance and frozen. Just dust them with cornstarch, most particularly on the bottoms, and set them on a baking sheet. Freeze them for about 1 hour, then place them into a zip-top baggie and freeze until needed. To cook them just use them straight from the freezer. They are small, so it doesn't take much more time to cook them through, even from a frozen state.

Folding these dumplings might put some people off. I know I was rather dreading that part. The ideal is to find round dumpling wrappers (wheat based, and about 3-inches in diameter). It is important to press the water-moistened edges together very tightly so as to keep them from coming apart while cooking. That is probably the biggest and most important issue. The second most important is not to over-fill the dumplings because they can burst open while cooking. About 2 teaspoons of the filling is all that is needed per dumpling.

Once I finished with creating the first few dumplings, I made a test dumpling to see how they would hold up while cooking, and if they held together, and also how the dipping sauce would taste with them.  These came out great on all counts, so I proceeded with making the rest of them. I fully intended to eat some and freeze some, but that did not happen, so I will be making more soon.

One thing to note: for some reason, it is almost impossible to find plain ground pork in our town. Most ground pork meat comes already pre-seasoned with sausage seasonings. This is a bit frustrating, to be sure. What I usually do instead is cut some pork meat into small cubes and food process / pulse it until relatively fine, but not pasty. The food processor does not like to chop up fat, so my "ground" pork is always 100% lean. If you are using regular store-bought ground pork, with a high fat content, your outcome might be different from mine, though I cannot say in what way. 

Another thing I want to make clear: I used Kikkoman "light" soy sauce, with less sodium. I don't know if it was for this reason, or because I had added more ingredients, but I felt the mixture needed more saltiness, so I added 2 teaspoons to the original 3 teaspoons of less-sodium soy sauce for a total of 5 teaspoons. This is the only salt added to the recipe, so I felt it was not bad. Neither of us experienced any swelling after that meal, so I feel this worked well. If using regular soy sauce, you might need less. To determine how your mixture is seasoned, after mixing the ingredients together, use a couple of teaspoons to make a tiny patty and cook this little patty through in a fry pan. Once cooked, taste for flavor and season accordingly. Keep in mind that the sauce for dipping is also soy sauce based.

Chinese Dumplings or Pot-Stickers

Makes about 85

Folded Dumplings, ready to steam

1 pound round wheat dumpling wrappers

FILLING:
½ pound ground pork
½ pound Napa Cabbage
8 scallions, or more if desired
3 cloves garlic, minced finely
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
5 dried shiitake mushrooms
1 small can (8-ounce / 5 ounce dry weight) water chestnuts, minced
1 egg white
1 teaspoon cornstarch
2 teaspoons Asian dark sesame oil
5 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce

DIPPING SAUCE:
¼ cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons sake (rice wine), optional
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon thinly sliced scallions
1 small clove garlic, minced finely
1 teaspoon honey
1 - 2 teaspoons Asian dark sesame oil
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
a few grinds of fresh black peppercorns

FILLING: Set the dried shiitake mushrooms in a bowl of hot water and cover. Set aside to reconstitute for about 1/2 hour, while preparing the remaining ingredients.

Coarsely chop the Napa cabbage, then place it (in batches, if necessary) into the food processor and pulse until quite fine but not pureed. Pour the chopped cabbage into a kitchen towel over a strainer. Finish pulsing the remaining cabbage (if in batches) and add this to the towel over the strainer. Gather up the towel and squeeze the liquid from the cabbage until relatively dry. Turn out the cabbage into a large mixing bowl.

If making your own "ground" pork, cut the 1/2 pound of fat-free pork into cubes. Place in food processor and process until it starts to form a ball. Do not over-process. Pour this into the bowl with the dry cabbage.

Finely chop the scallions, including the green parts and add to the bowl with the minced garlic, grated ginger and water chestnuts. Remove the shiitake mushrooms from their soaking water and squeeze them to remove excess water. Cut off and discard stems which are very tough, then mince the mushroom caps. Add to the bowl.

In a small bowl, whisk the egg white until it is no longer gelatinous, but slightly frothy. Add in the cornstarch and whisk to blend. Add the dark sesame oil and low sodium soy sauce and whisk briefly to combine. Pour this mixture into the bowl. Stir with a spoon or mix with hands to distribute all the ingredients well. Use 2 teaspoons of filling per dumpling.

How to pleat potstickers

To form dumplings, have the dumpling or won ton wrappers handy. Have a small bowl of water nearby. Take one dumpling wrapper in one hand. Place the 2 teaspoons of filling into the center. Moisten the edges of the wrapper with the water. Bring two opposite sides up together and pinch one end tightly to seal. Pleat only the side facing you, pushing the flap to pleat, pinch shut, another pleat, pinch shut and so on, until you reach the end of the dumpling. See illustration, left. Ensure that all the edges are completely sealed shut. Set the dumpling aside and continue with remaining mixture and wrappers. At this point the dumplings may be frozen for later or steamed for immediate use.

TO STEAM: Heat a skillet with a large surface. Add in a little oil, so the dumplings will not stick. Add in about 1 cup of water and bring to boil. Lower heat and cover tightly. Allow them to cook until the liquid is all evaporated, 12 to 15 minutes. Once water is evaporated, the bottoms will be slightly browned. If water has not completely evaporated, remove lid and allow liquid to escape.

DIPPING SAUCE: Mix all the ingredients together in a small bowl and serve in small bowls for individual dipping.



My passion is teaching people how to create a harmony of flavors with their cooking, and passing along my love and joy of food, both simple or exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my journey in ethnic and domestic cuisines, continuing my journey to explore diverse culinary experiences and hopefully to start you on a journey of your own. Join me also at A Harmony of Flavors on Facebook, and Pinterest.

Making Peace with Kimchi

Kimchi. 

I hear this word everywhere these days. For many years now I had heard of kimchi, but had resisted any urge to try it. I had heard of the ingredients, varying depending on who the information originated from, and the fiery spiciness of the condiment. None of these things called my attention in the least. 

Kimchi

Some years ago, I finally gave in and bought a bottle at the local grocery. I took one taste and threw out the entire bottle. I hated the flavors completely and utterly. I could not even get far enough past the flavor to object to the spiciness. And so it has been that even though I started fermenting foods 3½ months ago now, with many absolutely wonderful (and some not so wonderful) results, I had no interest at all in even attempting kimchi.

Enter my son and his wife. They came to visit just a couple of weeks past and were talking of eating kimchi very often. Since we have so very many food tastes in common, I wondered at this. Even my son, who was particularly picky as a child, talked of eating kimchi. While still wondering what in heaven they were finding in this taste profile to love, I also thought maybe it was time to give this condiment a try on my own. 

There are as many ways to make kimchi and as many ingredient variations as there are kimchi makers, it appears. I was at the Farmer's Market last week and mentioned to someone that I was going to attempt making kimchi and another woman commented that I "Absolutely had to include turnips. Without turnips, it isn't kimchi", she said. Since turnips were absolutely not one of the ingredients I had planned to use, I nodded and continued on my way.  

Ingredients

Kimchi

Meanwhile, I went online to research what ingredients are actually in kimchi and also what process do they use to make it. Ingredients as I can understand them seem to be based on cabbage and Daikon or other Korean radish. After that it is open for interpretation. Ingredients can be regular cabbage or Napa cabbage,  bok choy, Daikon, regular radishes, carrot, onion, Asian Pear, regular pear, apple, garlic, ginger and hot chili peppers. Obviously I missed turnips in there! And who knows how many other ingredients might be used? 

Spices

One of the main spices, and which gives the finished product its red-orange color is Korean chili powder. I do not have Korean chili powder, but someplace online someone suggested mixing up ½ cup of sweet paprika with 2 tablespoons of cayenne to approximate this. In the end, since I was making far less kimchi, I whittled down this mix to 2 tablespoons of paprika and ½ tablespoon of cayenne. On further consideration, while I like spicy foods, I don't care to truly go crazy with hot chilies, so I lessened the actual cayenne to only 1 teaspoon. Even with that much I had trepidation. Today, once the kimchi was finished and I gave it a taste, I love the amount of spice just fine. The heat is noticeable, but very tolerable. I probably could have added the extra ½ teaspoon, and probably will next time. And there will be a next time!

The other spices are ginger and garlic. I know I added them into the ingredient possibilities list, but the amounts are also very scalable, according to taste. Some swear by adding in one little teaspoon of sugar, and others add a lot more. Others add no sugar at all. The last ingredient is some kind of fish sauce. Here I balked.

I do not keep fish sauce, as it is not an ingredient I use. My husband does not like fish, and if something smells fishy in the least, there is no hope. So I just don't bother to use it. I do have anchovy paste in the fridge, and which I use - sparingly - in things like Caesar Salad. Since the kimchi ingredients are first brined in a heavily salted mix, I hesitated to use salty anchovy paste, even though I am sure hubby will never be eating my kimchi! I live in hope . . . Someone online mentioned using kelp powder mixed with water. I had no kelp powder, but did have dried kombu seaweed, so I pulverized a piece of this and used it. I could not tell it was in there at all, so who knows?

Fermentation

There seem to be two schools of thought here. Some, and possibly more traditionally, first brine the vegetables, anywhere from a few hours to overnight. Some brine only the cabbage portion of the ingredients, and some brine all the vegetables at once. Once the brining is done, the vegetables are rinsed well and the spice mixture is massaged in, and then the mixture is packed in jars or crocks to ferment. I opted for this second method of pre-brining all the vegetables together.

Others eschew this pre-brine step and just add salt with the spice mixture and massage all the veg together well and pack in jars or crocks to ferment. 

Vegetables in brine and then packed into jar to ferment

Cutting Vegetables

In this matter, as with everything else, there are varying ideas on how this should be performed. Some say to cut the Napa cabbage into quarters, lengthwise, brine and then after thorough rinsing, each layer of leaf is lifted and the spice paste is layered between. Others shred all the vegetables. Others said they preferred to have all the vegetables cut in different ways, making the finished product visually interesting. I opted for this last variation. 

Kimchi

Kimchi

Makes 1½ tightly packed quarts

1 (1-pound) head Napa Cabbage (12 cups, prepped)
1 small piece Daikon radish (1-cup, shredded)
3 - 4 stalks bok choy (3½ cups, sliced)
9 - 10 small red radishes (1½ cups, thinly sliced)
1 carrot (1 cup, julienned / matchsticks)
1 onion (1½ cups, thin wedges)
1 Asian pear (3 cups, thin wedges)
2 Fresno chilies (½ cup, thin slices, mainly for color)

BRINE:
1½ quarts (6 cups) filtered water
6 tablespoons coarse sea salt

PASTE:
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger root
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons paprika
1½ teaspoons cayenne
2 tablespoons filtered water
1 teaspoon Kombu or Kelp powder

Prepare all the vegetables as desired. I cut the Napa cabbage across into 1½-inch sections. The Daikon was shredded on a larger-holed shredder. The bok choy I sliced at angles into about ¼-inch thick slices, the carrot was julienned, the radishes sliced very thinly on a mandoline. The Asian pear I cut into quarters, cored and then sliced in long wedges about ⅛-inch thick. The onion was cut in narrow wedges and the Fresno chilies were sliced across into thin rings. 

Combine the brine ingredients, stirring until the salt is completely dissolved. With all the vegetables in a large bowl, pour the brine over top and cover the container. Allow to brine for anywhere from 4 to 24 hours. I stopped at 8 hours, whereupon the vegetables were very salty. Set the vegetables into a large colander and rinse very well, immersing in clean water 2 or 3 times. Taste the vegetables. If they are too salty for your taste, rinse some more. Once well rinsed, set the vegetables in the colander to drain for about 1 hour.

Make the paste by first combining the garlic and ginger and pounding slightly to make a paste. Add in the sugar, paprika, cayenne, kelp or kombu powder and then add in about 2 tablespoons of water, to make a paste. Once the vegetables are well drained, set them into the large bowl and massage this paste mixture well into the vegetables, ensuring that the paste covers all the vegetables. Pack this mixture tightly into a large jar with at least ⅓ of the jar free as head-space. Alternatively, pack this into a large crock. Press down well, to release more juices from the vegetables, and keeping the vegetables submerged, allow this mixture to ferment covered for 3 to 5 days, or until the mixture tastes good to you.

In actuality, the vegetables tasted absolutely splendid just after mixing in the paste mixture! I intended to leave this to ferment for 5 days, and then forgot yesterday, so it ended up going for 6 days. When I tasted it today, I absolutely love the flavors, love how it looks, love the textures. There is nothing I do not love about this kimchi. I hope you will attempt this mixture yourselves.


My passion is teaching people how to create a harmony of flavors with their cooking, and passing along my love and joy of food, both simple or exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my journey in ethnic and domestic cuisines, continuing my journey to explore diverse culinary experiences and hopefully to start you on a journey of your own. Join me also at A Harmony of Flavors on Facebook, and Pinterest.