Jiaozi

Today was a rainy, gray sort of day where the passing of the hours are unmarked and the world outside seems to have congealed into one big drowsy glob. In other words, the perfect day for ambitious cooking projects, and what can be more ambitious than rolling out dough for dumpling skin that could've easily been purchased in New York for one dollar a pack? But New York was of another time and place and I must move on and try, try to embrace all that East Farnham, Quebec has to offer.

My love of dumplings in noodle soup is unsurpassed, and after years of hunting around Manhattan Chinatown, I found a favorite spot that I patronized regularly. I always ordered the Cantonese classic wonton noodle soup, and Fu Kee on Lafayette Street did not disappoint. Their wontons were carefully wrapped so that the extra skin didn't clump together and their shirmp to pork ratio in the filling is just right. Their broth is flavorful without being too salty (the most common pitfall for noodle broth) and at $4 a bowl, I could afford to go whenever a craving struck (which was often). But alas, though I've been craving a good bowl of wonton noodle soup since I've been in Quebec, my standards for this humble dish are almost astronimically high and I didn't want to disappoint myself.

According to my boyfriend and others, there are places in Manhattan Chinatown where one can get five dumplings for a dollar. I have doubts about such places, especially since of all the numerous outings we had in Chinatown, William has never once shown me one actual place where the infamous 5 for $1 dumplings can be found.


Actually, I was a little skeptical about how these would turn out. Last time I tried to pan fry dumplings, it came out burned where it touched the pan and undercooked where it didn't, and I ended up breaking the skins and turning the whole thing into an improvised stir fry of sorts. Also, I've never made dumpling skins from scratch before, seeing as how I used to get fresh ones for around a dollar.

These aren't the most conventional jiaozi to be found, what with the Indian red curry paste and the Italian parsley leaves. I would've prefered to use groud pork and throw in some shittake mushroom, but as long as it tastes good, I'm not purist when it comes to "authentic" ingredients. I found a great blog about Chinese food with great instructions on pan frying dumplings. The ingredients for the filling are merely what I happen to have on hand; you can subsitute any ground meat or finely chopped vegetable, as long as they work well together. Any leftover fillings will work great in fried rice or stir fried with cooked noodles.

JAO ZI (DUMPLINGS)
(makes about 2 dozen)

• 1 lb. ground beef (or pork or even lamb)
• 1 small head of savoy cabbage, chopped and shredded
• 2 small onions, sliced thinly
  
• 1-2 medium carrots, grated
• 2 inch long ginger, peeled and finely chopped
• 3-4 mini sweet peppers, or 1 red bell pepper, finely sliced
• about 1/4 cup of parsley leaves, finely chopped
• vegetable oil for cooking
• salt and pepper to taste
• soy sauce to taste
  
• hot sauce to taste (or curry paste), optional
  

For the skin:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• about 5/8 cup warm water
  
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt

Heat up a pan on medium heat with some oil and cook ground beef until no longer red. Remove from heat and transfer to a big bowl.

In the same pan over medium high heat, throw in sliced onion, adding more oil if necessary. When onions have soften, 1-2 minutes, add in peppers and cabbage. Cook for 3-4 minutes until cabbage softens, stir in shredded carrot, ginger and parsley. Cook for an additional 2-3 minutes and season with soy sauce, hot sauce, salt and pepper.

Transfer to the same bowl with the cooked beef and mix throughly, adding more seasoning as necessary.

While the filling is cooling, measure out flour in another bowl and mix with salt. Have one cup of warm water handy. Pour in a little water at a time while hand mixing until the dough forms into one ball with no clumps. (I used 5/8 cups water but this can vary according to humidity and gluten content of the flour you're using) If the dough is too sticky, sprinkle in a little more flour and knead into the dough.

When dough is ready, knead it on a floured surface for a few minutes. Cut into four pieces with a sharp knife. Roll one piece out into a cigar and cut into four pieces. Get a clean, damp kitchen towel and cover 3 of the dough pieces. Dust a work surface with flour and flatten a piece of dough with the palm of your hand. Roll it out as thinly as possible, no more than 1/8 inch thick. Using a round cookie cutter or the lip of a glass jar, cut out as many circles as possible.

ASSEMBLY:

Place one piece of skin in your palm and spoon a small amount of filling in the middle. (Make sure not to over stuff or the skin will stretch and fall apart) Fold the edges together and make small pinches around the edge. If the skin is not closing up, dip your finger in water and brush it around the edge of the skin. The added moisture will glue the dough together. (You can also beat an egg and use that instead of water)

Disclaimer: I've never been prissy about food presentation, and though I pinched some pleats into these dumplings, by the end William and I simply pressed the edges together and didn't bother trying to make it look fancier. The important thing is to make sure that the filling won't bust out of the skin when you're cooking them.

To pan fry the dumplings, coat the bottom of a pan with some oil and line the dumplings, making sure not to overcrowd them. Place the pan with the dumplings on a stove over medium heat and cook for a few minutes, until the bottom side of the dumplings are golden brown.


Turn dumplings over and brown the other side for 1-2 minutes. When both sides have been browned, add about 2-3 tablespoons of water in the skillet and cover. (The water in the covered skillet creates stem, which cooks the dumplings without burning them) Cook for another minute. Remove from heat and serve.