These little purses of scrumptiousness are way better than the store bought frozen kind and are pretty enough to serve at your next dinner part, yet they are surprisingly easy to make!
This months Daring Cooks challenge is Chinese dumplings, aka potstickers, and is brought to you by the wonderful Jen from Use Real Butter!
This was my first time making potstickers so instead of being creative and coming up with a unique filling, I decided to be boring and do the traditional Chinese dumpling pork filling, only I used ground turkey instead of pork. Along with ground meat, the filling consists of ginger, scallions, onions, mushrooms, and cabbage all minced very finely. It is seasoned with some sesame oil and soy sauce with some cornstarch thrown in to aid in binding of all the ingredients. I knew this was going to be good as soon as I mixed all the ingredients together because even uncooked it smelled wonderful!
Mixing the ingredients for the dough is the trickiest part, even though the dough only consists of two ingredients: flour and water. You have to get the ratio of flour to water just perfect because you want the dough sticky enough to bind together but not to sticky that it is really hard to roll out. I found that for two cups of flour I needed just over 1/2 a cup of water and that when mixing the dough in the food processor you want it to be very crumbly and not lump together. If it lumps together it will be too sticky and impossible to roll out.
Once you have made your dough and rolled it into a ball it is important to let it rest a bit to allow the gluten to relax, then simple flatten your ball a bit, cut it into strips about 1 inch thick and then cut your strips into 1 inch pieces. These pieces get rolled into balls, flattened, then rolled out with a rolling pin into thin flat discs.
Add about a tablespoon of prepared filling to each disc. Then you fold the dough in half and pinch together to form little purses. There is no need to use egg whites or water to bind the ends because the dough is so fresh and moist. For a tutorial on how to fold your dumplings go here.
The results are these cute little pockets that look completely adorable and professionally made, even if you are a novice…and I am most definitely a novice!
You can cook these babies several ways including steaming and boiling. I opted for pan frying and placed them in a medium-hot pan with a little bit of oil and let them sizzle until the bottoms were nice and brown, then I added about 1/2 cup of water to just cover the surface of the pan and quickly covered it to let the dumplings steam for about 3 minutes and they were done! It’s really fast and easy! Also, these little babies are super easy to freeze so you can make a bunch of them and eat them for months! 
Serve your dumplings crispy side up with some soy sauce or a freshly prepared dipping sauce. YUM!
Chinese Dumplings/Potstickers
Adapted from Jen of www.userealbutter.com
Makes about 30 dumplings or so
pork filling:
1 lb (450g) ground pork (I used ground turkey, it’s a bit healthier)
4 large napa cabbage leaves, minced
3 stalks green onions, minced
7 shitake mushrooms, minced (if dried – rehydrated and rinsed carefully)
1/2 cup (75g) bamboo shoots, minced
1/4 (55g) cup ginger root, minced
3 tbsp (40g) soy sauce
2 tbsp (28g) sesame oil
2 tbsp (16g) corn starchdough: (I made three batches of this, and probably ended up using 2 and a half)
2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (113g) warm water (I ended up needing about 1-2 tablespoons more water than this)
flour for work surfacedipping sauce:
2 parts soy sauce
1 part vinegar (red wine or black)
a few drops of sesame oil
chili garlic paste (optional)
minced ginger (optional)
minced garlic (optional)
minced green onion (optional)
sugar (optional)Make the Filling: Combine all filling ingredients in a large mixing bowl and mix thoroughly (I mix by clean hand). Cover and refrigerate until ready to use (up to a day, but preferably within an hour or two).
Make the dough: Place the flour in the work bowl of a food processor with the dough blade. Run the processor and pour the warm water in until incorporated. The dough should be very crumbly but bind together when kneaded with hands. Add more water if too dry. Pour the contents into a sturdy bowl or onto a work surface and knead until uniform and smooth. The dough should be firm and silky to the touch and not sticky.[Note: it’s better to have a moist dough and have to incorporate more flour than to have a dry and pilling dough and have to incorporate more water).
Knead the dough about twenty strokes then cover with a damp towel for 15 minutes. Take the dough and form a flattened dome. Cut into strips about 1 1/2 to 2 inches wide. Shape the strips into rounded long cylinders. On a floured surface, cut the strips into 3/4 inch pieces. Press palm down on each piece to form a flat circle (you can shape the corners in with your fingers). With a rolling pin, roll out a circular wrapper from each flat disc. Take care not to roll out too thin or the dumplings will break during cooking – about 1/16th inch. Leave the centers slightly thicker than the edges. Place a tablespoon of filling in the center of each wrapper and fold the dough in half, pleating the edges along one side. Keep all unused dough under damp cloth.
To boil: Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add dumplings to pot. Boil the dumplings until they float.
To steam: Place dumplings on a single layer of napa cabbage leaves or on a well-greased surface in a steamer basket with lid. Steam covered for about 6 minutes.
To pan fry (potstickers): Place dumplings in a frying pan with 2-3 tbsp of vegetable oil. Heat on high and fry for a few minutes until bottoms are golden. Add 1/2 cup water and cover. Cook until the water has boiled away and then uncover and reduce heat to medium or medium low. Let the dumplings cook for another 2 minutes then remove from heat and serve.
To freeze: Assemble dumplings on a baking sheet so they are not touching. It helps to rub the base of the dumpling in a little flour before setting on the baking sheet for ease of release. Freeze for 20-30 minutes until dumplings are no longer soft. Place in ziploc bag and freeze for up to a couple of months. Prepare per the above instructions, but allow extra time to ensure the filling is thoroughly cooked.
To serve: Serve dumplings or potstickers hot with your choice of dipping sauce combinations.
Printable Recipe: Chinese Dumplings
Gorgeous! I used ground turkey too, it was delicious. Nice work
Your pleating is great!!!
Well done on your challenge! They look absolutely professional, my dear
And by professional, I mean they’re prettier than professional. So glad you enjoyed them!
Your pleating and dumplings look so professional. And the colour is superb. Good you enjoyed this challenge. Cheers
Wow, the cooking method of this dumpling is great, I’ll try it later and I hope it tastes the way it look. Thanks for sharing!