Daring Cooks: Chinese dumplings/potstickers (aka gyoza in Japanese)

Part of being a Daring Kitchen member is getting to try new things, learn new skills, push yourself in the kitchen. And since I love challenges, this group seemed like the perfect fit for me. The Daring Kitchen actually consists of two groups – the Daring Baker’s and the Daring Cook’s. Wanting to push my culinary knowledge to the fullest, I of course joined both groups.

The June 2009 Daring Cook’s challenge was hosted by Jen of use real butter. Jen challenged us to create chinese dumplings/potstickers (aka gyoza in Japanese). You can see the full details of the challenge here and check out Jen’s post here.

Some of the challenges are extra-intimidating for me. Not only am I just learning to cook and being challenged to make some exciting recipes, but I’m learning to do it gluten-free at the same time. Jen was thoughtful enough to include a gluten-free version of the gyoza, but I decided to stick to the original recipe and just substitute gluten-free ingredients.

A few days ago, I wrote about my Red Velvet Cake made with Better Batter gluten-free flour mix and indicated that it was my second experiment with the flour. This was my first (but I couldn’t post about it until today – those are the rules) and it was an extremely successful experiment!

Here’s what I did:

Pork Filling

I kept this pretty basic and used what I had in my refrigerator:

• 1 pound ground pork
• 4 large cabbage leaves
• 1 small white onion
• 3 T gluten-free soy sauce
• 2 T sesame oil
• 2 T corn starch

I cut the cabbage and mushrooms into nice small pieces, mixed it with the cabbage, and then added the soy sauce, oil and corn starch. Done. Simple enough. Next time I do this (and oh, yes, there will be a next time!) I will season this a bit more and get a bit more fancy with the ingredients.

Wrappers

It takes two batches of this dough for the amount of filling described above.

• 250 grams Better Batter flour mix
• 1/3 Cup water

It doesn’t get much simpler than that. Then I followed the original directions given by Jen for making the wrappers:

 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. 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 (see images in post for how to fold pleats). Keep all unused dough under damp cloth.

 

Rolled out wrapper

 

I should get extra points for having a two-year old sous chef!

 Jen gave us the option of steaming, boiling or pan-frying the dumplings. Since going gluten-free I haven’t been able to order pot-stickers (and I LOVE potstickers), so I went with the pan-frying method, described by Jen:

 

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.

 

  

Yummy crispy bottoms!

  Dipping Sauce

I gave the sous-chefs the task of making the dipping sauce while I finished up the potstickers at the stove. I gave the older sous-chef the dipping sauce directions and then a quick mini-lesson about “parts”. The original recipe suggested two parts soy sauce and one part vinegar and then a variety of optional seasonings as desired. I think he came away from the experience with a greater understanding of ratio than he got during math class last year – and ended up with a mighty tasty dipping sauce.

 

Future Daring Cooks?

This was an amazing experience – and one I am eager to repeat! Much thanks to Jen for such a great (and tasty) challenge!