Dim sum (点心) is a variety of small Chinese dishes traditionally served in restaurants for brunch and often associated with Cantonese cuisine. As dim sum continued to develop, chefs brought in influences and traditions from other parts of China and it became present in other Chinese cuisines as well. For example, like the xiaolongbao, which originated in Jiangsu province, but has also become a type of dim sum. The xiaolongbao I made My hometown is Ningbo, very close to Jiangsu province, so xiao long bao is one of the very common dim sum meals. This is the first time I made xiaolongbao, and possibly the last, because the process is just too complicated! Xiaolongbao in dim sum restaurant Many dim sum dishes are made from seafood, minced meat or vegetables wrapped in dough and then steamed, fried or pan-fried. Traditional dim sum brunch includes various types of steamed duns (baozi), similar but different from dumplings. If you can't have ice cream or bread in your freezer, I can...
Before we start, I want to share some photos with you.
This is a Chinese New Year meal with my friends.
On that day, my friends and I cooked a dish and then got together to celebrate Chinese New Year. We also made dumplings together, because dumplings are an essential dish for us on important holidays.
The New Year Meal in UK
This is a Chinese meal I cooked with my flatmates.
There are four typical Chinese meal in the photo: chow mein, spicy popcorn chicken, cucumber salad and dumplings.
Chinese Meal with Flatmates
It was the first time I made dumplings by myself, starting from kneading the dough. Before that, when I was at home, my mother would buy dumpling sheets from the market and then she would prepare the fillings, while I would help her with the dumplings sometimes.
How much do you know about dumplings?
Dumpling, 饺子(Jiao zi). It has a history of over 2,600 years.
It is said that during the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was a doctor named Zhang Zhongjing. On his way home in winter, he noticed that many old people had frostbitten ears because they didn't have warm clothes and enough food. So he cooked mutton, chillies and cold-repelling herbs together, chopped them up when cooked, and wrapped them in the dough sheet. He cooked these dumplings and served them to the villagers with the soup until the arrival of the Chinese New Year.
After that, people would make dumplings to commemorate him every New Year with the expectation of preventing frostbitten ears.
This traditional dish has become an important part of Chinese food culture, bringing joy and happiness to people during the Chinese New Year.
Today, dumplings can be eaten all year round, for breakfast, lunch or dinner, and people living in northern China also consider them as a main dish instead of rice and noodles.
For me, dumplings are such a convenient food that I would make a big box of them every month. When I don't know what to eat, or when I don't have enough time to cook, I always choose dumplings.
How to make dumplings?
Here, I'm going to share the recipe.
It takes about more than an hour from kneading the dough to forming the dumplings, but most of that is waiting time, so be patient!
I once shared this recipe with my flatmate and she completed it very successfully, so don't worry that it will be difficult and believe in yourself that you can do it too!
Ingredients for the dough:
500g Plain flour
1/4 tsp Salt
240g-250g Warm water
1. Mix everything together, and wait for 5 mins.
2. Make a dough, and wait for 20 mins.
3. Knead the dough to make it smooth, and wait for 1 hour.
While you're waiting for the dough to be ready, you can start preparing the fillings.
Ingredients for the fillings:
500g Minced pork
100g Sweet corns
100g (Chopped) prawns
1/2tsp Salt
2 tsp Soy sauce
1/2tsp Oyster sauce
1 Egg
1/8 tsp Ground white pepper
1/4 tsp Sesame oil
Chopped spring onions
Chopped mushrooms
*Most of the ingredients are available based on personal preference.
4. Mix all ingredients in one direction, then the filling is ready.
5. Roll out the dough into long strips and cut into about 10g pieces.
6. Roll out the small dough into a circle.
7. Place the filling in the middle of the circle sheet.
8. Fold into your preferred dumpling shape.
9. Freeze the dumplings in a sealed container.
Here is the video teach you how to fold dumplings in different shapes on YouTube.
Is it easier than you thought? Why not try it on a free weekend!
If you have any questions or if you have some interested Chinese dishes, feel free to leave comments!
In the next post, I will talk about how to cook dumplings.
Wow!Amazing
ReplyDeleteThank you! ❤️
DeleteDefinitely I will try it. Thank you
ReplyDeleteThank you!! Don't hesitate to ask me any questions❤️
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