Chinese Jiaozi

Foodfreak has invited us to celebrate Chinese New Year. For this occasion, she asks us to prepare a typical Chinese dish.

So I prepared Jiaozi, my favorite dish for this holiday. Jiaozi (饺子and Pinyin: jiǎozi) are usually prepared on the last evening of the Old Year and you eat them during that evening or on the first day of the New Year.

It is fun to prepare Jiaozi together with friends or family, so this is also a dish you can make when you have nice guests who visit you.

Jiaozi can be eaten as a wonderful snack as well, kind of healthy and cheap fast food. You can buy it almost everywhere in China as popular street food, though Jiaozi originally were more popular in the northern part of China where wheat and noodles are common.

When I arrive in China, I always try to get some Jiaozi as soon as possible. They are just delicious!

Actually, I first got to know Jiaozi in Germany: We celebrated Chinese New Year with Chinese students who taught us how to make Jiaozi - and we had a lot of fun!

When I went to China for my studies, I made Jiaozi with friends and their families. So I learned how to prepare them without a recipe, and also found out about some variations of the filling. Back at home in Germany, I also prepared Jiaozi quite often.

But somehow, years passed, and I must admit that I have not made Jiaozi for many many years. So I am glad that Foodfreak announced this wonderful event that helped me to remember Jiaozi and to prepare them again ! Thanks to Foodfreak for this good idea and for organizing the event.

So I looked up an old recipe that I had written down many years ago and tried to make Jiaozi again. After a little disaster with wrong flour I finally did it "the Barbara way" and just mixed flour and water the way I thought it could work out - and it did.

My Jiaozi don't look perfect but they tasted very good.

Believe me, the more you practice the better they look like. And I will soon go on practicing! ;-)

-=========	REZKONV-Recipe - RezkonvSuite v1.4
Title:	Chinese Jiaozi (boiled dumplings)
Categories:	Dumplings, Pork, China
Yield:	1 Recipe

Ingredients

H			DOUGH
500	grams		Flour
200-250	ml		Wasser; approx
H			FILLING
300	grams		Ground meat made of pork, lamb or mutton
100-200	grams		Scallion, Chinese cabbage and/or garlic chives
2	teasp.		Sesame oil
1	teasp.		Salt
H			DIP
1/2	cup		Soy sauce
2-3	tablesp.		Dark Chinese rice vinegar
5-10	cloves		Garlic
1	tablesp.		Ginger

Source

a typical Chinese recipe

	Edited *RK* 02/06/2008 by
	Barbara Furthmüller

Directions

Mix together flour and water and make a dough. You can use cold or lukewarm water. Knead thoroughly until smooth. The dough should not be too soft. Let the dough rest for half an hour while you prepare the filling.

Chop vegetables into very small pieces. Mix all the ingredients for the filling.

Chop garlic and ginger and mix all the ingredients for the dip. Put the dip into small bowls and put them onto your table. Adjust the ingredients to your taste, if necessary.

Divide the dough into 4 portions and roll into long rolls. Cut each roll into 25 pieces. Roll each piece separately into a 5-7 cm (2-3 inch) circle. They are perfect if they are a bit thicker in the middle of the circle and a bit thinner on the outside.

Place a portion of the filling into the center of each wrapper and fold the dough over it, making a pouch. Pinch the edges together to seal the Jiaozi. Go on and make as many Jiaozi as you like.

Boil water in a big pot. Add Jiaozi (amount depending on the size of your pot) and stir them around gently with your chopsticks so they will not stick together. Let the water return to a boil. Add a cup of cold water and let the water return to a boil again. Repeat this 2 times, then the Jiaozi will be done and they kind of flow to the surface. Remove them, drain well, and serve together with the dip.

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After you have cooked the Jiaozi you take your chopsticks, pick a Jiaozi and dip it into the typical sauce. That's the most important part: The dip consists of soy sauce, Chinese vinegar, garlic and ginger. Yummy!

Try to get real Chinese vinegar and soy sauce to get the original flavor. And then: Enjoy! :-)

恭喜发财(gōngxǐ fācái) and 新年快乐 (xīnnián kuàilè)!