Chinese cuisine, despite its exoticism, is very popular in Russia. Some of the dishes offered in Chinese restaurants can be cooked on your own - for example, dumplings.
To make the dough for Chinese dumplings, you need the following ingredients: 1.5 cups wheat flour, 1/2 cup water, 1 tsp. vegetable oil, a pinch of salt.
To prepare the filling: 125 g of pork, 100 g of Chinese cabbage, 15 g of celery, 15 g of carrots, 1/2 tsp. grated ginger, 1 tsp. finely chopped green onions, 1 tsp. soy sauce, 1 tsp. rice wine, 1/2 tsp. sesame oil, a pinch of salt.
Pork is passed through a meat grinder. Celery, Chinese cabbage, green onions and carrots are finely chopped, salted and left alone for 10-15 minutes. Selected juice is drained from vegetables, which will be useful in the future.
It is very difficult to finely chop the cabbage. Therefore, it is recommended to use only thin parts of the cabbage leaf for the filling.
Soy sauce, rice wine, sesame oil, and ginger are added to the minced meat. Minced meat is kneaded, combined with vegetables. To make the filling juicy, add vegetable juice. The filling is mixed and left for 10-15 minutes so that the ingredients are saturated with each other's aromas.
It is quite difficult to find rice wine in Russia. Therefore, you can replace it with any dry white wine made from grapes, such as sherry.
During this time, you can prepare the dough. Wheat flour is sifted through a fine sieve. Then water, vegetable oil are gradually poured into the flour and salt is added, kneading an elastic and sufficiently dense dough that does not stick to your hands. You need to knead the dough for a long time to eliminate the risk of salt clumping.
The finished dough is wrapped with cling film and refrigerated for 10 minutes. To make Chinese dumplings, roll out the chilled dough in the form of a sausage. It is cut into 16 approximately equal parts. A ball is formed from each part, which is rolled into a thin round cake. The filling is placed in the central part of the cake. The edges of the dough are pinched tightly. The shape of the Chinese dumplings is significantly different from the Russian ones. The edges of the tortilla are pinched like dumplings, while collecting the dough in small folds.
It remains to bring the dish to readiness. Chinese dumplings are a versatile product that can be boiled, fried, and cooked in a double boiler. Salted water is boiled in a small saucepan and dumplings are boiled in the usual way in Russia.
Products that have floated to the surface are considered ready. Cooking dumplings in a double boiler does not differ from the usual method. But the national Chinese product should be fried in a special way.
A little vegetable or sesame oil is poured into a preheated pan. When the oil is hot enough, dumplings are placed on the bottom of the pan, and the heat is reduced to low. Fry dumplings only on one side, until a golden brown crust forms. Then add water, the level of which should reach the middle of the dumplings. Close the pan tightly with a lid and continue to simmer the dish for about 4 minutes. Chinese dumplings are served warm. An obligatory addition to the dish is soy sauce.
