Chinese wild garlic pockets

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 400 g flour
• 120 ml water, hot
• 30 ml oil
• 120 ml water, cold
• 300 g wild garlic
• 4 eggs
• 50 g glass noodles
• 2 tbsp soy sauce or mushroom sauce or oyster sauce
• some salt and pepper
• n. B. Five-spice powder

Instructions

Working time approx. 1 hour; Cooking/baking time approx. 30 minutes; Total time approx. 1 hour 30 minutes

vegetarian

These wild garlic-filled dumplings are known in China as Jiǔcàihézi (韭菜盒子) and originate from Shandong Province. Along with wild garlic, the filling is usually made with scrambled eggs or minced meat. Other ingredients can include dried mini shrimp, glass noodles, or morels. This recipe uses eggs and glass noodles. Dough: Put the flour in a bowl with 2 pinches of salt. First, pour in the boiling water and mix. A few lumps will form. Then add the oil and cold water and knead everything into a dough. Cover with a lid to prevent the dough from drying out and let it rest while you prepare the filling. Filling: Boil the glass noodles in water for 1-2 minutes, then drain and let cool. In the meantime, scramble the eggs. The scrambled eggs can be salted a little more, as they will become part of the filling, and they should be stirred in the pan so that they consist of only small pieces. Allow the scrambled eggs to cool as well. Once cooled, cut the glass noodles into approximately 1 cm long pieces on a cutting board. Chop the wild garlic and mix with the scrambled eggs and glass noodles. Season to taste with soy sauce (or mushroom or oyster sauce, depending on what you have on hand and what you like), salt, pepper, and—if available—the Chinese five-spice powder. Filling the dumplings: The dumplings are made from round, flat sheets of dough that are approximately 10 cm in diameter. I make the dough sheets as follows: First, I form a thick sausage. I then cut this into pieces. Each piece is first flattened by hand and then rolled out. Of course, you can also cut out round sheets of dough or use other methods. Place some filling on each piece of dough. Then fold them together and seal them to form crescent-shaped dumplings. Finally, you can decorate the edges by kneading a floral pattern into them. Frying the dumplings: Finally, fry the dumplings in a pan. They taste best when you add a little oil to a pan and fry the dumplings until golden brown, first on one side and then on the other. You can also fry them in a non-stick pan without any problem. Eating the dumplings: We eat the dumplings on their own, for lunch or dinner. However, they are often dipped in a mixture of rice vinegar and sesame oil and then eaten. Note: I like to use glass noodles in the filling because they absorb the liquid from the vegetables. My favorite is the thick Korean glass noodles made from sweet potatoes, but you can also use the thin Chinese glass noodles made from mung beans.