Jiaozi – Chinese dumplings

Ingredients for 3 servings:

• 2 cups flour
• ½ cup(s) water
• 250 g minced meat (half/half)
• 3 small carrots
• ½ tsp pepper
• 1 tsp soy sauce, dark
• some soy sauce, to serve
• some flour, for the work surface

Instructions

Working time approx. 1 hour 20 minutes; Rest time approx. 30 minutes; Total time approx. 1 hour 50 minutes

similar to dumplings or pelmeni

First, prepare the pasta dough. Add the appropriate amount of water to the flour and knead by hand until a firm, homogeneous dough forms. If necessary, add a little more flour or water. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for half an hour to soften and become a little more airy. In the meantime, prepare the filling. Peel and finely grate the carrots, then squeeze out the juice firmly to retain as little moisture as possible. Add the grated and squeezed carrots to the minced meat, season with pepper and soy sauce, and mix well with a fork. Remove the dough from the refrigerator, shape it into a log (approx. 3 cm in diameter), and cut into approximately 1 cm thick slices. Roll out the dough discs into as round and thin circles as possible (max. 7-8 cm in diameter) (this works well with a drinking glass or rolling pin; flour your work surface and materials for this!). At the same time, or after this step, the dough circles are filled with the carrot and meat filling. To do this, place a teaspoonful of the filling into the center of each dough circle and fold one side over the other so that the filling is encased in dough (airtight, otherwise the dumpling will fall apart during cooking!). If the dough doesn’t stick, simply moisten one side with a finger moistened with water. In traditional Chinese cuisine, the edges are very elegantly pressed together, but this is only important for the appearance and not for the success of the recipe. Once all the jiaozi are filled, cooking can begin. This is done in stages, as only enough jiaozi are added to a pot of boiling water at a time to just cover the bottom (approx. 10 pieces). If the dumplings stick to the bottom, simply use a spoon to carefully remove them to prevent them from burning. The jiaozi are cooked after about 5-8 minutes, with the boiling water being cooled with a splash of cold water (max. half a cup) every two minutes. The dumplings can be easily removed from the boiling water using a slotted spoon or a tablespoon. Drain well and serve in a small bowl with as much soy sauce as you like. Tastiest with chopsticks. Note: Jiaozi is best cooked with several people; it’s more fun and goes much faster. I got this recipe from a Chinese exchange student years ago and have made it often with my family since then. Three servings are equivalent to about 40 dumplings.