time has been flying past at an amazing speed. so fast that i’ve only just managed to complete this month’s daring cooks challenge – chinese dumplings, as chosen by jen from use real butter (jen’s blog is fabulous and well worth a visit if you haven’t seen it already!).
i’ve made dumplings before but have not made my own dumpling wrappers which was the main focus of this challenge.
so, how did i get on?
making the dumpling dough was nice and easy but getting the wrappers thin enough, and the right size, was a little more tricky. the wrappers were rolled out by hand and mine weren’t really sufficiently thin. they were also a bit large as i wasn’t sure what size pieces of dough to work with and, because i was making this at the last minute to fit in with the daring cooks deadline, i didn’t have time to make a second batch.
the filling for my dumplings was easy enough – i chose crab (using a dressed crab from food4london which meant i had a nice mix of white and brown crab meat) to which i added some finely chopped cabbage, spring onions, wood ear mushrooms and ginger plus a splash of sesame oil and some corn flour to help bind it all together.
the decision about how to cook the dumplings was left open so i decided to fry and then steam mine, creating the contrasting crispy base and softly steamed dumpling which makes potstickers so moreish.
the final verdict:
- would i try this recipe again in the future? i will make dumplings more often but i think i’ll be sticking to the ready-rolled wrappers. in fact, i have a packet in the freezer which i’ll be putting to use very soon!
for recipe details and wonderful pictures to help with the dumpling creation, visit use real butter where you can find gluten-free and traditional versions.
