Beijing-Style Pork & Shrimp Jiaozi (Chinese Dumplings)

Submitted by Spicy Little Sister

"I got this recipe from my old land lord in Beijing. He was a "lao Beijing ren" (native Beijinger), so his recipes are very authentic. He decided that my roommate and I needed to learn all the Beijing dishes, and thus took it upon himself to teach us. My friends and I like to have dumpling parties, where we get together and wrap dumplings and talk, which makes it not as labor intensive."

 

• Ready In: 1hr 40mins
• Ingredients: 16
• Yields: 100 dumplings
• Serves: 8

ingredients

• 1 1⁄2 lbs ground pork
• 1⁄2 lb minced raw shrimp
• 5 -7 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 green onions, chopped finely
• 1⁄2 head cabbage, chopped and salted
• 3 inches peeled ginger, grated
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 egg
• 3 tablespoons sesame oil
• 2 teaspoons five-spice powder
• 1 tablespoon red pepper powder

• Dumpling Wrappers

• 100 dumpling wrappers (1 package of shui jiao-style ones or 1 1/2 cups flour, pinch of salt and pinch of water to make by h)
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 pinch water

directions

1. Clean the cabbage, chop it, and put it in a large non-reactive pot with salt Set it aside and let it sweat out water for 45 min or so (you can prepare this ahead).
2. If you're using a meat grinder, feed the shrimp, pork, garlic, onions, and ginger through the meat grinder, getting everything to be a smooth, yet chunky mixture. If you're using a food processor, you're going to half way freeze the meat, and chop each ingredient on it's own, and then mix them in a pasta bowl. Traditionally, all these ingredients are minced and chopped using a large cutting board and a cleaver. However you do it, it's up to you.
3. Put the meat and veggie mixture into a a large bowl. Add the salt, soy sauce, egg and sugar to the mixture.
4. In a heavy skillet, heat up the oil. Add the spice powders and toast the spices. Pour this mixture hot over the meat mixture in the bowl, and stir inches.
5. Drain the cabbage, rinse it and drain again. Mix it in to the meat mixture.
6. (Optional step) Make the dumpling wrappers: mix together 1 1/2 cup flour and pinch of salt and then slowly add just enough water to result in a springy dough. Knead it a lot to make the gluten stringy and strong. Roll the dough out into a long rope, cut the rope apart into ping pong ball sized pieces. Flatten the pieces out into small flat discs, and flour a table or cutting board, and roll them out using a beer bottle or small rolling pin. As you make them, hand them to the person wrapping the dumplings. Or just buy the pre-made wrappers.
7. Wrap the dumplings in the dumpling skins, pinching together the sides and tucking in the ends.
8. Cook the dumplings: boil a pot of water. Drop the dumplings in, they are ready when the float to the top of the pot. Don't boil too many at once, or they'll stick together. Scoop them out with a strainer, so you can use the water for the next batch.
9. Serve with soy sauce, dipping sauce, raw garlic (for true Northern Chinese style eating!), chili sauce, or cut up green onions.

Reviews

[chemtaiji]

I went to Beijing in the summer of 2012 with a group of friends. I tried this recipe for a book discussion, and the group that went to Beijing were also there. All of them said this recipe reminded them distinctly of a restaurant we ate at. We all had an instant taste memory of being in Beijing and dining on dumplings. Thank you very much for the share. If you have others from the same landlord, I hope to try them as well.

 

[PDC0625]

My wife is Chinese (from Sichuan province) and she frequently makes jiaozi including the wrappers from scratch, having learned to make them when she lived in Beijing. She was away to China when I had an urge to have jiaozi but I had never learned from her how to make them. Since this recipe reportedly is Beijing-style, it caught my attention. <br/><br/>If you try to make the wrappers for yourself using the recommended measurements, be prepared for disappointment, as I was. One half cup of flour makes nowhere near enough dough for this amount of filler. One tablespoon of salt as called for in the recipe makes for a dough that will make you retain water to your hips for a week and raise your blood pressure to stroke level. Other sites recommend 2 cups to 3 1/2 cups of flour with 1/4 teaspoon of salt.<br/><br/>The recipe for the filler is OK if you like you spice level to be **** hot. If you prefer it to be ** medium hot then cut down on the red pepper to about 1/2 T or 1 t. The presence of hot pepper surprised me since I had been under the impression that Beijing area does not use much hot spice in their recipes. The salt level in the filler is also high for my taste so consider cutting way down on salt in the filler, as well.