Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking (42 page)

When the water has boiled, cook the wontons in it (follow the instructions
here
). Just before they are ready, divide the hot stock between the bowls. Distribute the wontons among the bowls and garnish with a few ribbons of egg. Serve.

NORTHERN-STYLE BOILED DUMPLINGS
SHUI JIAO 水餃

These crescent-shaped boiled dumplings, more substantial than wontons, are one of the staple foods of northern China. They are invariably eaten at Chinese New Year, when whole families gather to make them on an impromptu production line. Their wrappers are made from a simple flour-and-water dough, and they can be stuffed with almost anything. The most common filling is seasoned ground pork mixed with cabbage or chives, but Chinese Muslims use ground lamb, while vegetarians may choose stir-fried eggs and chives, or tofu and vegetables. And instead of cabbage or chives, you may mix the pork with any vegetable: shredded radish, fennel tops, pumpkin and wild garlic are wonderful. Crisp vegetables that contain a lot of water, such as Chinese cabbage and radish, are best blanched or salted before you begin, so the dumplings don’t become soggy.

Making your own wrappers isn’t difficult, but requires a little practice; ready-made wrappers—thin rounds of pale wheaten dough—are available in many Chinese food shops. They are less sticky than the homemade version, so you’ll need to moisten their edges with a wet finger to seal. And if you can, ask a Chinese friend to show you how to roll the wrappers and wrap the dumplings: it’s by far the easiest way to learn.

To learn how to make your own wrappers, tap
here
.

Serve the steaming dumplings with bottles of Chinese brown vinegar and soy sauce and a jar of chilli oil or dried chillies. Provide each guest with a dipping dish and let them mix their own seasonings. You might also prepare one or two vegetable dishes from the cold dishes chapter (tap
here
) to eat with them.

I have to admit that when I tested these with pork and wild garlic, the dumplings were so delicious—and I was so hungry—that I ate them all myself, but this should serve two for lunch, or four as an appetizer.

Small piece of ginger, unpeeled

4 oz (100g) ground pork with a little fat

½ small egg, beaten

1 tsp Shaoxing wine

1 tbsp chicken stock

½ tsp sesame oil

Salt

4 oz (100g) Chinese chives, yellow chives, or wild garlic

7 oz (200g) pack of round dumpling wrappers (about 18 wrappers)

To serve

Chinkiang or Shanxi vinegar

Light or tamari soy sauce

Chilli oil or ground chillies (optional)

Crush the ginger with the flat of a cleaver or a rolling pin and place in a cup with just enough cold water to cover.

Put the pork in a bowl and add the egg, Shaoxing wine, stock, sesame oil and salt to taste, with 1 tbsp of the water in which you have soaked the ginger. Mix well (I find this easiest by hand). Finely chop the chives or wild garlic and add them to the pork. Mix well. Set a large pan of water to boil.

Fill a small dish with cold water and have it on hand. Lay a dumpling wrapper in your hand and place about 1 tbsp of the pork mixture in its center, pressing the mixture into the wrapper. Dip your finger in the dish of water and run it around the edge of the wrapper. Then seal the wrapper with a few little pleats (tap
here
). Lay the dumpling on a tray or a large plate. Wrap the remaining dumplings.

Drop some of the dumplings into the boiling water and cook them for four to five minutes. Each time the water comes back to a rolling boil, add a small cup of cold water to calm it down, so the dumplings do not fall apart. (You should do this a couple of times before the dumplings are cooked.) When they are cooked, remove the dumplings with a slotted spoon and place in a serving dish.

FILLING VARIATIONS
Use these to stuff wontons, Northern-style boiled dumplings, or pot-stickers. If you wish, use other ground meats—beef, lamb or chicken—and season them the same way. Ground beef is particularly good with finely chopped cilantro or celery (blanch the latter for 30 seconds and squeeze dry, before mixing with the meat).

Chinese cabbage and ground pork
Use 7 oz (200g) Chinese leaf cabbage instead of the chives or garlic in the recipe
here
. Finely chop the cabbage, add ¾ tsp salt and scrunch the salt into the leaves with your hands. Leave for at least 30 minutes, then squeeze out the water that emerges before using. Add to the seasoned ground pork. You can adapt this recipe for other crisp, watery vegetables such as green bok choy or Asian radish instead of cabbage. If using Asian radish, cut it into very thin slices, then into fine slivers, before salting.

Fennel tops and ground pork
Use 4 oz (100g) finely chopped fennel tops instead of the chives in the recipe
here
(discarding the thicker stalks and using only the fronds). Add to the seasoned ground pork.

Scrambled eggs and chives
Trim and finely chop 4 oz (100g) Chinese chives, yellow chives or wild garlic. Beat together 2 eggs with salt to taste, then stir-fry in a wok until just cooked through. Turn the eggs on to a board and chop finely. Combine the eggs and chives and use this as your stuffing (1–2 tbsp papery dried shrimp make a delicious addition). Because this stuffing lacks the stickiness of one made with ground meat, be extra careful in moistening and sealing the edges of the dumplings.

SERVING VARIATIONS

Dumplings in chilli oil sauce
This scrumptious Sichuanese version simply uses the seasonings described for Sichuanese Wontons in Chilli Oil Sauce (tap
here
) to dress the boiled dumplings. This variation is shown in the photograph opposite. Frankly, it’s irresistible. This snack is the speciality of the Zhong Boiled Dumplings restaurant (
zhong shui jiao
) in Chengdu, which is named after a late 19th-century street vendor called Zhong Xiesen. I used to pass this restaurant every day on my way to and from cooking school and would often have to stop for a bowl of spicy dumplings.

Sour-and-hot boiled dumplings
Serve the dumplings in a bowl of stock seasoned to taste with salt, soy sauce, Chinese brown vinegar and chilli oil. Scatter with chopped cilantro and/or finely sliced spring onion greens.

TO MAKE NORTHERN-STYLE WRAPPERS

Put 2⅓ cups (300g) all-purpose flour on to a work surface and make a well in the center. Pour in about ⅔ cup (180ml) cold water and draw in the flour to make a stiff but pliable dough. Knead for several minutes until smooth and elastic, then cover with a damp tea towel and leave to rest for about 30 minutes. On a lightly floured board, roll the dough into a couple of sausages ¾–1 in (2–2½cm) in diameter.

Use a knife to cut the dough into 1 in (2cm) pieces, giving the sausage a half roll between cuts (to stop it from getting flatter with each cut).

Lay each piece cut end-up on the board and flatten with your palm, to make convex discs.

Roll the discs into flat wrappers about 3 in (7cm) in diameter. The best way to do this (for someone right-handed) is to cradle the far edge of a disc in the fingers of your left hand while you roll from near edge into the center, turning the disc between rolling movements. You will end up with a slightly curved disc that is thinner at the edges than in the center. Lay the wrappers on a board.

TO FORM THE DUMPLINGS

Use a table knife or a bamboo spatula to press about 1 tbsp of the filling into the center of the wrapper. Dip a finger into cold water and run it along the upper edge of the wrapper.

Bring the opposite edges of the wrapper towards each other.If you are right-handed, lay the dumpling in your left hand. Pinch the wrapper together at the right end, then use the fingers of both hands to pleat the far edge of the wrapper against the near edge, pressing the two edges firmly together after each pleat. The easiest way to learn to do this is to ask a willing Chinese friend to show you how.

For a simpler method, without pleating, simply squeeze the opposite edges together around the plumpness of the filling.

Lay the dumplings on a flour-dusted plate or tray.

FRESH SPRING ROLLS
CHUN JUAN
春捲

It was April and my first day back in Chengdu for more than a year. My friends Yu Bo and Dai Shuang invited me for supper and, because of the season, they said I really had to eat spring rolls. “Spring rolls,” as eaten in Sichuan and many other parts of China, are nothing like the golden, deep-fried rolls found on almost every Chinese restaurant menu in the West. Lighter, healthier and altogether more pleasing, they consist of pale wheaten pancakes traditionally served with a salad of slivered spring vegetables and wrapped up at the dinner table. In Sichuan, the vegetables are often given a feisty mustard oil dressing, and other dishes, hot or cold, may be served as additional fillings.