Egg Dumplings

Egg Dumpling is often used in the Hot Pot, which is a very popular dish in Chinese cuisine. Normally Hot Pot is being cooked (with a portable stove on the table) while it’s being served. This is a big pot of soup with various ingredients to be added in, to be cooked and eaten right away. Thin slices of meat (beef, pork, lamb or chicken), dumplings, seafood, tofu, fish ball, tempura fish cake, mushroom, turnip, cauliflower, spinach, Chinese cabbage, bean noodle and etc., can all be used in the Hot Pot. My family prefer light and clear soup base with very minimal meat and lots of various vegetables in it. Egg dumpling not only provides very little meat in it, but it also serves very interesting shape, texture and color in this dish. It has become one of the favorite elements in the Hot Pot for our family.

Ingredients (16 pieces):
1. 150 g ground pork
2. 1 tablespoon minced ginger
3. 1/2 teaspoon salt
4. 1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
5. 1 tablespoon cornstarch
6. 1 tablespoon wine
7. 3 tablespoons water
8. 4 eggs + 1 tablespoon wet cornstarch (cornstarch : water ratio 1:2)

Preparations:
1. Mix ingredients item 1 through 6, gradually add water into the ground pork and mix well to make sure the liquid is completely absorbed and the ground pork has become soft and sticky.
2. Whip eggs in a mixing bowl and add wet cornstarch, mix well.
3. Heat up 1 tablespoon oil in wok at medium high heat, and turn to low heat, add one tablespoonful of egg mixture into wok, tilt the wok and let the egg mixture spread out to form a thin wrapper for meat. When the bottom of the egg wrapper has become solid, add one teaspoonful of ground pork to one side of the wrapper. With the help of a pair of chopsticks or spatula, fold the egg wrapper to form a half -circle shaped dumpling. Cook until both sides have turned light golden brown, remove from wok. Repeat the process of making dumplings until all egg mixture and ground pork have been used (Tip 1).

4. When cooking Hot Pot, do not add in egg dumplings until all other ingredients almost cooked and the soup is boiling. Place the egg dumplings on the very top of the Hot Pot. It only needs to be cooked for few minutes and it’s ready to serve. Uncooked egg dumplings can be placed in plastic bag and stored in freezer. It can be moved from freezer directly to Hot Pot when needed.

Tip 1: One tablespoon oil can make about 3 egg dumplings. Add more oil when needed.

Pan-fried Dumplings

Pan fried dumplings (guotie) also known as "potstickers" in N. America, (鍋貼; guotie), also referred to as "dry-fried dumplings" (煎餃;  jianjiao)

Common dumpling meat fillings include pork, beef, chicken, fish, and shrimp which are usually mixed with chopped vegetables. Popular vegetable fillings include cabbage, scallion (spring onions), flowering garlic chives, and Chinese chives. Dumplings are eaten with a soy sauce-based dipping sauce that may include vinegar, garlic, ginger, rice wine, hot sauce, and sesame oil.  This time I had the dipping sauce that includes soy sauce, apple cider vinegar and sesame oil.  It tastes very good.  Another essential feature of good pan-fried dumplings it to have thin and crispy bottom crust.

Ingredients:

1. 300 g ground pork

2. 1-1/2 cups finely chopped flowering garlic chives

 
3. 3 cups finely chopped Napa cabbage
4. 2 tablespoons minced ginger
5. 1 egg
6. 2 teaspoons Less Sodium Soy Sauce
7. 1 tablespoon wine
8. 1/3 teaspoon salt
9. 2 tablespoons sesame oil
10. 2 tablespoons cornstarch
11. 1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
12. 1/2 cup chicken broth (or cold water）
13. 50 Dumpling wrappers (approx.)
14. Flour/water mixture for pan-frying: 1-1/2 cup water + 1-1/2 tablespoon all-purpose flour


Directions:
1. Add 1 teaspoon salt to the chopped Napa Cabbage and mix with hands, let sit for 20 minutes, This will make most of liquid in the vegetable to come out.
2. In a mixing bowl, mix ground pork and ingredients item 4 through item 11 with a wooden spoon. Gradually add in chicken broth, stir energetically after each adding until all chicken broth has been added and mixed well with ground pork. Now, the ground pork will become moisture, soft and sticky.

3. Add Chinese Leek Flower to ground pork. Squeeze off juice from Napa Cabbage and add the cabbage to ground pork. Mix well ground pork, Chinese Leek Flower and Napa Cabbage to make the filling for dumplings.

4. Prepare a cup of water for wrapping dumplings. Place 1 tablespoonful of filling in the middle of a dumpling wrapper, moisten the edge of the wrapper with water, fold wrapper in half, press top and bottom edges together, and leave left and right sides slightly open, gently press down the dumpling while pressing the top edge to make the filling evenly distributed at the bottom. Set aside the wrapped dumplings on a tray dusted with flour or lined with baking paper.

5. In a non-stick skillet, heat up 3 to 5 tablespoons oil (Oil usage is depending on how big the skillet is and how many dumplings are to be cooked in each batch) to medium high. Place dumplings side by side lined up in skillet, lower the heat to medium and fry for one to two minutes (no stirring). Pour the flour/water mixture into the skillet and fill up to 1/3 of the dumpling’s height, cover with lid and lower heat to medium low, cook about 6 to 7 minutes, or until the liquid in the skillet is almost dry out. Open the lid, continue to cook with low heat, cook until the bottom is turning golden brown and liquid is all dry out. Remove dumplings with spatula or just cover with a plate and flip the skillet over to let the fried dumplings drop in the plate (Tip 1).

Tip 1: Do not stir or flip over dumplings during the whole process of cooking.

Spring Roll with Beancurd Wrapper

This is one of the favorite dishes of my family. It seems to be complicate in preparing, but each step is simple.  This dish always rewards me with lots of compliments from its great taste.

Fresh beancurd wrapper (fresh beancurd sheet) used in this dish is normally sold at the oriental supermarkets in their freezer section.  It contains 4 or 5 sheets each package.  Before cooking, just take out from freezer and let sit in room temperature for about 15 minutes, and then it becomes soft and workable.  Each sheet can be opened up to a circle about 65 cm in diameter.  Cut each sheet into smaller sheets as the figure shown below.  Place filling on each small sheet and roll up just like regular spring roll.  If the beancurd wrapper shows cracks or holes, just add another sheet and wrap up both sheets at the same time, this won’t affect the taste at all.  Use a damp paper towel or damp cloth to cover un-used sheets or wrapped rolls to prevent the wrappers become stiff.  Place un-used small sheets or original sheets in a freezer-safe storage bag and store in the freezer.

Ingredients:
1.  150 g ground pork
2. 1 egg
3. 1 tablespoon minced ginger
4. 1~2 green onions, chopped
5. 2 teaspoon light soy sauce
6. 1/3 teaspoon salt
7. 1 teaspoon wine
8. 1 teaspoon sesame oil
9. 1 tablespoon cornstarch
10. Ground pepper
11. ½ piece cased tofu (200 g)
12. 12 small sheets beancurd wrapper
13. cilantro

Seasonings for Gravy Sauce:
1. 3/4 cup chicken broth or water
2. 1 tablespoon vegetarian mushroom oyster oil
3. 1 teaspoon sugar
4. dash of salt
5. 1 tablespoon wet cornstarch (mixing with water ratio 1:2)
6. 1 teaspoon sesame oil

Directions:
1. Put ingredients item 1 through item 10 in a mixing bowl, stir and mix well. Press tofu into fine pieces and mix well with ground pork to make the filling.
2. Cut the fresh beancurd wrapper into smaller pieces. Place a tablespoonful of filling on the pre-cut wrapper, roll and wrap it up like a spring roll. Seal the end opening with wet cornstarch and place in plate with the sealing facing down.
3. Heat up 3 tablespoons oil in a non-stick pan to medium high.  Place spring rolls into the pan with the end opening facing down, pan fry each side for about 1 to 2 minutes or until golden brown on both sides.  Place the fried spring rolls in a deep dish.

4. Steam the pan-fried spring rolls at medium high for about 20 minutes (or steam with rice cooker).
5. Before serving, heat the pan to medium high, bring chicken broth (or water) to boil, add oyster oil, sugar and dash salt. When it's boiling again, pour in wet cornstarch to make the gravy sauce, add sesame oil, mix well, remove and pour over on steamed spring rolls.  Serve with chopped cilantro.

Note: I made 12 rolls with these ingredients and separate them in two dishes.  Do not steam the second plate if it’s to be served later or the following day.  Cover with plastic wrap and store in refrigerator.  Only steam it before serving and cook another gravy sauce.  If total quantity is to be served at one time, the seasonings for gravy sauce needs to be adjusted accordingly.

Stir-fry Shrimp with Rice Stick Noodle

Though I call this dish “Stir-fry Shrimp with Rice Stick Noodle”, since it’s a quick and easy one dish meal, I add many colorful vegetables and egg to enhance the taste and make it not only healthy but even more interesting.  Soy sauce is not used in this dish, which people normally use dark sauce in stir-frying rice noodle, instead, I use ketchup and sugar to make it taste sweet and sour.  It just looks so appealing and tastes so refreshing.

Ingredients（for 2 servings）:
1. 6 extra jumbo shrimps, shelled and deveined
2. 2 eggs, lightly beaten
3. 1 cup onion strings
4. 1 cup snow peas，both ends removed
5. 3/4 cup carrot slices
6. 2 cup Napa cabbage in 1.5 cm wide strips
7. 2 green onions cut in sections
8. 225 g（8 oz.) rice noodle（also named rice stick）
  

Sauce Seasonings:
1. 1 cup chicken broth
2. 2 tablespoons ketchup
3. 1-1/5 tablespoons sugar
4. salt
5. ground pepper

Directions:
1. Clean the shrimps and cut in half from the back, marinate with dash of salt and wine.
2. Lightly beat eggs, stir-fry in the pan with 2 tablespoons hot oil to make scrambled egg.  Cut in small pieces with spatula and remove.
3. Soak rice noodle in boiling water for 5 minutes (or when it’s just turn soft), drain, rinse with cold water, and set aside.
4. Stir-fry shrimp with 2 tablespoons hot oil, remove when the color changed.
5. Heat up 3 tablespoons oil to medium high, in the sequence to add in onion, then carrot and stir-fry briefly.  Add Napa cabbage, stir-fry until it turns slightly soft.  Add all sauce seasonings, snow pea, green onion and shrimp, cook until boiling, add rice noodle and scrambled egg, mix well and serve.

Fried Pork Chop with Dipping Sauce

This is one of my family’s favorite recipes.  With right preparation and a good dipping sauce, the pan-fried pork chop tastes very appetizing.

Pan-Fried Pork Chop Ingredients:
1. 2 pork chops（with or without bone）
2. ½ cup sweet potato flour
3. 6 tablespoons oil for frying

Marinade for pork chop：
1. 1/4 cup soy sauce
2. 1 tablespoon sugar
3. 1 tablespoon wine
4. 3 gloves garlic, chopped
5. dash of ground pepper
6. dash of salt

Dipping Sauce：
1. 3 tablespoons soy sauce
2. 2 tablespoons black vinegar
3. 2 teaspoons sugar
4. 1 teaspoon sesame oil
5. dash of ground pepper
6. 3 gloves garlic, minced
7. 1 small red chili pepper, sectioned (optional)

Directions：
1. Tenderize pork with a meat mallet.
2.  Mix marinade seasonings, then marinate pork for at least 30 minutes.
3. Heat 6 tablespoons frying oil (or just enough oil to reach half thickness of the pork chop) to medium high.  Place sweet potato flour in a shallow dish.  Coat pork chop both sides with sweet potato flour, then pan-fry pork chop until golden brown on both sides; remove.

4. Place the fried pork chop on paper towel to absorb excess oil.  Let cool for 10 minutes, cut pork chop in 1.5 cm wide strips.

5. Mix dipping sauce seasonings, pour over the fried pork chop and serve.

With the sweet potato flour coating, it gives pork chop little crunchiness outside, but tenderness inside.  The dipping sauce makes the fried pork chop taste even more flavorful.

No Knead Bread - Cranberry Walnut Wheat Bread

Kneading dough is a labor-intense task that doesn't always guarantee 100% satisfactory results.  When I first discovered the no knead bread making method, it was such a great surprise to me.


I was skeptical at first, but this recipe has never failed to produce delicious results.  All you need is a casserole dish and the following ingredients:

1.      330 g bread flour

2.      60 g whole wheat flour

3.      ¼ teaspoon salt

4.      1 teaspoon Active Dry Yeast

5.      10 sugar

6.      330 g ice-cold water

7.      30 g dried cranberry

8.      60 g chopped walnuts

Directions:
1. Combine the bread flour, wheat flour, salt, yeast, and sugar in a mixing bowl.  Add in water and mix with hand or a dough whisk.  Very wet dough is formed when dry ingredients are completely incorporated with water.
2. Add dried cranberry and chopped walnut, and fold in with a rubber spatula.
3. Cover the mixing bowl with a plastic bag and seal the opening.  Let it sit in room temperature for 12-16 hours (no more than 20 hours).  At the end of the rising period, the dough is filled with big bubbles and great sweet fragrance.
4. Transfer the dough onto a well-floured surface, dust some more bread flour on the dough, pat the dough or roll with a rolling pin to make flat oblong dough (about 1 cm thick).
5. Fold the dough at one-third to center from both sides of the long end, and fold it in half, dust some more whole wheat flour on the dough, cover loosely with a saran wrap and let it rest for 15 minutes.
6. Shape the dough into a round dough and transfer to a well floured (whole wheat flour) cloth (or into a well floured mixing bowl).  Cover with towel and let rise about 1-1/2 hours.
7. When the dough has risen for 1 hour, preheat oven with covered casserole dish in it to Fahrenheit 430 degrees.
8. Transfer the risen dough into the casserole dish, and bake with lid covered for 30 minutes.
9. Remove cover; bake for another 8-10 minutes.
10. Let cool completely on rack.

The bread comes out with crispy crust, soft and tasty inside.  I love it and plan to make more.




Reference - No Knead Bread Making: Breadtopia

Deep-fried Mixed Vegetables

It was in Indonesia when I had this dish for the first time. That was many years ago, my husband had a job assignment in Indonesia and our daughter was only few months old, we resided there for less than a year. We had very nice easy life there with housemaid and chauffeur.

One day our maid made this dish, my husband and I both liked it very much.  The maid told us it was called “goreng sayuran” in Indonesian, it means “deep-fried vegetables” in English.  This is a very common fast food sold at local street vendors.  Normally Indonesian they like to dip with hot chili sauce that was made with various chili peppers.  For us, we like it simply dip in soy sauce with chopped garlic.  This is the best dish I’ve learned in Indonesia though, one because the ingredients needed are very common, secondly, our whole family all love it.  Until now, every time I made this dish, it reminds us of our Indonesian maid, a lively and courteous young woman with very dark skin.

Normally, I like to use carrot (red), potato (yellow), green bean (green) and onion (white) these various vegetables with different colors.  Have them all cut or shredded into strings at about the same size.  These will not only look colorful, have the same texture, and they all get cooked in about the same time.  Sweet potato can also be used to substitute carrot (orange flesh) or potato (white flesh).


Ingredients:
1. 2 cups shredded carrot
2. 2 cups shredded potato 
3. 1 cup green beans, cut in 1.5” long sections
4. 1-1/2 cups onion strings
5. ¾ cup flour (all-purpose flour or cake flour)
6. ¾ cup ice-cold water
7. ½ teaspoon baking powder
8. 1 tablespoon oil
9. Frying oil

Seasonings:
Dash of salt and ground pepper

Dipping sauce:
2 tablespoons soy sauce, 1 tablespoon chopped garlic

Directions:
1. Have all vegetables cut and shredded, mixed in a big bowl (soak shredded potato in cold water for about 30 seconds, drain and pat dried with paper towel before mixing with other vegetables, this will prevent it turns brown before cooking)。
2. Lightly mix ingredients item 5 through 8 to make batter in a small mixing bowl (stop mixing as long as there’s no big lumps).

3. Heat the frying oil to very high, and then lower to medium high.  Add dash of salt and ground pepper in mixed vegetables and mix them well (don’t add too much salt and don’t add it too early, this will prevent too much liquid coming out of vegetables).  Add half of flour batter into the big bowl of vegetables, mix well with a big spoon, make sure every piece of vegetable is coating with flour batter.  A little more can be added until every piece of vegetable is coating with a thin layer of flour batter.  Pick up some batch mixed vegetables with a shallow cooking spoon (about ¾ full, don’t pick up too much batter, Tip 1).  Slowly let the vegetables slide into the oil against the siding of wok with a little pushing by chopsticks, hold the batch with chopsticks for several seconds until the vegetable is being set and formed.  Push the small batch away from siding of wok when one side is turning golden brown, flip side and continue frying (about 1-2 minutes each side). Remove, drain oil, dry excess oil on paper towel.  Do the same for all vegetables, little batch after little batch.
4. Best to serve with dipping sauce while it's warm.

Tip 1: Every small batch of vegetables should weave and stick together consisting of various colors.  Do not fry with too much batter in each spoonful that will form a thick cake at bottom and won’t get the crispy taste.

(pieces on the right are the bottom look with minimum batter)

Fried Bun with Sesame and Green Onion

This is an easy making bun which requires limited ingredients and simple procedures to follow, almost impossible to fail.  This bun is pan-fried with some oil at medium low heat, so the outside of the bun tastes crispy.  However, the inside of the bun is slowly cooked though during that time (like baking procedure), it tastes soft and fluffy. With sesame and green onion in every bite, it comes with unbelievable fragrance and flavor.  You can have it go with a meal, eat as a snack or as breakfast.

 
Dough Ingredients:
1. 600 g all-purpose flour
2. 315 g milk
3. 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
4. 2 tablespoons sugar
5. 1 teaspoon salt
6. 2 teaspoons Active Dry Yeast
7. 1 cup white sesame


Bun filling ingredients:
1. 3 cups chopped green onions
2. 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3. 1 teaspoon salt
4. ½ teaspoon ground pepper


Directions:
1. Have all dough ingredients (Tip 1, except white sesame) mixed in the mixing bowl, mix them well and knead into a round and smooth dough (or using Stand Mixer dough hook to knead for about 15 minutes).  Leave the dough in the mixing bowl covered with a damp cloth, and let it raise for 30 minutes.


2. Mix all filling ingredients in a small mixing bowl.

3. Cut the dough into small pieces, about 65 g to 70 g each. With a rolling pin, roll out the smaller dough to a oblong flat dough (about 6”x 7”), place one tablespoon green onion filling at one-third of the long side near your body (crossing the short side), brush the dough surface with some of the filling juice  (leave the edge dry), start wrapping up the filling and rolling the dough from your body toward outside.  Round the wrapped dough into a snail-like shape or gently tuck one end under another one.  Place the snail-like dough on a surface generously dusted with flour or lined with parchment paper to raise for 30 minutes.

4. Heat up 2 tablespoons oil to medium low temperature in a frying pan.  Place white sesame in a plate, pick up the raised dough while holding both ends together, dip in the sesame to have both sides covered with sesame, then place it in the frying pan.  Fried until one side is turning golden brown, flip over to another side and continue frying at medium low.  When second side is turning golden brown, gently press the bun with a spatula to see if the inside is still soft.  If both sides are brown but the inside is still not firm enough, lower the heat to let it stay in pan for another few minutes to make sure the dough inside is thoroughly cooked. You can also pick up the bun with a pair of tongs and roll the bun vertically at bottom of the pan to have siding slightly browned as well.  Remove and place it on a paper towel to absorb the excess oil.  Do 3 or 4 buns each batch, add oil if needed.

See the layers inside the bun!

Tip 1: Keep 20-30 g milk and add in gradually while kneading.  Various brands of flour may need different quantity of liquid.  Adjust flour and milk quantities until you can have a soft and smooth dough.

Udon Stir-fried with Shrimp and Mixed Vegetables

This is a quick and easy meal and you can take this opportunity to clean up all the small quantities of vegetables in your refrigerator.  Have some meat or shrimp.  Find some vegetable in various colors.  Always keep some individually packed Udon (Japanese style thick noodle) in stock.  You can have this meal done in 30 minutes.

Ingredients (for 2 servings):

1. Udon 2 servings, with soup base packet
2. 6 jumbo shrimp
3. 2 eggs, slightly beaten
4. 1 carrot
5. 1/3 yellow onion
6. handful of snap beans
7. 3 brown mushrooms
8. green leafy vegetable (small Chinese cabbage, bok choy, cabbage or napa cabbage)
9. 4 slices Kamaboko (Steamed Surimi Seafood)
10. 3/4 cup chicken broth

Seasoning:

Salt, pepper and wine

Directions:

1. Have shrimps peeled and deveined, sliced in half from the back, marinated with dash of salt and 2 tablespoons wine.  Cut Kamaboko slices in half.  Peel and slice carrot. Slice yellow onion.  Remove both ends of snap beans and cut in 1.5 in. sections.  Remove stem of mushrooms and slice them.  Wash leafy vegetable and cut in 1.5 in. sections.
2. Heat 1 tablespoon oil, drop beaten eggs, stir-fry to make scrambled egg, cut in smaller pieces with spatula and remove.
3. Heat 2 tablespoons oil, add shrimp, stir-fry until cooked and remove.
4. Heat 2 tablespoons oil, stir-fry briefly onion, carrot, snap bean, add chicken broth, one packet of soup base, brown mushrooms, leafy vegetable, shrimp, Kamaboko, udon noodle, season with salt and pepper, cook until udon is getting soft and loosened.  Add scrambled egg pieces, mix well, remove and serve.

Tofu Ball with Ground Pork and Mushroom

Ground meat is mainly used when we make meat ball. I called these tofu balls because tofu is used as primary ingredient and ground pork is acting as a secondary one. In addition to tofu and ground pork, some finely chopped Enoki mushroom and chopped dried mushroom were used to give it more taste and texture. The ground pork takes up only about one-third of the total weight. This is a great and healthy way to cut down meat consumption.

Ingredients:
1. 1 case medium firm tofu
2. 150 g ground pork
3. 120 g Enoki mushroom
4. 2 dried mushrooms
5. 8 heads Green Baby Bok Choy (or 4 heads regular Bok Choy, quartered vertically through the head)

Seasoning A : 3 tablespoons cornstarch, 1 teaspoon salt, ground pepper
Seasoning B : 2 tablespoons Oyster Sauce, ½ tablespoon sugar, ½ cup water, ½ tablespoon wet cornstarch (mixed with 2 tablespoons water)

Directions:
1. Remove the root of Enoki mushroom, drop Enoki in boiling water for few seconds, remove, drain and rinse it in cold water, squeeze off excess water and chop it in fine pieces. Soak dried mushroom in warm water, remove the stem when it becomes soft, chop mushroom in fine pieces. Press and cut tofu in fine pieces with a spoon (or press it through a strainer). Chop ground pork to make it even finer. Mix all ingredients in a bowl.

2. Add everything in Seasoning A in tofu mixture, mix well. Heat up oil in a deep fry pan to high temperature (a tiny drop of tofu in the oil will sizzle right away), then lower to medium high. Place a tablespoonful of tofu mixture in one palm, shape it with a tablespoon and form an egg shape ball, drop the ball in the hot oil gently. Do the same with the rest tofu mixture (several ones in each batch). Deep-fry these balls until they turn golden brown, and float at surface. (Tip 1)

3. Boil Green Baby Bok Choy in boiling water for 30 seconds (Tip 2), remove, drain and rinse in cold water. Heat up 2 tablespoons oil in wok, stir-fry Bok Choy briefly, remove and arrange it at outer rim of a big plate.

4. Boil Seasoning B in wok, lower to medium low flame, add tofu balls in the gravy sauce, mix well, remove and place in the plate surrounded by Bok Choy.

Tip 1: It might stick at bottom of pan when it was just dropped into the oil. Don’t move it until it turns slightly brown.
Tip 2: Add ½ teaspoon salt into the boiling water will help keeping the green of the vegetable.