The August 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by LizG of Bits n’ Bites and Anula of Anula’s Kitchen. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make pierogi from scratch and an optional challenge to provide one filling that best represents their locale.
The challenge is to make the dough from scratch and a savory or sweet filling of our choice. Well, but what is a Pierogi? Being Chinese, I think it is dumpling/wonton (steamed, boiled, fried, souped) or growing up in Paraguay, it must be Empanadas (baked or fried) ^-^
During the past month, I've ate lots of empanadas but have not made any myself, truth be told, I love it fried but can't stand the oily-odor that is created when something is fried. So here's my Chinese dumpling.
Dough Ingredients:
500g of high protein flour
1 cup of water
1 tsp of veg. oil
Knead for 10 min. Place in bowl, cover with wet towel or plastic wrap, let sit for 30min~1hr in cool area (my mom likes to put it in the fridge).
Meat filling Ingredients:
500g grind meat (beef of atleast 5% fat)
1/2 cup cold water
1 cup green onion chopped
2 tbsp minced ginger
3 tbsp soysauce ( or more if you like it saltier)
1 tbsp sesame oil
1/2 tbsp grind black pepper
Mix all the ingredients together EXCEPT the water and beat in water little by little until it is all absorbed by the meat (takes around 1min with my Kitchen-Aid).
Or if you like it more typical Chinese will be pork with cabbage:
Pork filling Ingredients:
500g grind pork (usually pork front shoulder)
3 cup finely chopped up cabbage (great if you have food processor, but don't grind it too thin! 0.5cm~1cm is good).
1/3 cup cold water
1/2 cup green onion chopped
2 tbsp minced ginger
2 tbsp soysauce ( or more if you like it saltier)
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tsp grind white pepper
1/2 tbsp salt
1. Mix the cabbage with salt. Toss and press, discard the water that comes out of the cabbage until the cabbage dehydrates to 2 1/2 cup or less. 2. Mix all the ingredients together (EXCEPT the cabbage) and beat for 1 min until bouncy and smooth.
3. Mix in cabbage.
* That's my mom!!! ^-^
Once you have everything ready, it is time to make the "skin" (pasta shell). I will be VERY detailed as it is crucial to have a thick center and thin outer shell instead of making a large flat dough and cut them up with circular molds, NO NO NO.
Shell:
1. Cut 1/2 of the dough and leave the rest covered up.
2. Knead the dough in to a thin long strip (4cm diameter).
3. Cut the strip in pieces 3 cm wide. You may want to roll-rotate the dough 90 degrees after each cut so the pieces won't be flattened.
4. Spread loose flour over and under the doughs so that they don't stick.
5. Slightly shape the dough so that they have 2 flat sides (what you've cut) and a circular shape outside.
6. Flatten each dough with your palm, they should now be a flat circular dough of around 1.5cm thick.
7. Lightly hold one side of the dough using your left hand's thumb and index finger. Rotate the dough in one direction WHILE rolling the opposite side of the dough with a rolling pin with your right hand.
8. You should now have a shell with a thicker center (0.6cm) and thin outer circumference (0.2cm).
9. Repeat and repeat. Do the samething with the other 1/2 large piece of dough if you are fast, if not, put in the fillings and cover up with plastic wrap cus once the dough dries up it will not seal nicely.
Here's one with 1/2 a shrimp
Boiled dumplings:
1. Place dumplings in boiling water ( the water should be twice the dumpling's height). Gently stir the dumpling while putting them in so that they won't stick to the bottom or with each other.
2. Cover up the pot until the water re-boils with medium heat.
3. Add 1 cup of water and wait for the water to boil again.
4. Repeat until 3 cups of waters in total were added.
5. Check if the dumplings are floating on the boiling water and inflated, if yes, then they are ready to be served! ^-^
Crispy pan fried dumplings is my favorite but it's a bit higher in calories:
Ingredients:
1 tbsp veg. oil
water to cover up dumplings
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tsp corn starch
1. Heat fry pan (not too shallow) with 1 tbsp veg. oil.
2. Place in dumplings (1 layer only) right next to each other with the sealing side up.
3. Fry in high heat for 30sec.
4. Add in enough water mixed with 1tsp corn starch to almost covering up the dumplings.
5. Cover up the pan as it boils in medium heat. Large water bubbles should appear in between dumplings (usually takes around 15min).
6. Take off the over, add 1 tbsp sesame oil and cook until the waters are dried out and only oil is left.
7. DO NOT move the dumplings EVER once you put them in the pan. With the cornstarch and some of the loose flours on the dumplings, they should kindda stick to each other after fried.
8. You will know it is dry enough when you shake the pan and the dumplings all move at once (together) or you may check under the dumplings to see if they are golden.
9. Place the dish on top of the pan and turn it upside down. You should get a round dish of golden dumplings! ^-^
Dumpling Sauce dip:
1 tbsp minced fresh garlic
1 tbsp vinegar
1/2 tsp sesame oil
2 tbsp soy sauce
Mix and use as a dip, do not pour all over the dumplings! You may add a bit of hot pepper if you like it more spicy.
These raw dumplings freeze well. Just put them in the freezer in a pan or dish covered up with plastic wrap. Once they are frozen, I usually just zip lock them.
The ones at the left are made by Mumu, very cautiously sealed, and the ones at the right are by me! I use the arc between my thumb and index finger of both hands as the Pierogi form and press them seal.
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