While Americans are feasting on turkey (火鸡 – huǒ jī) this weekend, you won’t find a “fire chicken” on Chinese tables for any holidays. One of the most popular dishes to make for the Chinese Spring Festival is dumplings (饺子 – jiǎo zi), especially in the northern part of the country. My love for dumplings is well-known – I even wrote a love letter to them on here. In case you ever wanted to try your hand at making dumplings while learning some useful Chinese in the process, here’s a recipe for the tasty little morsels, in both Chinese and English:

 

成份

生面团

1杯通用面粉

三分之一杯水/ 菠菜或胡萝卜汁

 

馅

青菜

50克冬粉

一块切好熟了的豆腐

2个切好的胡萝卜

100克切好的蘑菇

10克黑木耳

1个煎鸡蛋

 

肉

200克切好的韭黄

100克切碎的猪肉

 

调料

2茶匙盐

4茶匙辣椒油

1茶匙切好的葱

1茶匙切好的姜

2茶匙料酒

 

食谱

饺子皮

1. 拿一个大腕，慢慢往面粉里加水，然后搅拌成生面团
2. 根据情况加水和面粉
3. 把生面粉揉捏成光滑的小球状
4. 然后盖起来放置20分钟
5. 把面粉团均匀的切成两半
6. 然后把每一半都捏成小圆柱形状，最多直径1英尺长
7. 把每一个都均匀的切成一片片，如果有必要可以加面团
8. 把每一片都碾成3到5英寸大小的圆形

馅

蔬菜

1. 把馅料放进一个碗中
2. 加上辣椒油，盐，葱，姜一起调好味
3. 用筷子朝一个方向搅拌直到混合均匀

 

肉

拿一个碗，把肉和料酒，辣椒油，盐混合起来。最后加上韭黄一起搅拌好。

 

Ingredients

Dough

1 cup of all purpose flour

1/3 cup of water/spinach or carrot juice

 

Filling

Vegetarian

50g vermicelli

1 block tofu, finely chopped and cooked

2 carrots, finely chopped

100g finely chopped mushrooms

10g black wood ear mushrooms

1 fried egg

 

Meat     

200g finely chopped chives

100g minced pork

 

Dressing   

2 teaspoons of salt

4 teaspoons of pepper oil

1 teaspoon of finely chopped spring onion

1 teaspoon finely chopped ginger

2 teaspoon of cooking wine

 

Recipe  

Dumpling Wraps   

1. In a large bowl, slowly add the water to the flour. Stir to mix until it forms dough.
2. Adjust the amount of water or flour as necessary.
3. Knead the dough into a smooth ball.
4. Cover and let sit for 20 minutes.
5. Separate into two equal sections.
6. Shape each section into a cylinder, approximately 1 inch in diameter.
7. Cut each section into equal pieces, scoring the dough if necessary.
8. Roll out each piece into a 3-3 ½ inch circle.

 

Filling

Vegetarian

1. Mix filling in a mixing bowl.
2. Season with pepper oil, salt, spring onion, and ginger.
3. Stir with chopsticks in one direction until the ingredients are well mixed.

 

Meat

In a mixing bowl, mix the pork with cooking wine, pepper oil, and salt. Stir in chives at the end.

 

Thanks to The Hutong in Beijing for the recipe! If you’re ever in Beijing, you can drop by and take a cooking class to ensure you perfect the art of dumpling making. Here’s a video of a dumpling class I took there a few years back.