I’m a huge fan of dumplings and potstickers, lovely little bundles of flavoursome goodness that they are. They’re relatively easy to make, especially since your local chinese grocery store will stock the skins and this means you don’t have to roll out 50-odd round little skins yourself. My local stocks a wide variety of different kinds of skins – I’m not a huge fan of wonton wrappers, preferring to use gyoza wrappers or gowgee wrappers. Stick to the gowgee wrappers if you find the gyoza wrappers are a bit too thick for you.
Pork Dumplings
(makes about 40)
500g minced pork
1/2 cabbage, roughly chopped
1-2 medium carrot, grated
2-3 spring onions, finely chopped
1 small bunch garlic chives (also referred to as chinese chives), chopped into 1cm lengths
1 tsp sesame oil
4 cloves minced garlic
4 tbsp soy sauce
4 tbsp mirin
1 egg white, lightly beaten
1. boil cabbage till it is only slightly soft, then quickly refresh under cold, running water, and squeeze out as much water as possible
2. mix together all the ingredients (except egg white)
3. put teaspoons of the mixture into the centre of each skin, moisten the edges with a lightly beaten egg white, fold in half and create a half moon shape. Press down the edges to form a neat cresent
4. to cook – steam them first, let them dry till the skins are no longer too sticky, then lightly fry them in vegetable oil to crisp up the skins and give a bit of texture
Vegetable dumplings
(makes about 30)
250g canned water chestnuts
50g cabbage
1/2 cup button mushrooms, chopped and sauteed
1 small carrot
1 celery stick
1/2 onion
25g cornflour
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1 pinch of pepper
1. process water chestnuts, cabbage, carrot, onion and celery in a food processor till chopped (do NOT over-process or mixture will liquefy)
2. tip mixture onto a clean tea towel and gently squeeze the mixture to remove moisture
3. tip the mixture into a large bowl and stir in cornflour, soy sauce, sesame oil, salt, sugar and pepper
4. put teaspoons of the mixture into the centre of each skin, moisten the edges with a lightly beaten egg white, fold in half and create a half moon shape. Press down the edges to form a neat cresent
5. to cook – steam them first, let them dry till the skins are no longer too sticky, then lightly fry them in vegetable oil to crisp up the skins and give a bit of texture
Traditional Korean Mandu
(makes about 50)
300g firm tofu
250g kimchi, minced and with extra moisture squeezed out*
375g beef mince
2-3 spring onions, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp sesame oil
salt and pepper to taste
1. wrap tofu in a clean tea towel and squeeze out moisture, then crumble into a mixing bowl
2. add the minced and drained kimchi to the mixing bowl
3. put teaspoons of the mixture into the centre of each skin, moisten the edges with a lightly beaten egg white, fold in half and create a half moon shape. Press down the edges to form a neat cresent
4. to cook – steam them first, let them dry till the skins are no longer too sticky, then lightly fry them in vegetable oil to crisp up the skins and give a bit of texture
*Kimchi is a traditional korean side-dish which is a bit of a pain in the arse to make, and definetely not worth making just for this dish. You should be able to buy this from any korean grocery store, or by pleading very nicely to the owners at any korean restaurant.
Dipping Sauces
There is a wide variety of dipping sauces out there for potstickers, but I usually serve mine with an extremely simple soy-and-vinegar as it’s quick and easy to mix up just before serving.
Soy and vinegar dipping sauce
3 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp finely chopped spring onion
1/4 tsp chilli powder
mix all together, pour into a cute little dish and serve with potstickers
When I feel like doing a little more preparation, I’m a fan of the gyoza sauce from the wagamama cookbook!
Wagamama’s gyoza sauce
1 large garlic clove, peeled and finely chopped
1 large red chilli, trimmed anf finely chopped
salt
25g sugar
100ml malt vinegar
250ml light soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
Mash garlic and chilli together with a tiny pinch of salt with the side of your knife to form a rough paste. Dissolve the sugar into the vinegar in a small pan over low heat. Combine everything and store in a sealed container till you’re ready to use it. Best made the day before you need it as the extra time gives the flavours time to come together and blend nicely.
Technorati Tags: dumplings, potstickers, gyoza, mince, vegetarian, dipping sauce
I went on a crazy baking binge tonight – it started at 9pm and ended at 3am. I made 2 carrot cakes, but the urge to bake continued to bite my fingers. 1 1/2 mud cakes later (2 miniature ones), and the baking bug was still tormenting me.
Then I remembered the kilo of apples sitting in the laundry, forlorn and forgotten and beginning their journey to floury status, and I decided to attempt an apple pie. I LOVE apple pie, but the few times that I’ve attempted it before, it’s gone pretty darn horribly
Tonight’s efforts, however, turned out pretty darn well!
Pastry
190g (1 1/4 cups) plain flour
190g (1 1/4 cups) self-raising flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp caster sugar
200g butter, chilled & cubed
1 egg, separated
80 ml (1/3 cup) iced water
Filling
110g (1/2 cup) caster sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1kg Granny Smith apples, peeled and sliced thinly
1 tbsp lemon juice
1. Brush pie plate with melted butter
2. To make pastry, sift together flour & salt. Stir in sugar. Use fingertips to rub in butter till the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Make a well in the centre, add beaten egg yolk and iced water, and mix to a dough with a round-bladed knife. Use your fingers to bring dough together, shape into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap and put into the fridge to rest for 30 mins.
3.Preheat oven to 190 degrees C. Remove dough from fridge and roll out 2/3 on lightly floured surface till roughly 5mm thick (put 1/3 away for the top of the pie). Brush pastry with beaten egg white. Line greased pie tin and trim excess pastry.
4. To make filling, mix sugar and cinnamon. Toss apples in lemon juice, arrange 1/2 apple slices over the pastry. Sprinkle with 1/2 the cinnamon sugar. Top with remaining apple and cinnamon sugar.
5. Roll out remaining pastry, place on pie and press edges together to seal. Trim any excess pastry and brush pie top with remaining whisked egg white. Decorate as desired and sprinkle a little castor sugar and cinnamon on top.
6. Cut slits into top to allow steam to escape. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 180 degrees C and bake for a further 30-35mins, or till apples are just cooked when tested with a skewer. Cover with foil during cooking if it starts to brown too much. Remove from oven and set aside for 10 minutes before serving.
THINGS I LEARNT:
1. It is a bad idea to lick boiling hot sugar mix from off the skewer.
2. DO NOT ROLL THE PASTRY OUT ANY THICKER THAN 5mm. It puffs out beautifully, but any thicker and it also dries out your mouth as you chew it.
3. Next time I make this, I’ll perhaps pre-cook the apples a little, as though the rest of the pie was beautifully done, the apples were a bit undercooked for my liking. Or hell, next time I could learn to leave it in the oven for longer…
4. Next time, to thicken the lovely sauce that happens from this, I’d add a 1/2 tbsp of corn starch, it should turn the apple, sugar and lemon into a lovely syrup. I know there are flour advocates, but I don’t know if I want to risk the taste of uncooked flour…
A delightfully easy carrot cake recipe that is moist, full of flavour and a guaranteed hit!
Carrot & Walnut Cake
Ingredients
200g (2 cups) self-raising flour
1 heaped cup of brown sugar
a couple of dashes of ground cinnamon and nutmeg, according to taste
2/3 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
2 1/2 medium carrots, grated*
120-150g roughly chopped walnuts
OPTIONAL – 2/3 cup sultanas, added at stage 7
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C and line a non-stick 18cm cake tin.
2. Sift together flour, sugar and spices in one bowl, and lightly beat together the eggs and oil in a separate bowl.
3. Toss the grated carrot and coarsely chopped walnuts through the flour (if you’re adding sultanas to the mix, do so at this stage), then add the oil and egg mixture and stir till combined.
4. Pour mix into the prepared cake tin and bake for 45 min – 1hr, or till a wooden skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out with a few moist crumbs clinging to it. Allow to cool in tin for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack. Serve at room temperature or warm with a mug of spiced tea 
* – to get lovely, long ribbons of carrot in the cake, DO NOT hold the grater vertically and shove your carrot up and down. That is a way to get horrible, MANGLED carrot bits. Hold the grater at roughly a 30 degree angle, the carrot at a 45 degree angle (or as close to the angle of the grater as you can bear for fear of grating your fingers), and grate ONLY from top to bottom.
Am I being overly fussy about grated carrot? Perhaps, but the difference in appearance is most definetely noticable.
Moist, comforting without being heavy as a brick, fluffy crumbs of cake between walnut and carrot bits
Ahh, good ol’ Dean Martin certainly knew what he was talking about – a moon-sized pizza pie is definetely a decent way to express your love, especially if the base is crisp, cooked to perfection and topped with your favourite ingredients!
The last time I made pizza dough, it was the first time that I’d ever used yeast or made home-made pizza, and needless to say that seeing that dough expand to become as big as my head (and that is pretty darn big – no joke! One day I’ll share my primary school big-head-no-hat shameful story with you…) was one of the proudest moments of my life, and punching down that dough after it was done rising was certainly one of the most therapeutic.
However, the pizza was not very well received by the family as they preferred thinner, crisper bases and I really had no idea what I was doing when it came to rolling out the dough and putting the toppings on. Nonetheless, the pizza was devoured, and I made a mental note of all the things that my family said they didn’t like about the base to be aware of the next time round.
And then I had this incident with my next yeast adventure (gee, sounds a little wrong huh?) and became so terrified of yeast that I put off my second pizza-making attempt again and again and again. Until last night.
Last night my awesome galpal Vee came over so that we could cook dinner, and what a spread we put on! Soy-braised pork ribs inspired by those made by Jules from Stone Soup, mini pizzas and an apple and pear crumble also inspired by the ones made by Jules. I know I know, it was a very ‘Stone Soup’ inspired evening 
Unfortunately I was too busy keeping multiple dishes moving to serve to my starving family to take pictures, but all dishes were winners so I will definetely remake them
I remade this pizza for lunch today and it was an absolute hit (again!) and suited my family’s tastebuds to a tee!
I only used half the dough I made yesterday so I decided to use up the rest today and make some more pizzas for lunch. Not having a pizza stone (yet!), I needed another way to get a nicely crisped base, so I decided to parbake it and then add the topping. P-E-R-F-E-C-T! So much so that my pizza-avoiding brother absolutely devoured the ones I made both yesterday and today and said they’re the best pizzas he’s ever had Two of the major problems I have with bought pizzas is the extremely oily crusts and doughy bases that don’t appear to have been cooked properly (you know what I mean, you look under the topping and the dough looks and feels completely uncooked!), and these crusts didn’t suffer any of these problems!
Here’s the ingredients again for those who are interested
Simple Pizza Dough
450g all-purpose flour
1 (7g) sachet active dry yeast
Pinch of salt
1 and 1/4 cup warm water
1 tsp olive oil
1. Mix the flour, yeast and salt in a bowl, then create a well in the middle, pour in the water and oil and mix with a wooden spoon till well combined, then turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead till almost smooth.
2. Place dough in an oiled bowl, cover with cling-wrap and place in a warm area for an hour, or till dough has doubled in size.
3. Remove the dough onto a floured surface and PUMMEL IT! That’s right, beat that dough into place, show it who’s boss, beat it till it can’t be beat no more
4. Place the dough onto a lightly oiled pizza pan/stone/tray, pushing it out to the edges gently, trying to get the thickness as even as possible.
This crust is light as air, crispy, chewy and has a mild yeasty tang that gives it quite a nice flavour.
Tips/Pointers from my experience
- Parbake the crust to make sure that it’s nicely cooked and crisp – if you’re a fan of a nice, medium thickness crust like me then roll it about 5mm thick, prick it all over with a fork then bake it in an oven preheated to 200 degrees C for 10-15 minutes, till it is crisped on top and feels light in your hand.
- If your house is as cold as mine, then place the proofing bowl on a central heating duct or next to a wall heater, making sure to place a towel under the bowl to help it retain the heat.
- To get your ingredients to stay on the crust, sprinkle cheese under the ingredients and then just add a light cheese layer on top of them. By placing the cheese under the rest of the toppings, it prevents the cheese from cooking/melting too quickly and provides a gooey layer that holds the toppings in place.
- If you’re making entree-sized pizzas like I did (roughly the size of a saucer) and have lots of leftover dough, you can parbake them, wrap them tightly in cling wrap and freeze them to use at another time. They make for an easy meal, and are much tastier an your store-bought crusts.
- Use your favourite ingredients to make for a deliciously indulgent meal. I placed onions, mushrooms, tinned pineapple, capsicum and very thinly sliced chorizo sausages on mine. I pan-fried the sausage slices then made sure to blot each one with a kitchen towel to rid them of oil.
