Our easy step by step to make dumplings

February 1, 2022 marks the Chinese New Year also called Lunar New Year. The opportunity to get together with the family to celebrate this event around a good meal. On the menu ? Traditional Chinese recipes, such as the famous dumplings. According to legend, they would bring good fortune to those who consume them. These stuffed pasta are recognizable by their shape which is reminiscent of that of gold bars.

Simple, gourmet and convivial, it is the ideal recipe for your New Year’s menu. You can change the stuffing as you wish. A stuffing of vegetables, shrimp, beef or pork, the choice is yours. Let yourself be tempted by this tradition and prepare your own homemade ravioli. From the dough to the plate, we give you an unmissable recipe for Chinese pork dumplings to start the year off right.

Ravioli dough

Ingredients for 4 persons

• 500g common flour
• A glass of boiling water
• Pinch of salt

To start, pour the flour into a bowl. Salt lightly, then slowly pour the boiling water in several times. Mix with chopsticks, this will prevent you from burning yourself on contact with hot water. The dough should be soft and resemble bread.

When the dough comes together in small pieces, knead with your hands to form a ball. The dough should not be overworked otherwise it will become stiff. Once a homogeneous ball has been obtained, reserve in the fridge for 15 to 20 minutes.

It is possible to rework your dough a little bit before you start forming the discs. Start by piercing the center of your ball of dough. Roll the dough over your fingers, starting from the hole you created. By expanding in this way, you get a sort of circle of dough that looks like a donut. Cut a corner of your circle to have a line of dough. Here we get a sausage. Roll the dough evenly with the flat of your hand.

When the sausage has a reasonable thickness, cut it into pieces. These should look like ingots. Take an ingot, roll the dough in your palm while pressing to form a slightly flattened and rounded pebble.

Then form discs of dough: take a rolling pin without a handle. Flour the work plan. Dip a pebble in flour before placing it on your work surface. With one hand, support one side of the dough, with the other hand flatten the remaining side with the rolling pin: from the edge towards the centre. Then turn the dough a quarter turn and repeat the operation. Continue until you obtain a thin disk at the edge and slightly domed in the center. The goal is that the dough does not break when the stuffing is placed on it.

The joke

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon potato, tapioca or cornstarch
• 1 egg
• 1/2 zucchini or 1/2 sweet potato out of season
• 400g pork loin or tenderloin
• 1 small slice of ginger
• 2 cloves garlic
• 3 or 4 black mushrooms
• 2 tablespoons of soy sauce
• salt and pepper

Rehydrate the mushrooms in hot water for a few minutes. Grate half of the vegetable of your choice into medium-sized pieces. Put in a bowl and salt. Mix well to soak and let drain if you opt for zucchini.

Meanwhile, chop the mushrooms. A little tip for easier chopping: place them on top of each other, roll up before cutting. Put the chopped mushrooms in a bowl. Chop the pork. Add the meat to the mushrooms then add the egg. Mix with the help of chopsticks. Add the starch until you obtain a filling that is not too runny.

Cook the vegetables and cut a thin slice of ginger. Chop the garlic and ginger. Add the garlic and ginger to the bowl of meat and mushrooms. Add a pinch of soy sauce and pepper. To mix together.
Drain the vegetables. To do this, take a handful of zucchini and squeeze them in your palm. Add to previous mixture. Incorporate well. The stuffing is ready.

Shaping and cooking

Better to flour your fingers so that the dough does not stick. Take a disk of dough and put a spoon of filling in the center. Fold over two opposite edges of the dough and pinch. Make 3 pressure points. First in the center and one on each side. Fold the remaining dough by applying pressure to bring the dough back in the form of small folds.

The ravioli can then be boiled. In this case, the cooking is done in two stages. To start, immerse them all at the same time in a saucepan half-filled with water for even cooking. Do not hesitate to separate them so that they do not stick together. Wait for the resumption of boiling. When the ravioli rise to the surface, add water again to avoid overcooking the ravioli. They are cooked when the dough becomes translucent and you can see the stuffing.

We advise you to serve them quickly. If they are not eaten within 5 minutes after cooking, plunge them into cold water to stop the cooking.
It is also possible to opt for cooking in a frying pan or in a wok (the latter retains the heat better). For wok cooking, pour a drizzle of oil in the bottom. The fire should be hot. Wait until the wok is very hot, it should start smoking. At this point, place the ravioli. When they start to crackle and have a nice color, add a little water to the wok or to the pan. Lower the heat, cover and continue cooking for 8 minutes. Then stop cooking and serve the ravioli immediately.

If you want to keep the ravioli longer, you can freeze them. Use an airtight freezer bag, making sure not to let any air in it. The bag will prevent your ravioli from becoming dry or icing up in your freezer.

Content writer and partnership manager

A budding journalist who enjoys cooking for her family and friends is probably the phrase that best describes me. So I decided to help those who share this …