鍋貼 Guotie

Guotie 鍋貼 - this is a northern Chinese snack 小吃 'xiaochi' and is very popular with many non Chinese.  In Teochew, it is called ziang'giao 煎餃.  People in North America call guotie, pot stickers. Why? Guo 鍋 means a pot as in a cooking pot and tie 貼 means to stick and hence pot stickers.  LOL Cantonese people pronounce 鍋貼 [guotie's characters] as wo'tip.  The Japanese calls this dumpling gyoza 餃子. In London, Chinese restaurants list this dumpling as grilled dumpling - even though we Chinese never ever grill these dumplings.  

I lightly oil my largest frying pan, a wok, and place 14 guotie on the semi hot pan.

I then turn the guotie over when one side gets brown - a trick I learnt from Fr Dominic, a friend from Xian 西安

 Fr Dominic told me his sister in law would fry the guotie on two sides before adding water and I thought this was a wonderful style of cooking guotie.  

Traditionally, in Beijing, guotie would be fried on one side only and the dumplings would be placed adjacent to one another in a large frying pan and they would all stick to one another and hence tie 貼 meaning to stick - as in the dumplings sticking to one another and not to the pot.  It would be a disaster if the dumplings were to stick to the pot! 

I then add about 70 ml of water, cover the pot and wait until the water has been reduced and give all the guotie a good turnover.  The water creates steam which then cooks the guotie.

I then serve the guotie on a lovely Chinese bowl which my friend Christina bought for me from HK.

Guotie goes very well with balsamic glaze but traditionally Chinese people eat this with black Chinese vinegar and julienne of ginger.  Nowadays, many Chinese people eat guotie with chillies - lots of chillies.

You can buy ready made guotie from Chinese supermarkets.  However, I have never bought these from any supermarkets!

If you want to make these guotie, then you need to make the wrapper dough first and Chinese people call the wrapper, 'skin'! LOL  This is because you need to rest the dough for sometime.  I made the dough last night at midnight when I got home from Deacon David's birthday dinner party.

I use 500 grams of strong flour [Canadian strong white bread flour is best - which you can buy from Waitrose] and then bring to boil in excess of 250 ml of water.

I then place the flour in one of my Kenwood metal bowls, add about a teaspoon of salt and about the same amount of sugar to the flour. I then attach a dough hook to the Kenwood mixer and start mixing the flour with salt and sugar.  I then pour the hot water [must be at least 70 C] into the flour while the Kenwood Chef turn the flour at low speed until a dough is formed.  

Every type and batch of flour uses a slightly different amount of water, and I find by getting my Kenwood to work for me at midnight means I do not add too little or too much water into the flour.

I then roll out the dough into a long 'sausage' shape, cling film it well so as not to let the dough dry out while resting.  I then place the wrapped dough in an air tight container.

The dough must not be sticky and while one kneads the dough, none of the dough should stick to one's hands and when one strokes the dough it should form a smooth outer skin.  One definitely needs some skill to know the right amount of water to use and one has to learn this through trial and error, unless one has a friend like a Kenwood Chef or Kenwood Major!

We Chinese do not add eggs or oil into the dough.  In fact, traditionally, we do not even add salt or sugar into the dough mixture.  Traditionally, Chinese people would mix half boiling water and half tap water and get the right temperature.  However, in London, our tap water is freezing cold and I would not get that minimum 70 C water if I were to follow this method.  Hence, I get a thermometer out, measure the temperature of the water and when it reaches just over 80 C, I turn off the heat and start preparing to pour the water into the flour.

If you do not have a Kenwood, then perhaps you could use a food processor to make the dough.  If you have none of these, then you need to learn the hard way, like the way I did when I was in my 20s, using my hands and a Chinese rolling pin to knead the flour and water into a dough.  LOL  

The filling:  There are many different types of filling.  Chinese in the South of China add all sorts of things.  Vegetarian Chinese use eggs and garlic chives.  However, I still prefer the traditional Northern Chinese filling.  

So these were what I used to make this batch of guotie filling.

6 or 7 Napa cabbage leaves - sliced thinly - in English supermarkets you will see Napa cabbage labelled as Chinese leaves.

I add 1 teaspoon of salt into the sliced cabbage leaves and give them a good squeeze - in fact many good squeezes! 

I then take a bunch of organic spring onions [which is now called salad onions in English supermarkets because we get them all year round and not just during spring time], and I slice the green part thinly.  I add these to the top of the salted sliced cabbage.

In Southern China, the people could replace the above two ingredients with thinly sliced Chinese garlic chives.

And because I am making these for Auntie Ratna, who is a Southern Asian, previously from Ceylon, I add some shallots.

I take an echalion shallot, slice it in half length wise, and then slice it thinly.  I fry the shallot in oil until it is brown and add the fried shallot and oil into the above vegetable.  This gives the filling an interesting flavour.

Chinese people would add quite a bit of vegetable oil into the filling at this stage.  This would then give the dumpling a very moist texture with liquid oozing out of the hot dumpling when eaten.  However, I skip this step as I am not making these dumplings for Chinese people. 

I then remove the skin of a two inch ginger, slice it thinly, then julienne the thin slices of ginger and then finely dice the julienne of ginger.  I add this to the vegetable above.

Then seasoning: I then add 2 tablespoons of JinLan soya sauce 金蘭醬油 and two tablespoons of sesame oil, 2 tbsp of water to the vegetable mixture.

Finally, I add 500 grams of minced pork from Waitrose - 8% fat - to the above.  I mix all the ingredients well together with one of my hands.  There is no alternative than using one's hands because the seasoning has to be  massaged into the meat vegetables mixture.  

I have tried using beef, lamb, turkey, chicken, extra lean pork mince but none of these have worked out well as this 8% fat pork mince from Waitrose.  The idea is that the meat in the dumpling should stay together like a sausage and not to fall apart when you eat the dumplings with your chopsticks.  I found beef to be too tough, lamb too smelly, and as for the rest, the meat fell apart when eaten. 

Traditionally, Chinese people would buy pork with some fat and hand minced the meat with cleavers.  However, nowadays my neighbours would report me after hearing all that chopping sound coming from my home.  

You can add ground white pepper if you want - Chinese ground pepper - but I do not use pepper anymore in my cooking.

When you have mixed all the ingredients together, you need to wash your hands, dry them, then take the bowl containing the filling ingredients and bring it to your nose and take a deep breath.  If you can smell the flavours up your nostrils then you have seasoned the filling well.  If not, then you need to add more salt, or sesame oil or whatever.  This way of testing food for the right amount of seasoning is an old traditional Chinese way of doing things.

I then transferred the filling into an air tight Pyrex dish and stored it in my fridge for a minimum of half an hour.  I made the above at 4 am this morning and started wrapping after Morning Prayer at 10:30.  

Wrapping:  I roll the dough into a long thin sausage, cut equal slices - roughly 14 per batch. I then press each piece with the palm of my hands and then using a rolling pin start rolling out the dough into discs.  The middle of the wrapper round disc should be thicker than the edges.  It is like making miniature Indian chapati. 

If you want to watch an American lady explaining to you how to make these little small wrapper discs, then do watch this YouTube video.

You know I started learning to make guotie in my 20s, and that was centuries ago, and I had to make over 1000 guotie(s) before I learnt how to roll out the dough discs well and  how to wrap the dumplings.

In Chinese families, everybody would help, including little children.  Some wrap it square, some odd shapes and some perfectly.  This does not matter - it is a family affair and brings everybody together for a good chit chat.  When you are invited to a Chinese family home, you are also expected to participate in this wrapping process.  Everybody then compares who has made the most beautiful dumpling and would give the person a praise, and encouragement for those who could improve their wrapping technique.  

Nobody would come to eat dumplings and sit like kings and queens doing nothing.  This would be most impolite for Chinese people.

However, in the UK, people always just come and sit like kings and queens and I therefore would make 20 or 30 dumplings regardless of the number of people eating.  I do not see why I should kill myself and over exceed my usual production limit.  LOL

So, get all the children together, invite the in-laws and start a wrapping guotie party and have a good time making and eating dumplings as a family. 

And if you want to see how the same American lady teaching you how to wrap these dumplings, then please watch this YouTube video.