In Northern China, serving heaps of
dumplings called jiao zi at the start of the Lunar New Year is the
favorite way to share wishes of prosperity and success. The name jiao
zi literally means money, since these fat little dumplings look like the
gold and silver ingots that were once China's currency.
In
this 4-part video series, Thy Tran shows you every step of the
dumpling-making process. She starts with kneading together a simple
flour and water dough.
Next, Thy demonstrates one of her favorite fillings made with ground pork and shrimp. There are also recipes for two more fillings, a luxurious roast duck filling and a vegetarian-friendly egg-and-chive filling.
Then
we'll move on to how to roll out the dumpling skins, with a special
dumpling rolling pin. Tran shows you how to pleat the dumplings for that
three-sided shape that's traditional for pan-fried potstickers, and
then finally, we'll fry up those potstickers so they're crunchy and
golden-brown on the bottom, but still soft and tender on top.
