Recipe of the Week: Chinese Chive Pot Sticker Dumplings

This recipe is my wave of gratitude to the chefs from a restaurant in Dubai called China Sea. Both their pot sticker and their century egg and tofu dishes gave me inspiration. In the restaurant, I force the chefs to make 13-pleat half-moon-shaped dumplings for this dish, with each pleat at the same angle to the previous one, which is a real pain to do. However, I have relented slightly for you home cooks and given you an easier way of creating half-moon dumplings as well.

Makes 20 dumplings

20 ready-made 8cm round
dumpling pastries
40ml cold water
10g plain flour
vegetable oil, for oiling
Ginger Vinegar (see below), to serve

For the filling
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
6 eggs, beaten and scrambled
200g Chinese chives, finely chopped
1 teaspoon sesame oil
salt and white pepper

For the filling, heat the vegetable oil in a wok and lightly sauté the scrambled egg and chives.

Season to taste with salt and pepper, then set aside to cool.

Once the egg mixture is cool, add the sesame oil.

To make the dumplings, divide the filling into 20 portions and place 1 portion in the centre of a dumpling pastry.

Lightly brush the top half of the dumpling pastry with water.

Bring the edges of the pastry together over the filling to form a neat semicircle, pushing them together with your thumb to ensure an airtight seal above the filling. You will now have a half-moon-shaped dumpling that has a 1cm skirting on the top. Repeat with the remaining dumpling pastries and filling.

Holding the dumplings by their skirting, lift them up and place on a tray with the skirting facing upwards and flattening the base of the dumplings so that they sit upright by themselves.

Steam over a high heat for 4 minutes.

Meanwhile, beat the water with the flour to make a light batter.

When the dumplings are cooked, transfer, in 2 batches, to a nonstick frying pan that has been lightly oiled over a medium heat.

Add half the batter per batch of dumplings, swirling the pan to cover the base with the batter. Watch the heat of the pan create a web around the dumplings in the pan.

When the web of batter is set and crispy, remove the dumplings from the pan and serve immediately with Ginger Vinegar.

GINGER VINEGAR

Makes about 125ml

INGREDIENTS
100ml red vinegar
20ml sweetened black vinegar
5g peeled fresh root ginger, very finely sliced

Bring all the ingredients to the boil in a non-reactive pan, then leave them to cool and allow the ginger to infuse overnight.

Strain out the ginger and store in a sterilized airtight container in a cool, dry place for up to a month.

Extracted from A. Wong – The Cookbook: Extraordinary dim sum, exceptional street food & unexpected Chinese dishes from Sichuan to Yunnan by Andrew Wong. Available here.