Jiaozi

Jiaozi
A traditional Chinese Food, which is essential during holidays in Northern China. Brought to you by: Anne, China

Conversion Table U.S. to Metric and Metric to U.S. **Skins:** Dissolve salt in water. Add 2 cups water to flour and blend THOROUGHLY. Do not add more water until it is absolutely necessary. Add remaining water as slowly as possible in order to get as hard a dough as you can. If the dough is too soft, add more flour. Knead thoroughly. Harder dough is much easier to fill. Chill while you make the filling.
 * 8 cups white flour
 * about 2 1/2 cups (very) cold water
 * 1 teaspoon salt

Separate dough into 2 portions. Form into long sausages, about 1 inch diameter. Cut sections every 1cm. Form sections into balls and use rolling pin to form into round, flat skins about 3 inches diameter. If they are too thick, the jiaozi will be very doughy. Modify sizes of balls as appropriate.

**Meat:** Add soy sauce and salt to meat. Stir slowly, always in the same direction (if you change directions, the meat fibers don't stick together as well, and the jiaozi are more likely to fall apart when cooked). Add remaining ingredients. Let sit while you prepare the vegetables and other additional ingredients.
 * 1 kilo ground meat
 * 2 tablespoon soy sauce
 * 2 teaspoon salt
 * 2 teaspoon black pepper
 * 1 teaspoon white pepper
 * 2 teaspoon brandy or sherry or other aromatic alcohol
 * 1 teaspoon sesame oil

All need to be finely minced. Use a food processor if you have one. If you don't, I hope you have a LOT of patience. If the bits are too large, the jiaozi will fall apart. 1 inch ginger (finely minced. You can use a grater) 3-4 stalks spring onion 1 small clump fresh coriander (cilantro) 1 very small clump chives Either: 8-10 stalks celery (at least half the entire stalk). Once minced, squeeze out any excess water. Or: 1 small head Chinese cabbage Optional: 3 large carrots Optional: 3-4 chinese black mushrooms (shiitake) Optional: one fried egg

Stir them slowly into the meat mixture. For now, add only the lower numbers (eg. 8 celery, not 10). Don't let the mix get too moist.

Test scent. It should be very aromatic. If not, add a little more brandy, or sesame oil, or onion. Test consistency. Fry a teaspoon or so of the mix.

It should stick together very easily. If it falls apart, it could be because (a) the mix is too dry in which case add more veggies and/or oil, or (b) because its too moist in which case add a little more meat. (Since its easier to add more veggies, that's why I suggested adding the veggies slowly!)

Test flavour. (Eat the fried bit). Your entire tongue should get a little bit of life. If necessary, add a few spices to supplement -- savoury gets central tongue, white pepper the back, black pepper the front, paprika the sides.

Fiddle until you're happy.

**To roll:** Take about 1 tablespoon filling and place into centre of skin. Bring one half up to meet the other half. Seal thoroughly. This usually means creating"pleats" in one half and gluing them to the other (use a tiny bit of water if you need to), If they're not well sealed, they fall apart when cooking.

**To cook:** Bring large pot of water to boil. Add enough jiaozi to cover the base of the pot about 1.5 times (about 25 in a 12" diameter pot, about 50 in a good size wok). Cover.

When it comes to a boil, add 1 cup cold water. Cover. Repeat. When it comes to a boil for the third time, they are ready to serve.

**Note:** if you stop it before the third boil, the meat will not be cooked through. Also, if you don't add cold water each time, the jiaozi will fill up with air and explode.