Hey guys, a few notes: 1. First off, just know that there's a million different ways to make dumplings - it's one of those dishes where every family has their own way of doing it. 2. Many people don't season the water and the oil like we did. Instead, they'll either add five spice, thirteen spice, or there's also some thirteen-spice like mixes that are sold specifically for dumplings. We prefer the seasoned water/oil approach though because the spice is much more mellow and in the background. 3. So there's a reason the ginger and the Sichuan peppercorn went in the water instead of frying in the oil. For the ginger, many people straight up mince the ginger into the meat, which I quite like... ginger water is a way for you to get the flavor of the ginger without big chunks of ginger lying around. For the Sichuan peppercorn, the flavonoids that cause the 'numbing' sensation are oil-soluable, and that's not the taste we're aiming for. We want the floral sort of fragrance of the peppercorns, and the water'll accomplish that. 4. If you got some stock lying around, using stock in place of water for your ginger/peppercorn liquid is always a good idea. 5. As I said in the video, the dumplings we made are some pretty big suckers. You don't need to walk that mile with us, 10-15 gram wrappers are what you'd find in most dumpling shops around China. There's benefits and drawbacks to a larger dumpling - the cool thing is that you've got a greater ratio of filling to wrapper, so the taste of that hard-fought filling's a bit more obvious. The drawback is that for the undetermined they're not really bite sized ;) 6. If you want to go with a smaller dumpling, my recommendation would be to double the chicken boullion powder to 1 tsp. That was my original amount before we swapped to the larger dumplings - we just found with that greater filling to skin ratio it was a touch too salty. Remember, the skins are unflavored so for smaller dumplings you need things to be a bit saltier. 7. One brief slip up when I was narrating, the amount of liaojiu that you're adding to the eggs is 1 tsp, not 1 tbsp. Not the end of the world if you toss in a little extra there, so I decided against fixing it in the video. 8. Apologies for the late upload, this was actually quite involved to film and cut. I'm happy I was able to get it under ten minutes. Hopefully I can get the written recipe up ASAP, but I got some work to do today unfortunately. EDIT: The fennel we're using is 'common fennel', which is *different* than the fennel that's commonly used in the USA (i.e. Florence fennel). Huge thanks to Dennis D for the heads up, and apologies for giving another tough to source thing - learn something new every day. If you're looking for a sub, the first thing that comes to my head would be dill, but please don't hold me to that.
totally! when i was little, my parents and my siblings and i would get a production line going... dad and my older sister would roll out the wrappers and my mom and i would form the dumplings... and my older brother would just eat them all hahaha! :-) i'll have to try some of the tricks you mentioned here. thanks for the cool video!!!!
Oh yeah, that's definitely the best way to go about it. Those skins got a nasty tendency to dry out, so rolling and wrapping concurrently with family/friends is ideal. Though I *will* say that I've met some older people from the North that can somehow pump out dumplings, by themselves, in 30-45 minutes. I'm not that experienced lol What fillings did your family usually do? If you'd like to drop a little recipe I can include it in the reddit post too :)
猪肉白菜，三鲜饺子，猪肉香菇！Hi Chris, thank you for this wonderful video. I loved it! Do you have any plans on making another (maybe a part 2) with 3 more different fillings? Dumplings are fantastic!
And, being less than in perfect health (as in, I ain't very strong in the upper body and I don't have a stand mixer) I'd probably follow your brother's lead here. Besides, eating that many dumplings? It's a dirty job, but someone has to do it...
Haha, I'm really into baking and love to make stuff like country bread, so discussing protein level in flour just seems like a natural thing you'd consider when choosing different types of flour, lol. It does make a huge difference and many peoole may overlook this aspect. So I think it's useful to point out. Btw, you can also use AP here, but it will lack of that chewiness.
Steph - Chinese Cooking Demystified I always use high protein flour for denser loaves of bread, so I can see how that works have you played around with high starch doughs at all I've seen some recipes use wheat starch? Also some bread recipes call for a light steaming or being submerged in an acid bath to improve chewiness (pretzel bread and potato bread come to mind), what do you think of using AP as you say but adding baking soda to the water to create carbonic acid it could be a work around for those who can't find dumpling flour or flour with similar protein levels? I would have to be a lot either 1/2 tsp probably at most and some salt.
Yeah I'm a big fan of that approach over simply tossing in five spice/thirteen spice. There was a (now closed, sadly) dumpling shop close to our house in Shenzhen that did that method, and I really enjoyed their dumplings.
The fennel you're using is foeniculum vulgare--common fennel. That is not the Florence fennel (bulb fennel) that is generally available in the US. Common fennel has a distinctive aroma and its fronds are great in cooking. Florence fennel's bulb is good for salads and braising, but its fronds are much less distinctive in flavor. However, if common fennel is not easy to find you can grow it from seed, available from seed companies.
Oh damn, thank you. That was a huge blind spot for me, I simply assumed that the fennel was the same. Super obvious in hindsight, given that I've never really seen fennel bulb at the market here. I'll edit the notes above and talk about it a bit in the reddit post. Really appreciate the correction.
If you live on the west coast like Cali the common fennel also grows everywhere You can tell by the very straight and light dried stalks they leave behind when they die
Thank you very much for taking that extra step to explain the use of those ingredients and processes that generally are not common in other cuisine styles (e.g. Baking soda in leek, the use of basic (was it alcaline?) water, boiled water for the dough) It really makes this channel very unique.
I was always told by my father that the reason for adding the cold water while boiling (點水) was so that it gives time for the center of the dumplings to come up to temperature more evenly with the outside.
I see, well that could totally be it too! I was told that it was because rapidly boiling water could break it apart... but that explanation makes sense as well.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified it's actually because if you leave it boiling, the wrapper will overcook before the center is ready, and an overcooked wrapper is very easy to break, I think that's where you get the boil water break it.
The best English speaking one... he’s great but there are really good ones out there too. Amanda taste for example speaks Chinese but has English subs if you are interested
+WeiYinChan Recently we found that Wang Gang has English Subs too... definitely has to be the best Chinese w/ Eng Sub source out there in our opinion :) Though Amanda Tastes and Magic Ingredients are both quite legit too. For pure English, we also like Elaine Luo/China Sichuan Food (which we link in our sidebar).
Chinese Cooking Demistified, I just made the pork with leek. I have followed your exact recepie. Those were the most juicy dumplings I've made so far! Big thanks for the technique that separates the fat from the lean. The fat melted inside and made the dumpling super juicy and delicious. Until now I only used seasoned water. Now adding the flavored oil just made them superior. Big thanks and keep making more videos. I'll be very happy to see you making authentic Chinese wind dried sausage :)
Cheers, glad you like it! I'm planning to do the sausage next month if the weather is cool and dry enough. After all, we live in a sub-tropical climate. :)
Interesting. My mom always taught me to add the salt to chopped jiu cai as soon as you chop it, and squeeze out the water before mixing it with meat. This is believed to make the flavour more intense, and also prevent the dumplings being soggy. But as you said, there’s probably a million way to do dumplings, and I guess there really isn’t a wrong way.
Lived in Manzhouli for a while, ate dumplings that looked like boiled steam bun, hard to describe texture, but those dumplings were so good. Have never been able to find any other like them
I made these today! It took 4 hours and my stomach was complaining "isn't it done yet?" but I persevered. 10/10 would recommend these amazingly tasty dumplings!! Used chili instead of shichuan pepper and sherry instead of Chinese wine because I didn't have any but it still tasted great. (Also how do u get the dough so thiiiin omg they were super heavy)
So my dad told me tonight about how he had shantung/shandong dumplings as a kid and hasn’t had them since. I’d like to make them but also am very curious about whether they have a different flavor from other dumplings. Think you could make a video about it? Love your videos, thank you!
I don't want to sound rude, but I am afraid to say in all my years in the Northeast of China, I have never once seen egg go into the dumpling skins, that is new for me. But my favorite is pork and chive, as well as chicken and shitake mushroom. But yes the most common is pork and leek as well as egg and chives, haven't seen the beef one though. Normally they just do beef by itself from what I have come across. Don't forget to accompany those dumplings with a side of pickled garlic bulbs to make it really authentic haha I'd have to say from being in the environment, the most common dish from the Northeast is stewed green beans and potatoes with a small amount of pork (what most people regularly eat, from personal experience).
I made this dumpling using the leftovers from hakka stuffed tofu--the amount was perfect. the wrappers ended up a little thick and chewy, and i'm not sure if that means i'm just used to eating store-bought wrappers, or i need to roll the 15g doughs thinner, and add a bit more filling. either way it was awesome!
Yeah me too. We were super close to doing that one in place of pork and leek... but we wanted to lead off with one that'd be easier to source for people without access to a Chinese supermarket. Pork with leek's always been up there for me personally, so I figured that might be a decent place to start off.
im more of a steamed dumplings person , but very nice vid, i hope you can make another video about "southern" way to do it. aka chives with pork, shop made wrappings and different to fold the dumplings
When I was born, I was a premature and underweight and after a month in the Hospital I only loose weight because I refused to eat my mothers milk. My father worked in another town so when he finally came over to the hospital he didn’t knew that, he happily brought grandfather’s tutsai and egg jiaozi for mom to eat. Luckily it happened at the same time that I was brought for another attempt to be fed. Mom was crying from telling my dad that I could die. Dad opened the lid and the smell filled the room and for the first time, as my mom said, I took an interest in the food and nurse managed to put the bottle to my lips and I finally ate on my own for the first time in my life. Sadly my grandfather died when I was 7 so he couldn’t teach me how to make proper jiaozi, Me and my father attempt every year to make them on my birthday, but it comes out a bit wrong, this year, I’ll try your recipe, probably for Lunar New Year celebration first than on my birthday))) Thank you)
Couldn't they have given you an NG tube? It's a pretty low tech and simple procedure that can be done while awake. No baby at a hospital would die if they didn't feed well- there are too many options to avoid it
@@erinb4237 now yes, in 1995 Far East Russia, meh. Don’t know if you know, but after USSR brake everything broke in Russia. All those stereotypes you know are from very poor times of 90s. USSR was pretty high tech and machines that worked and things that were used in hospitals in 90s were from 70-80 USSR and ppl who worked there would still things to sell on the side. No one really cared about health of ppl back than. Anyway they wouldn’t do it past 6 weeks, I was in the hospital in the special box (no idea how it called) for a month with all the tubes and needles before father came to hospital.
@@juliiashan4730 the incubator? NG tubes had been in use for around a century by the time you were in the hospital. It's weird that they wouldn't have one
When i watch a cookingvideo nowadays that is not starting with the word "today..' it feels somehow wrong to me. Your videos helped me alot to find back to my passion in some darker hours.. Last but not least a question; i made hundreds of these dumplings now so i start wondering if i can panfry them too or if you recommend to make another dough therefor. Much love
I’m making dumplings. I really like that you made the dumpling skins. No fuss no muss. I’m curious as to what type of mixer you use. I live in the U.S. can I get one here.
I live in the DC Metro area where unfortunately Chinese ingredients/stores are basically non-existant. Do you have any recommendations for Liaojiu that you can get off Amazon?
As you say, it's traditional to add cold water to damp down rapid boiling (which might break open the jiaozi) - but surely with modern cookers nowadays you can just adjust the flame?
Yep, basically the same, though Chinese leeks are slightly longer. The 'long green onion' is also around in NE-style food, and could also totally work here too.
Haha yeah apologies, ended up being a day late. There was like a mountain of clips to color grade, and it was particularly tough because we've been getting typhoon weather recently. Will be up at the proper time next week!
Chinese Cooking Demystified No problem at all, it’s just that it has kinda become part of my routine to wait for your new video, so this was anormal :) Anyway, what’s the proper method for making this if you want to fry them and then boil in the same pan (don’t know how this is called), i always end with either undercooked filling or overcooked skin. Also is the chinese name for dumplings jiaozi or there’s another name?
Yep, these are jiaozi. There's a lot of different things that're translated as 'dumplings' in English - e.g. Xiaolongbao are often translated as 'soup dumplings' and I've seen Zongzi translated as 'sticky rice dumplings' (Xiaolongbao I get... but who decided on 'sticky rice dumplings' lol). In my own head, jiaozi = dumpling. If you wanna pan-fry them, put enough oil to get a thin layer on the bottom of the wok. Medium-low heat, fry the dumpling til they get a bit crispy on the bottom, 3-5 minutes. Add in a few tablespoons of water, cover, and let steam, ~6-8 minutes. If the water dries up too fast, add just add in some more water.
First, thanks for showing us how to make dumplings! I've been waiting for this for a long time. In the video, while rolling out the pre-cut dough, you didn't cover them with either a damp cloth or plastic wrap. Don't you worry about them drying out? And what is your opinion about boiling vs. steaming the dumplings? And lastly, would you put Hong You Chao Shou (红油抄手) on your list?
So yeah, I think that's something I perhaps didn't communicate effectively in the video - we had a lot of dumplings to get through, and figuring out the structure of how we'd film it was a challenge. What we did there is cut the ring into four pieces. When you see Steph rolling that bit out thinner, that was 1/4 of the dough.. the other pieces went back into the plastic bag. Then when rolling out the wrappers themselves, there wasn't really much of a time lag in between rolling the wrapper and filling them... those wrappers were rolled in about five minutes and then we moved on to filling them. So right, that's definitely a variable... don't want them drying out on ya. Re boiling vs steaming - both are good choices and ultimately it's just personal preference. The big advantage of steaming is that you can get all fancy with the wrapping technique and make the dumplings look real nice. Texture wise it's a bit different... boiling gives the dumplings a smoother texture while steaming gives them a bit more of a bite if that makes any sense? For the sort of dumplings we did in this video I personally prefer boiled, but either way is totally cool.
From what I know, it is a traditional Chinese cooking approach in making food like xiao long bao. They just simply add meat jelly into the filling. When you boil or steam the dumpling or baozi, the jelly melts to the nice juice.
This is excellent. I love dumplings and I am quite interested in northern Chinese cooking (which is a lot less covered than Cantonese or Sichuan). I like the addition of the egg in the dough; I've only ever done that with Sichuan wontons. Would you recommend a lower hydration dough to make it easier to handle? I ted to overshoot with my water as I'm used to making sourdough bread, which often requires more water. Your hydration is 40% (very low) but that doesn't count the egg. I quite like making dumplings for lunch, but I tend to prefer lighter meals, so I opt for egg. Have you come across any other vegetarian fillings?
So dumplings need a lower hydration dough in order for it to be a bit sturdier, have some bite to it. The egg's kind of optional - I'd say it's about half/half whether people add it or not. The egg makes the dough a bit more elastic... you're right that it'd slightly change the hyrdration... white's 90% water and yolks are 48%, so assuming 50g in one egg and that eggs are 50% yolk by weight (I'm not really sure off the top of my head) that's ~42% hydration if my math's right? To be completely honest, I got that recipe for the dough a while back from the back of a bag of dumpling flour here and just never saw any reason to adjust it lol. Re vegetarian dumpling fillings... there's a whole category of fillings called 'su jiaozi xian' which aren't meat-focused but usually aren't strictly vegetarian (egg and jiucai belongs to this category). Confused me for a while because 'su' often refers to vegetarian in Mandarin (i.e. '素食'), but especially up north can refer to things that're light or 'aren't meat-focused'. Regardless, if you're cooking for a vegetarian those sorts of fillings would be a great starting point (and are usually pescatarian as is). This's in Chinese but is a nice list of 20 different 'su' dumpling fillings, Google translate should give a general idea: www.haocai777.com/Article/ruchu/12698.html One of my personal favorites is the sort with smoked bean curd :)
Thanks for the detailed response. Much appreciated. I definitely need to pay attention to my water content. I made dumplings last weekend and they were a pain to handle due to my overzealous use of water! Thanks for the the link, too. I'll look into it. Smoked bean curd sounds amazing and I think I'll have to try it.
Suthseaxa Some of the most popular vegetarian dumpling fillings are: cabbage, mushroom (especially Wood ear mushroom, but shiitakes are also popular), carrots, Chinese chives, glass noodles, and various kinds of tofu products (e.g. tofu skin, dried tofu, smoked bean curd... etc). I feel like you could choose any of those and season them with their recipe, and it would be good and light.
I have a lot of these ingredients to hand, I have just never considered using as a dumpling filling. Definitely going to try some of now, so thank you!
might offend dumpling purists but if you really can't get bread flour for whatever reason, my parents from Northern China (Beijing and Liaoning province) use all-purpose flour for dumplings. so AP flour is fine in a pinch
Try to swap the eggs in the chives filling and sub it with finely diced smoked tofu. If you're doing mushrooms, dice it, marinate it with some soy sauce and a touch of sugar, coat with oil, let it sit for half an hour, give a quick fry, then add to your chives (or other vegetables) fillings.
You have a great voice and you obviously speak Chinese. Have you ever thought about doing dubbing for Chinese movies to English. It pays a lot of money. I know - I am in the biz.
Any tips on cutting the "juicyness" of the meat fillings? I mean, juicy is good, but the juice and meat are separate within the dough and it just runs out everywhere when eating. Is that supposed to happen, or do I need to tweak my filling?
It's quite common, usually it'd be Buddhism dishes, and we're looking into making some of those. It's just that we got so many requests to work through, lol.
So as far as the protein for the dumplings I was taught to ball the meat up and slam into the bowl in a throwing motion is that right or is my friend just makin fun with me?
Nope, totally legitimate technique... called 'dat' (挞). Used a bunch in Cantonese cooking, we've included it in many other recipes we've had on this channel (e.g. wonton soup, Siumai). The slamming motion develops 'springy-ness' in the meat filling, though I'm fuzzy on what the science is behind that. We didn't mostly because I didn't really come across any Northerners that used that approach when researching. Could potentially just be a blind spot, and if you 'dat' it it definitely won't hurt anything!
Maybe by compacting the meat, the meat wants to spring back to it's original shape. Kind of like tightening a rope (and muscles are basically ropes). My dad is a Cantonese cook and he taught me the technique but I haven't seen Northern cooks do it. Maybe it's full of shit. It'd be interesting to do 2 batches side by side and see if it can pass a blind taste test.
Is there any practical difference between repeatedly adding water to manage a boil vs adjusting your heat to maintain a constant low boil? Most non-Chinese recipes for this type of food (pierogi, pelmeni, ravioli and other filled pastas) simply call for modulating heat during the boil (if necessary), and my Chinese mother was always weirded out when I boiled anything this way without adding splashes of cold water. Would I be correct in assuming (with no basis whatsoever) that this technique was developed when cooking over a heat source that was not finely adjustable, like an open fire or wood-burning wok stove?
I haven't exactly done any A/B testing haha, but you're right that I don't think there'd be much practical difference.This is simply the way we've been taught to boil dumplings, and we like to keep our editorializing to an absolute minimum :)
That makes sense, and thank you so much for your reply! This is hands-down one of the best cooking channels on UA-cam: I admire the way you educate us on frequently-mistunderstood traditional techniques while offering some modern shortcuts, as well as your straightforward and totally nonpretentious way of presenting your skills and knowledge. I don't think there's any better place on the internet to learn about Chinese food and cooking. Huge fan, keep it up!
Where would you guys recommend I shop for cleavers online? Is getting an inexpensive but sturdy cleaver a fantasy or what? I always struggle hand mincing stuff with my western knife :/
Just about any Asian market that is local to you wool most likely have one for sell. I picked up a fairly hefty one for around $20, full tang with a wooden handle. The spine is nearly a quarter inch.
@@woodenspoon380 I live in NYC so, we have three Chinatowns and most stuff offered in the Chinese kitchen supply stores is 1) overpriced 2) extremely poor quality. Was wondering if I'm better off just getting it shipped from China? I just dunno where to look.
So the basic one is just a plain dark Chinese vinegar, preferably what's called 'Shanxi Mature Vinegar', but 'Chinkiang Vinegar' is also ok if that's what you've got around. If neither are available, balsamic isn't exactly the same but would still make for tasty dipping. Besides that, the most common thing to add to your vinegar is 'youlazi' chili oil. It's the sort of Chinese chili oil that you'll usually find recipes of online. We have a recipe for it contained in our Sichuan Cold noodles video (the star anise and Sichuan peppercorn are optional but recommended there): ua-cam.com/video/95ENQDE7nvg/v-deo.htmlm26s You'll also find some people that add soy sauce to their dipping sauce. It's not totally my thing, but Steph usually adds a bit of soy sauce to hers. Lastly, in many places you'll see some garlic water. We also show how to make garlic water in the cold noodles video - the primary difference is that in NE restaurants I usually see the garlic minced (not pounded) and kept in with the water. It's at 1:15 in that video: ua-cam.com/video/95ENQDE7nvg/v-deo.htmlm15s I'm sure I'm forgetting some things, but hope that helps!
Not sure about what's available in Ontario, but for drinking at least here in Shenzhen it's usually called 'huangjiu' (which is the category of alcohol that Shaoxing wine belongs to). I think mijiu (rice wine) is a much better starting point for being introduced into Chinese alcohol though - I especially love the sort that's fermented with a touch of pork fat... really smooth. Of course, I have precisely zero clue what's actually available outside China unfortunately. From what I saw in Chinatown Philly there was some pretty mediocre selection. Unfortunately when it comes to Chinese alcohol the nicer stuff can kinda take a bit of work to find, even here in China.
Another great video, but wish you didn't mention 'North China Style' as quite a few techniques aren't exactly people in Shandong, Hebei and Dongbei would do... Especially adding egg to the dumpling skin mixture, I really don't know where that's come from. Sure, in Italian pasta making that's a common technique when you don't get the right flour, so at least eggs give home cooks the yellowness needed. But in China, unless we are making some kind of Chinese pancakes, we wouldn't put eggs into flour mixture especially in the north. If you get a chance to travel to the north and maybe going for dumplings at a friend's house, you will see how they make the real northern style dumply (aka. the real jiaozi). Different families from different provinces in the north may have their own favourite fillings, but the basics are essentially the same. Hope you will one day learn those basic essentials of make a true northern jiaozi.
Yeah while I do still believe these dumplings are tasty and in the ballpark (feel free to disagree), after the Zha Jiang Mian vid we decided it would be best if we took a break from Northern dishes. Our testing relied heavily on (1) eating at Northern restaurants in Shenzhen (which're universally rather inauthentic) (2) researching extensively online (hit or miss) (3) chatting with one ex-chef vendor from Harbin from our local market (really nice resource, but he's just one guy) and (4) feeding stuff to my buddy from outside Harbin (he's... not a picky eater). That approach worked fine for some dishes... but put simply, that's not good enough for us these days. For Cantonese and Sichuanese food we can refer to old school cookbooks, newer cookbooks, culinary school textbooks, culinary industry digests... i.e. proper sources that we can pieces together things with a very high degree of accuracy... *then* research online, chat with people from the market, test against Shenzhen restaurants as so forth. So we're stocking up resources now, we'll get back to Northern stuff in a bit. Soonest, ~3 months; latest ~8 months. Anything you'd like to see?
@@ChineseCookingDemystified Thank you for your video like detailed reply. I totally understand how hard you'd been trying to get these videos put together, especially for cuisines geologically far from Shenzhen. In the west or indeed outside China it's hard for people to realise or even believe how regional Chinese food can be. In fact, chefs/cooks usually can only master food from their own region or even city/town, eg. how different Chengdu hotpot can be from Chongqing hotpot even though they belong to the same regional cuisine and likewise Shanghai xiaolongbao is very different from Hangzhou tangbao, again same kind of food from same cuisine region. I'm totally for self-adopting when trying to cook the same recipe with limited resources such as cooking Chinese on ceramic hob in the west or limitation of ingredients. However, with millions of cooking shows/videos online or TV, if possible we ought to make sure the basics need to be as close to the theory behind the original recipe. Again I fully understand how hard it must be. So, maybe just maybe narrowing your cuisine style for now and only slowly and naturally introduce more whenever they are fully ready to be videoed (that's just purely my own option)? As for what next, I personally like to see the most popular dish in the whole of China to be researched and tried: Hongshaorou (red braised pork). Sure, not all Chinese cuisines have this dish. But if there's a survey to be done on the most popular dish, I have no doubt out of 1.4 billion people Hongshaorou would have the most of votes. However, if you are going to try this dish, then you might want to try at least three versions from three different regions. I would say firstly try the Shanghainese version which is the purest version of all (sure some may find too sweet), secondly try the now famous Mao style which has a bit of spicy kick in it (again may not suit everyone's taste), finally Sichuanese style has to be tried as that's really the most popular style of cuisine in mainland and strangely Chinese restaurants big cities in Europe too.
Oh yeah, totally. Personally, I like making some egg with jiucai, freezing them, and having them around for breakfast. Are Chinese chives also cheap where you live?
Chinese Cooking Demystified tbh I never seen Chinese Chives here, I only found the Plant Package to Plant it myself. any subtitute that you can suggest?
You can use cabbage of course, or any other "sturdier" vegetables that doesn't wilt that easily. Oh, zucchini is also a classic with eggs. Play with it and find your favorite! :)
I always have the pan lid in one hand and the water in the other when making pot stickers. As soon as the water goes in I cover it immediately. Not cause I'm scared of fire, but cause I hate cleaning up spatters and it's also really loud. If it helps you in the future, you can also turn the fire off when you add the water.
I kew there will be some people questioning my folding/pleating skills. We just opted for this style because it is the most common home cooking style. Trust me, I can pleat dumplings.
+Steph - Chinese Cooking Demystified Once Har Gow comes out any doubt will be put to rest lol +Gary Lundberg For boiled dumplings you usually don't see the fancier wrapping jobs even at dumpling joints. Do a quick google image search of "北京水饺"
Super authentic! My wife is from Harbin and her family cooks them EXACTLY this way. Love it.
Hey guys, a few notes:
1. First off, just know that there's a million different ways to make dumplings - it's one of those dishes where every family has their own way of doing it.
2. Many people don't season the water and the oil like we did. Instead, they'll either add five spice, thirteen spice, or there's also some thirteen-spice like mixes that are sold specifically for dumplings. We prefer the seasoned water/oil approach though because the spice is much more mellow and in the background.
3. So there's a reason the ginger and the Sichuan peppercorn went in the water instead of frying in the oil. For the ginger, many people straight up mince the ginger into the meat, which I quite like... ginger water is a way for you to get the flavor of the ginger without big chunks of ginger lying around. For the Sichuan peppercorn, the flavonoids that cause the 'numbing' sensation are oil-soluable, and that's not the taste we're aiming for. We want the floral sort of fragrance of the peppercorns, and the water'll accomplish that.
4. If you got some stock lying around, using stock in place of water for your ginger/peppercorn liquid is always a good idea.
5. As I said in the video, the dumplings we made are some pretty big suckers. You don't need to walk that mile with us, 10-15 gram wrappers are what you'd find in most dumpling shops around China. There's benefits and drawbacks to a larger dumpling - the cool thing is that you've got a greater ratio of filling to wrapper, so the taste of that hard-fought filling's a bit more obvious. The drawback is that for the undetermined they're not really bite sized ;)
6. If you want to go with a smaller dumpling, my recommendation would be to double the chicken boullion powder to 1 tsp. That was my original amount before we swapped to the larger dumplings - we just found with that greater filling to skin ratio it was a touch too salty. Remember, the skins are unflavored so for smaller dumplings you need things to be a bit saltier.
7. One brief slip up when I was narrating, the amount of liaojiu that you're adding to the eggs is 1 tsp, not 1 tbsp. Not the end of the world if you toss in a little extra there, so I decided against fixing it in the video.
8. Apologies for the late upload, this was actually quite involved to film and cut. I'm happy I was able to get it under ten minutes. Hopefully I can get the written recipe up ASAP, but I got some work to do today unfortunately.
EDIT: The fennel we're using is 'common fennel', which is *different* than the fennel that's commonly used in the USA (i.e. Florence fennel). Huge thanks to Dennis D for the heads up, and apologies for giving another tough to source thing - learn something new every day. If you're looking for a sub, the first thing that comes to my head would be dill, but please don't hold me to that.
totally! when i was little, my parents and my siblings and i would get a production line going... dad and my older sister would roll out the wrappers and my mom and i would form the dumplings... and my older brother would just eat them all hahaha! :-) i'll have to try some of the tricks you mentioned here. thanks for the cool video!!!!
Oh yeah, that's definitely the best way to go about it. Those skins got a nasty tendency to dry out, so rolling and wrapping concurrently with family/friends is ideal. Though I *will* say that I've met some older people from the North that can somehow pump out dumplings, by themselves, in 30-45 minutes. I'm not that experienced lol
What fillings did your family usually do? If you'd like to drop a little recipe I can include it in the reddit post too :)
猪肉白菜，三鲜饺子，猪肉香菇！Hi Chris, thank you for this wonderful video. I loved it! Do you have any plans on making another (maybe a part 2) with 3 more different fillings? Dumplings are fantastic!
...there is a thirteen-spice mixture? I have never heard of this!
And, being less than in perfect health (as in, I ain't very strong in the upper body and I don't have a stand mixer) I'd probably follow your brother's lead here. Besides, eating that many dumplings? It's a dirty job, but someone has to do it...
you guys are the first source I've seen that addresses the protein levels in flour as a key aspect, very informative, thank love the content.
Haha, I'm really into baking and love to make stuff like country bread, so discussing protein level in flour just seems like a natural thing you'd consider when choosing different types of flour, lol. It does make a huge difference and many peoole may overlook this aspect. So I think it's useful to point out. Btw, you can also use AP here, but it will lack of that chewiness.
Steph - Chinese Cooking Demystified I always use high protein flour for denser loaves of bread, so I can see how that works have you played around with high starch doughs at all I've seen some recipes use wheat starch? Also some bread recipes call for a light steaming or being submerged in an acid bath to improve chewiness (pretzel bread and potato bread come to mind), what do you think of using AP as you say but adding baking soda to the water to create carbonic acid it could be a work around for those who can't find dumpling flour or flour with similar protein levels? I would have to be a lot either 1/2 tsp probably at most and some salt.
I'm so used to this, as Canadian flour has more protein i usually have to add more water to recipes, haha
That flavored oil idea is GENIUS!
Yeah I'm a big fan of that approach over simply tossing in five spice/thirteen spice. There was a (now closed, sadly) dumpling shop close to our house in Shenzhen that did that method, and I really enjoyed their dumplings.
The fennel you're using is foeniculum vulgare--common fennel. That is not the Florence fennel (bulb fennel) that is generally available in the US. Common fennel has a distinctive aroma and its fronds are great in cooking. Florence fennel's bulb is good for salads and braising, but its fronds are much less distinctive in flavor.
However, if common fennel is not easy to find you can grow it from seed, available from seed companies.
Oh damn, thank you. That was a huge blind spot for me, I simply assumed that the fennel was the same. Super obvious in hindsight, given that I've never really seen fennel bulb at the market here. I'll edit the notes above and talk about it a bit in the reddit post. Really appreciate the correction.
If you live on the west coast like Cali the common fennel also grows everywhere
You can tell by the very straight and light dried stalks they leave behind when they die
@@kurosujiomake This person is right, common fennel grows like weeds here in Western Oregon too. It's extremely easy to grow from seed as well.
Thank you very much for taking that extra step to explain the use of those ingredients and processes that generally are not common in other cuisine styles (e.g. Baking soda in leek, the use of basic (was it alcaline?) water, boiled water for the dough) It really makes this channel very unique.
I was always told by my father that the reason for adding the cold water while boiling (點水) was so that it gives time for the center of the dumplings to come up to temperature more evenly with the outside.
I see, well that could totally be it too! I was told that it was because rapidly boiling water could break it apart... but that explanation makes sense as well.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified it's actually because if you leave it boiling, the wrapper will overcook before the center is ready, and an overcooked wrapper is very easy to break, I think that's where you get the boil water break it.
@@frankwang7650 that makes sense. both are true at the same time.
Hey hey what do we have here, the best Authentic Chinese cooking channel out there, great weekly videos as always !!!!
Cheers and thx!~
The best English speaking one... he’s great but there are really good ones out there too. Amanda taste for example speaks Chinese but has English subs if you are interested
+WeiYinChan Recently we found that Wang Gang has English Subs too... definitely has to be the best Chinese w/ Eng Sub source out there in our opinion :)
Though Amanda Tastes and Magic Ingredients are both quite legit too. For pure English, we also like Elaine Luo/China Sichuan Food (which we link in our sidebar).
I learned a lot about Chinese cooking from Wang Gang as well, he really got the skill at handling wok, WOK HEI FOR LIFE !!
Right? Description is so on point and detailed! Of course there are many other great channels, but still not on the same level in my opinion.
This channel is amazing!!! I really appreciate the detailed instructions and explanation of why we do this rather than that！ 赞
Thanks! Glad you like it~
Chinese Cooking Demistified, I just made the pork with leek. I have followed your exact recepie. Those were the most juicy dumplings I've made so far! Big thanks for the technique that separates the fat from the lean. The fat melted inside and made the dumpling super juicy and delicious. Until now I only used seasoned water. Now adding the flavored oil just made them superior.
Big thanks and keep making more videos.
I'll be very happy to see you making authentic Chinese wind dried sausage :)
Cheers, glad you like it! I'm planning to do the sausage next month if the weather is cool and dry enough. After all, we live in a sub-tropical climate. :)
@@thisissteph9834 Great to hear that! I'm also waiting for the weather to settle down as I'm drying meat each year. It's called "pastarma".
I like that this one is all business, not jokes etc. thanks.
I will be making the beef ones Monday. I've got new housemates and have been relying on this channel to endear myself to them. Thanks!!
That would work like a charm on me (and most people). Need a new roomie? Lol.
Interesting. My mom always taught me to add the salt to chopped jiu cai as soon as you chop it, and squeeze out the water before mixing it with meat. This is believed to make the flavour more intense, and also prevent the dumplings being soggy. But as you said, there’s probably a million way to do dumplings, and I guess there really isn’t a wrong way.
Thanks for posting this recipe. i always look forward to your videos for inspiration. Also, now I'm hungry.
Thank you !!! Love the detailed explaination of the ingredients and the tips . ❤
Such nice video. I typically use hot water dough for steaming and Luke warm water dough for boiling. Cheers. It's all Delicious
We made the pork and leek recipe, it was delicious, thank you!
chives and pork is my jam... i think that's the one they have in shaxianxiaochi restaurants, ha!
Great video as always folks
Lived in Manzhouli for a while, ate dumplings that looked like boiled steam bun, hard to describe texture, but those dumplings were so good.
Have never been able to find any other like them
pretty cool that this is so different from the ones my family makes. ours are more like 2/3 veggie and mushroom mix and 1/3 meat lol
flish0: we used Napa cabbage (salted then squeezed out the liquid), shitake mushrooms and green onions. Vegetable and meat ratio was like yours.
I love just how detailed everything is
Yess I've been hoping you guys would do dumplings! Amazing. Can't wait to try them.
Yeah, I remember you reqeusted it before. Hope you can give it a try, remember to check out the notes on written recipe too.
I will, planning to make them in a few weeks, I'll be sure to let you know how they turn out... !
You can tag us on Instagram~
I made these today! It took 4 hours and my stomach was complaining "isn't it done yet?" but I persevered. 10/10 would recommend these amazingly tasty dumplings!!
Used chili instead of shichuan pepper and sherry instead of Chinese wine because I didn't have any but it still tasted great.
(Also how do u get the dough so thiiiin omg they were super heavy)
So my dad told me tonight about how he had shantung/shandong dumplings as a kid and hasn’t had them since. I’d like to make them but also am very curious about whether they have a different flavor from other dumplings. Think you could make a video about it? Love your videos, thank you!
Those look delicious. I'll have to make some the next time I'm cooking dumplings.
You two are wonderful, thank you for your great channel.
I don't want to sound rude, but I am afraid to say in all my years in the Northeast of China, I have never once seen egg go into the dumpling skins, that is new for me. But my favorite is pork and chive, as well as chicken and shitake mushroom. But yes the most common is pork and leek as well as egg and chives, haven't seen the beef one though. Normally they just do beef by itself from what I have come across. Don't forget to accompany those dumplings with a side of pickled garlic bulbs to make it really authentic haha I'd have to say from being in the environment, the most common dish from the Northeast is stewed green beans and potatoes with a small amount of pork (what most people regularly eat, from personal experience).
I made this dumpling using the leftovers from hakka stuffed tofu--the amount was perfect. the wrappers ended up a little thick and chewy, and i'm not sure if that means i'm just used to eating store-bought wrappers, or i need to roll the 15g doughs thinner, and add a bit more filling. either way it was awesome!
as always a great video from you. Very interesting and informative.
Hi. I am new to your channel. Do you have a recipe for Xiao Long Bao? Glad I came across your channel - very detailed instructions. Thank you.
Cheers! Nope, not yet :)
Xiao long bao is very difficult. I have tried it at least 3 times. My soup keeps leaking in the steamer.
My fav is the chinese chives/pork mixture filling.
I hope you will try out 韭菜盒子, aka Chinese chives pockets
I also really like the pork and pickled cabbage ones.
Yeah me too. We were super close to doing that one in place of pork and leek... but we wanted to lead off with one that'd be easier to source for people without access to a Chinese supermarket. Pork with leek's always been up there for me personally, so I figured that might be a decent place to start off.
im more of a steamed dumplings person , but very nice vid, i hope you can make another video about "southern" way to do it. aka chives with pork, shop made wrappings and different to fold the dumplings
Veery nice video just wow
Well done on these dumplings! I've always wanted to try these, but I never got around to making it!
It's quite easy. Some of my family's old neighbours from the north can pump this up in half an hour amd feed the whole family.
When I was born, I was a premature and underweight and after a month in the Hospital I only loose weight because I refused to eat my mothers milk. My father worked in another town so when he finally came over to the hospital he didn’t knew that, he happily brought grandfather’s tutsai and egg jiaozi for mom to eat. Luckily it happened at the same time that I was brought for another attempt to be fed. Mom was crying from telling my dad that I could die. Dad opened the lid and the smell filled the room and for the first time, as my mom said, I took an interest in the food and nurse managed to put the bottle to my lips and I finally ate on my own for the first time in my life. Sadly my grandfather died when I was 7 so he couldn’t teach me how to make proper jiaozi, Me and my father attempt every year to make them on my birthday, but it comes out a bit wrong, this year, I’ll try your recipe, probably for Lunar New Year celebration first than on my birthday))) Thank you)
That's a beautiful story, thanks for sharing it.
Couldn't they have given you an NG tube? It's a pretty low tech and simple procedure that can be done while awake. No baby at a hospital would die if they didn't feed well- there are too many options to avoid it
@@erinb4237 now yes, in 1995 Far East Russia, meh. Don’t know if you know, but after USSR brake everything broke in Russia. All those stereotypes you know are from very poor times of 90s. USSR was pretty high tech and machines that worked and things that were used in hospitals in 90s were from 70-80 USSR and ppl who worked there would still things to sell on the side. No one really cared about health of ppl back than. Anyway they wouldn’t do it past 6 weeks, I was in the hospital in the special box (no idea how it called) for a month with all the tubes and needles before father came to hospital.
@@juliiashan4730 the incubator? NG tubes had been in use for around a century by the time you were in the hospital. It's weird that they wouldn't have one
lovely story, thank you for sharing. i hope your dumplings came out well!
When i watch a cookingvideo nowadays that is not starting with the word "today..' it feels somehow wrong to me.
Your videos helped me alot to find back to my passion in some darker hours..
Last but not least a question; i made hundreds of these dumplings now so i start wondering if i can panfry them too or if you recommend to make another dough therefor.
Much love
Love the video!
Could you guys possibly do a video on how to make 酸辣土豆絲? I love that dish but I've never made it myself before.
Cheers, and that dish's a great request. It's a bit easier to tackle so it might happen sooner rather than later.
Awesome! Thanks so much! 謝謝 加油～
Love you guys!
I’m making dumplings. I really like that you made the dumpling skins. No fuss no muss. I’m curious as to what type of mixer you use. I live in the U.S. can I get one here.
I think your lean meat-fat-veggie ratio was off? You seemed to say 2/3, then 1/3, and then 1/3 again. And do you use kosher salt or table salt?
Fantastic！Feels like home！
Home style dumplings are indeed quite comforting.
Can I make the Jiazi dough in a food processor, like my pizza dough?
I find it super interesting that those are kind of in between the southern chinese ones and russian pelmeni. Makes sense I guess it is in between
Thanks for the video
I live in the DC Metro area where unfortunately Chinese ingredients/stores are basically non-existant. Do you have any recommendations for Liaojiu that you can get off Amazon?
Could you substitute with chicken or pork? What measurements could I use instead?
As you say, it's traditional to add cold water to damp down rapid boiling (which might break open the jiaozi) - but surely with modern cookers nowadays you can just adjust the flame?
Looks super tasty.
Likely made 100,000 dumplings in China (mostly shandong) and can’t say this looks authentic at all.
Oh boooy.. I've been waiting for something like this. Is this like western leek ,or closer(identical?) to japanese/korean "Long green onion"?
Yep, basically the same, though Chinese leeks are slightly longer. The 'long green onion' is also around in NE-style food, and could also totally work here too.
In the US, dill is the equivalence of 茴香.
I was getting worried about you guys 😂 glad everything’s normal and as always, thanks for the video
Haha yeah apologies, ended up being a day late. There was like a mountain of clips to color grade, and it was particularly tough because we've been getting typhoon weather recently. Will be up at the proper time next week!
Chinese Cooking Demystified No problem at all, it’s just that it has kinda become part of my routine to wait for your new video, so this was anormal :)
Anyway, what’s the proper method for making this if you want to fry them and then boil in the same pan (don’t know how this is called), i always end with either undercooked filling or overcooked skin.
Also is the chinese name for dumplings jiaozi or there’s another name?
Yep, these are jiaozi. There's a lot of different things that're translated as 'dumplings' in English - e.g. Xiaolongbao are often translated as 'soup dumplings' and I've seen Zongzi translated as 'sticky rice dumplings' (Xiaolongbao I get... but who decided on 'sticky rice dumplings' lol). In my own head, jiaozi = dumpling.
If you wanna pan-fry them, put enough oil to get a thin layer on the bottom of the wok. Medium-low heat, fry the dumpling til they get a bit crispy on the bottom, 3-5 minutes. Add in a few tablespoons of water, cover, and let steam, ~6-8 minutes. If the water dries up too fast, add just add in some more water.
Just need some clarification - if I freeze them then I freeze them uncooked right?
First, thanks for showing us how to make dumplings! I've been waiting for this for a long time.
In the video, while rolling out the pre-cut dough, you didn't cover them with either a damp cloth or plastic wrap. Don't you worry about them drying out? And what is your opinion about boiling vs. steaming the dumplings?
And lastly, would you put Hong You Chao Shou (红油抄手) on your list?
So yeah, I think that's something I perhaps didn't communicate effectively in the video - we had a lot of dumplings to get through, and figuring out the structure of how we'd film it was a challenge.
What we did there is cut the ring into four pieces. When you see Steph rolling that bit out thinner, that was 1/4 of the dough.. the other pieces went back into the plastic bag. Then when rolling out the wrappers themselves, there wasn't really much of a time lag in between rolling the wrapper and filling them... those wrappers were rolled in about five minutes and then we moved on to filling them.
So right, that's definitely a variable... don't want them drying out on ya.
Re boiling vs steaming - both are good choices and ultimately it's just personal preference. The big advantage of steaming is that you can get all fancy with the wrapping technique and make the dumplings look real nice. Texture wise it's a bit different... boiling gives the dumplings a smoother texture while steaming gives them a bit more of a bite if that makes any sense? For the sort of dumplings we did in this video I personally prefer boiled, but either way is totally cool.
Chinese Cooking Demystified since I just had some steamed dumplings yesterday, I recall that they are indeed had a chewier skin than boiled ones.
Very well done
Another one of my favourite :-) Thank you
Cheers~
Could you figure ouy din tai fung taiwanese dumplings? How do they get such yummy juice inside without a mushy skin??
From what I know, it is a traditional Chinese cooking approach in making food like xiao long bao. They just simply add meat jelly into the filling. When you boil or steam the dumpling or baozi, the jelly melts to the nice juice.
This is excellent. I love dumplings and I am quite interested in northern Chinese cooking (which is a lot less covered than Cantonese or Sichuan). I like the addition of the egg in the dough; I've only ever done that with Sichuan wontons. Would you recommend a lower hydration dough to make it easier to handle? I ted to overshoot with my water as I'm used to making sourdough bread, which often requires more water. Your hydration is 40% (very low) but that doesn't count the egg.
I quite like making dumplings for lunch, but I tend to prefer lighter meals, so I opt for egg. Have you come across any other vegetarian fillings?
So dumplings need a lower hydration dough in order for it to be a bit sturdier, have some bite to it.
The egg's kind of optional - I'd say it's about half/half whether people add it or not. The egg makes the dough a bit more elastic... you're right that it'd slightly change the hyrdration... white's 90% water and yolks are 48%, so assuming 50g in one egg and that eggs are 50% yolk by weight (I'm not really sure off the top of my head) that's ~42% hydration if my math's right?
To be completely honest, I got that recipe for the dough a while back from the back of a bag of dumpling flour here and just never saw any reason to adjust it lol.
Re vegetarian dumpling fillings... there's a whole category of fillings called 'su jiaozi xian' which aren't meat-focused but usually aren't strictly vegetarian (egg and jiucai belongs to this category).
Confused me for a while because 'su' often refers to vegetarian in Mandarin (i.e. '素食'), but especially up north can refer to things that're light or 'aren't meat-focused'. Regardless, if you're cooking for a vegetarian those sorts of fillings would be a great starting point (and are usually pescatarian as is). This's in Chinese but is a nice list of 20 different 'su' dumpling fillings, Google translate should give a general idea: www.haocai777.com/Article/ruchu/12698.html
One of my personal favorites is the sort with smoked bean curd :)
Thanks for the detailed response. Much appreciated. I definitely need to pay attention to my water content. I made dumplings last weekend and they were a pain to handle due to my overzealous use of water!
Thanks for the the link, too. I'll look into it. Smoked bean curd sounds amazing and I think I'll have to try it.
Suthseaxa Some of the most popular vegetarian dumpling fillings are: cabbage, mushroom (especially Wood ear mushroom, but shiitakes are also popular), carrots, Chinese chives, glass noodles, and various kinds of tofu products (e.g. tofu skin, dried tofu, smoked bean curd... etc). I feel like you could choose any of those and season them with their recipe, and it would be good and light.
I have a lot of these ingredients to hand, I have just never considered using as a dumpling filling. Definitely going to try some of now, so thank you!
I am such a sucker for dumplings--I have got to try doing this myself someday!
might offend dumpling purists but if you really can't get bread flour for whatever reason, my parents from Northern China (Beijing and Liaoning province) use all-purpose flour for dumplings. so AP flour is fine in a pinch
low view and subs...
you guys deserve more...
thank you for the recipe
Can you use a meat grinder or blender?
Thank u so much these look awesome! What would a mushroom or tofu filling look like?
Try to swap the eggs in the chives filling and sub it with finely diced smoked tofu. If you're doing mushrooms, dice it, marinate it with some soy sauce and a touch of sugar, coat with oil, let it sit for half an hour, give a quick fry, then add to your chives (or other vegetables) fillings.
Steph - Chinese Cooking Demystified
Thank you!!
You have a great voice and you obviously speak Chinese. Have you ever thought about doing dubbing for Chinese movies to English. It pays a lot of money. I know - I am in the biz.
Any tips on cutting the "juicyness" of the meat fillings? I mean, juicy is good, but the juice and meat are separate within the dough and it just runs out everywhere when eating. Is that supposed to happen, or do I need to tweak my filling?
How common are vegetarian dishes in the Hong Kong area? I'd love to see more veggie dishes, if that's something that is authentic.
It's quite common, usually it'd be Buddhism dishes, and we're looking into making some of those. It's just that we got so many requests to work through, lol.
So as far as the protein for the dumplings I was taught to ball the meat up and slam into the bowl in a throwing motion is that right or is my friend just makin fun with me?
Nope, totally legitimate technique... called 'dat' (挞). Used a bunch in Cantonese cooking, we've included it in many other recipes we've had on this channel (e.g. wonton soup, Siumai). The slamming motion develops 'springy-ness' in the meat filling, though I'm fuzzy on what the science is behind that.
We didn't mostly because I didn't really come across any Northerners that used that approach when researching. Could potentially just be a blind spot, and if you 'dat' it it definitely won't hurt anything!
Chinese Cooking Demystified man you guys are so awesome 👍🏽👍🏽 much love from the San Francisco Bay Area
Maybe by compacting the meat, the meat wants to spring back to it's original shape. Kind of like tightening a rope (and muscles are basically ropes). My dad is a Cantonese cook and he taught me the technique but I haven't seen Northern cooks do it. Maybe it's full of shit. It'd be interesting to do 2 batches side by side and see if it can pass a blind taste test.
cent0r Hmmm 🤔
Could you steam or fry these as well?
not sure about steaming, but you can definitely fry them. be generous with the oil!
Is there any practical difference between repeatedly adding water to manage a boil vs adjusting your heat to maintain a constant low boil? Most non-Chinese recipes for this type of food (pierogi, pelmeni, ravioli and other filled pastas) simply call for modulating heat during the boil (if necessary), and my Chinese mother was always weirded out when I boiled anything this way without adding splashes of cold water.
Would I be correct in assuming (with no basis whatsoever) that this technique was developed when cooking over a heat source that was not finely adjustable, like an open fire or wood-burning wok stove?
I haven't exactly done any A/B testing haha, but you're right that I don't think there'd be much practical difference.This is simply the way we've been taught to boil dumplings, and we like to keep our editorializing to an absolute minimum :)
That makes sense, and thank you so much for your reply! This is hands-down one of the best cooking channels on UA-cam: I admire the way you educate us on frequently-mistunderstood traditional techniques while offering some modern shortcuts, as well as your straightforward and totally nonpretentious way of presenting your skills and knowledge. I don't think there's any better place on the internet to learn about Chinese food and cooking. Huge fan, keep it up!
Looks delicious! Are you guys ever gonna buy a mortar?
Haha the restaurant supply store at our market doesn't have the big ones... it'll happen eventually.
please do Hong Kong style Portuguese baked chicken and potato rice please
i love chinese 🥟
Where would you guys recommend I shop for cleavers online? Is getting an inexpensive but sturdy cleaver a fantasy or what? I always struggle hand mincing stuff with my western knife :/
Just about any Asian market that is local to you wool most likely have one for sell. I picked up a fairly hefty one for around $20, full tang with a wooden handle. The spine is nearly a quarter inch.
@@woodenspoon380 I live in NYC so, we have three Chinatowns and most stuff offered in the Chinese kitchen supply stores is 1) overpriced 2) extremely poor quality. Was wondering if I'm better off just getting it shipped from China? I just dunno where to look.
Old post, but..check out Japanese Chef Knife site..awesome knives..
Just one correction, do not put cooking wine into the stuffing. I would recommend chopping the fat into minced and make the skin thinner
What if I wanted to do beef with the chives? Would every Chinese cook “clutch their pearls?”
Aweeesome!
I would love to see recipes for dipping sauces for dumplings
So the basic one is just a plain dark Chinese vinegar, preferably what's called 'Shanxi Mature Vinegar', but 'Chinkiang Vinegar' is also ok if that's what you've got around. If neither are available, balsamic isn't exactly the same but would still make for tasty dipping.
Besides that, the most common thing to add to your vinegar is 'youlazi' chili oil. It's the sort of Chinese chili oil that you'll usually find recipes of online. We have a recipe for it contained in our Sichuan Cold noodles video (the star anise and Sichuan peppercorn are optional but recommended there): ua-cam.com/video/95ENQDE7nvg/v-deo.htmlm26s
You'll also find some people that add soy sauce to their dipping sauce. It's not totally my thing, but Steph usually adds a bit of soy sauce to hers.
Lastly, in many places you'll see some garlic water. We also show how to make garlic water in the cold noodles video - the primary difference is that in NE restaurants I usually see the garlic minced (not pounded) and kept in with the water. It's at 1:15 in that video: ua-cam.com/video/95ENQDE7nvg/v-deo.htmlm15s
I'm sure I'm forgetting some things, but hope that helps!
Can anyone recommend a Shaoxing wine I could drink, here in Ontario?
Not sure about what's available in Ontario, but for drinking at least here in Shenzhen it's usually called 'huangjiu' (which is the category of alcohol that Shaoxing wine belongs to). I think mijiu (rice wine) is a much better starting point for being introduced into Chinese alcohol though - I especially love the sort that's fermented with a touch of pork fat... really smooth.
Of course, I have precisely zero clue what's actually available outside China unfortunately. From what I saw in Chinatown Philly there was some pretty mediocre selection. Unfortunately when it comes to Chinese alcohol the nicer stuff can kinda take a bit of work to find, even here in China.
Why do you always say “aka shao xing (spelling?) wine” instead of just the first term OR the second. Why always both names in every video?
For new subscribers that don't know what it is...?
Another great video, but wish you didn't mention 'North China Style' as quite a few techniques aren't exactly people in Shandong, Hebei and Dongbei would do... Especially adding egg to the dumpling skin mixture, I really don't know where that's come from. Sure, in Italian pasta making that's a common technique when you don't get the right flour, so at least eggs give home cooks the yellowness needed. But in China, unless we are making some kind of Chinese pancakes, we wouldn't put eggs into flour mixture especially in the north. If you get a chance to travel to the north and maybe going for dumplings at a friend's house, you will see how they make the real northern style dumply (aka. the real jiaozi). Different families from different provinces in the north may have their own favourite fillings, but the basics are essentially the same. Hope you will one day learn those basic essentials of make a true northern jiaozi.
Yeah while I do still believe these dumplings are tasty and in the ballpark (feel free to disagree), after the Zha Jiang Mian vid we decided it would be best if we took a break from Northern dishes. Our testing relied heavily on (1) eating at Northern restaurants in Shenzhen (which're universally rather inauthentic) (2) researching extensively online (hit or miss) (3) chatting with one ex-chef vendor from Harbin from our local market (really nice resource, but he's just one guy) and (4) feeding stuff to my buddy from outside Harbin (he's... not a picky eater).
That approach worked fine for some dishes... but put simply, that's not good enough for us these days. For Cantonese and Sichuanese food we can refer to old school cookbooks, newer cookbooks, culinary school textbooks, culinary industry digests... i.e. proper sources that we can pieces together things with a very high degree of accuracy... *then* research online, chat with people from the market, test against Shenzhen restaurants as so forth.
So we're stocking up resources now, we'll get back to Northern stuff in a bit. Soonest, ~3 months; latest ~8 months. Anything you'd like to see?
@@ChineseCookingDemystified Thank you for your video like detailed reply. I totally understand how hard you'd been trying to get these videos put together, especially for cuisines geologically far from Shenzhen. In the west or indeed outside China it's hard for people to realise or even believe how regional Chinese food can be. In fact, chefs/cooks usually can only master food from their own region or even city/town, eg. how different Chengdu hotpot can be from Chongqing hotpot even though they belong to the same regional cuisine and likewise Shanghai xiaolongbao is very different from Hangzhou tangbao, again same kind of food from same cuisine region. I'm totally for self-adopting when trying to cook the same recipe with limited resources such as cooking Chinese on ceramic hob in the west or limitation of ingredients. However, with millions of cooking shows/videos online or TV, if possible we ought to make sure the basics need to be as close to the theory behind the original recipe. Again I fully understand how hard it must be. So, maybe just maybe narrowing your cuisine style for now and only slowly and naturally introduce more whenever they are fully ready to be videoed (that's just purely my own option)? As for what next, I personally like to see the most popular dish in the whole of China to be researched and tried: Hongshaorou (red braised pork). Sure, not all Chinese cuisines have this dish. But if there's a survey to be done on the most popular dish, I have no doubt out of 1.4 billion people Hongshaorou would have the most of votes. However, if you are going to try this dish, then you might want to try at least three versions from three different regions. I would say firstly try the Shanghainese version which is the purest version of all (sure some may find too sweet), secondly try the now famous Mao style which has a bit of spicy kick in it (again may not suit everyone's taste), finally Sichuanese style has to be tried as that's really the most popular style of cuisine in mainland and strangely Chinese restaurants big cities in Europe too.
that egg dumpling seems good for my low budget meal
Oh yeah, totally. Personally, I like making some egg with jiucai, freezing them, and having them around for breakfast. Are Chinese chives also cheap where you live?
Chinese Cooking Demystified tbh I never seen Chinese Chives here, I only found the Plant Package to Plant it myself. any subtitute that you can suggest?
You can use cabbage of course, or any other "sturdier" vegetables that doesn't wilt that easily. Oh, zucchini is also a classic with eggs. Play with it and find your favorite! :)
Steph - Chinese Cooking Demystified thanks. i will try it out :D
THAT FUCKING TAP
Meat is good
有微博吗
想听中文的
哈哈，暂时没有啦。因为做英文的已经很费时间（每天晚上都要测试菜谱～周末就要拍摄～），而我们两个都有全职工作，暂时没有精力做中文版的了。不过我有考虑先将文字菜谱翻译成中文先，之后如果能找到人帮忙的话，就加中文字幕。打算下半年先开始翻译菜谱～如果开始推中文的内容，就微博啦～
Is it wierd that when I tried to make Guo Tie i nearly burnt my house down?
Use less oil and lower the heat ;)
I always have the pan lid in one hand and the water in the other when making pot stickers. As soon as the water goes in I cover it immediately. Not cause I'm scared of fire, but cause I hate cleaning up spatters and it's also really loud.
If it helps you in the future, you can also turn the fire off when you add the water.
I’m always kind of freaked out by the amount of oil people use in Chinese cooking...
Yeah Dumplings ain't a diet food :)
phew, i just made this and i now understand why chinese people are so thin. cutting and mixing that pork burned some calories!
I've seen others fold their pleats differently. More professionally too.
I kew there will be some people questioning my folding/pleating skills. We just opted for this style because it is the most common home cooking style. Trust me, I can pleat dumplings.
+Steph - Chinese Cooking Demystified Once Har Gow comes out any doubt will be put to rest lol
+Gary Lundberg For boiled dumplings you usually don't see the fancier wrapping jobs even at dumpling joints. Do a quick google image search of "北京水饺"
Or just buy ground pork?
If you buy ground pork, get the super lean ones and buy some fat separately. Otherwise, the ground fat will melt and make for an oily dumpling.
Can't stand 茴香