Jiaozi is a Chinese dumpling and it is a hot favorite among Chinese households. Jiaozi can be steamed, boiled, or pan fried. The pan fried version is known as guotie (pot stickers) or gyoza in Japan. As the name implies, the dumpling stuck slightly to the wok at the end of cooking but it could be easily removed by nudging it using a spatula.

While jiaozi filling commonly consists of meat and/or vegetables, there’s no limit to what you can add in it. You can make the filling with the ingredients you like/have on hand. Both taste and textures are very important in dumpling making. For me, I love to add shitake mushrooms, carrots, and wombok leaves together with the mince pork to produce different textures (bitey and crunchy). The filling smells and taste wonderful with the addition of seasonings such as sesame oil, shaoxing wine, good quality soy sauce, grated ginger, and garlic. The wrapper and wrapping style for guotie is different from deep fried wontons. Guotie wrappers are white in color, round-shaped, and thicker compared to wonton wrappers. My first jiaozi attempt which was 3 years ago was unsuccessful and I ended up with disintegrated dumplings as I did not seal the dumpling properly. Make sure you pinch the edges of the dumpling firmly so that they won’t break apart when cooking.

Crispy skin on the bottom and tenderly soft skin on the top.

Vibrant filling.

Scoop, fold into half, pleat and pinch.

Guo Tieh (Pot Stickers) (Yields: 64)

Ingredients

• 300 g mince pork
• 8 wombok cabbage leaves
• 1 tsp salt (to salt the wombok leaves)
• 10-12 dried shitake mushrooms
• 1 carrot (peeled and finely diced)
• 1/2 tsp grated ginger
• 2 cloves garlic (crushed)
• 1 tsp shaoxing wine
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 1/2 tsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp sugar
• 6-7 dashes of white pepper
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbs cornflour

Wrapping

• 2 packets round dumpling wrapper (white color)
• A small bowl of water

Cooking

• Oil for pan frying
• Water for steaming

Dipping sauce

• 2 tbs mirin
• 3 tbs soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp garlic oil
• 2 tbs black vinegar
• 1 tsp chopped spring onions

Methods

Filling

1. Soak the dried shitake mushrooms in a bowl of hot water for 15 min. Squeeze out the water and dice the mushrooms. Put the diced mushrooms in a large bowl.
2. Rinse the wombok leaves and pat then dry with paper towel. Coarsely dice them and put mix the coarsely diced wombok leaves with 1 tsp salt in a bowl and leave it for about 30 min to remove the moisture. Using a spoon, press the diced leaves in a sieve to squeeze out the water. Then, put the wombok leaves into the bowl containing the diced mushrooms.
3. In the same bowl, combine the rest of the ingredients and mix them well.

Wrapping

1. Place the round dumpling wrapper flat on your palm.
2. Using a teaspoon, scoop the filling place it in the middle of the wrapper. Do not put too much filling or else it’ll burst during cooking.
3. Dip your finger in a small bowl of water and wet around the edges of the wrapper. Fold the wrapper into half. On the right end, make a small pleat fold on the side of the wrapper facing you. Repeat the same for the left end. Press the pleat into the back wrapper and pinch them FIRMLY together to seal the edges.
4. Cook the dumplings in batches. Heat 2 tbs oil in a wok over medium high heat. Arrange the dumplings flat side down and let it fry for 1-2 min.
5. Add 1/4 cup of water into the wok and cover it with a lid. Let it steam for 5-6 min.
6. Open the lid, let the remaining water evaporate.
7. Remove the dumplings and serve them warm.
8. Repeat Step 4-Step 7 for the next batches.

Dipping Sauce

1. In a small bowl, combine all the ingredients for the dipping sauce and stir until well combined. Serve with dumplings.

Tagged: carrot, Chinese, chinese dumpling, dinner, dumplings, food, guotie, gyoza, jiaozi, lunch, pork, pot stickers, shitake mushrooms, wombok, wrapper