Dumplings shui jiao
Dumplings, or shui jiao, are one of my favourite foods. They are really tasty but also the perfect food for a working couple like Chris and I, for whom both of us work shift patterns.
Living in the UK is so different to living in Taiwan. Taiwan has many 7-11 shops which are open 24 hours, night market which are open until midnight and a lot of 24 hours restaurants such as Swensens, N.Y. Bagel and Citystar 24 hours Dim sum restaurant.
Whenever I make dumplings I always make at least 100 to 150. Compared to dumplings that you can buy in restaurants here, which normally cost about 拢1 each, we can make 100 hundred at home for approximately 拢10. This works out at around 10p each.
When I鈥檝e made the dumplings I put them in the freezer in case we run out food or feel hungry in the night or just come back home from work.
This recipe is just one of the methods of making dumplings that I have used for a very long time. It鈥檚 a very common but also basic flavour in Taiwan. Of course there are so many different kind of filling that you can put it into your dumplings such as shitake mushroom, scallops, cabbage, cucumber, chinese white chive, carrots, prawns and so on.
Maybe you can try different filling at home and you could easily create your own special kind of dumplings!
By the way, some Chinese provinces have a new year鈥檚 tradition which is when the people will eat dumplings for New Year鈥檚 Eve and sometime they will put a coin inside the dumpling. The person who has the dumpling with that coin will be the luckiest one in the coming year.
Credit: These photos were taken by Chris at Chris Radley Photography
Dumplings Shui Jiao
Ingredients
Ingredients
- 150 dumpling pastry sheets 1 pack usually has around 50 sheets
- 600 g pork mince you can also use beef mince
- 400 g pork fat or pork belly without skin fat or fatty meat will improve the texture and taste
- 2 spring onions
- 1 handful dried shrimp soak in warm water for 15-20 minutes to soften then chop finely
- 300 g Chinese chive chop finely
- 30 g ginger chop finely
Seasonings
- 3 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp sugar
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- Couple pinches white pepper
Instructions
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Mix all the ingredients and seasonings evenly and leave it on aside for 30 minutes.
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Make dumplings as the procedures photo shows. You can use a little bit of water to help the edge of dumpling pastry to stick together.
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Place the dumplings onto a plate with some flour on the plate to prevent dumplings stick on the plate.
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Boil a big pot of water and cook dumplings in the boiling water.
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When the dumplings float on the top of water they are cooked and ready to be served.
Recipe Notes
The amount of time to prepare these depends on how many you make. I'm pretty quick at making dumplings and I'll make anywhere between 80-150 each time. Typically I'll spend 2-3 hours making dumplings.
Love the dumpling picture tutorial.
Scrumptious dumplings! I love the filling, yum!
Scrumptious dumplings! I love this filling, yum!
I love dumplings too! These look delicious! My mom just taught me her no-recipe gyoza but I’m going to save your recipe so I can make this for my family. 馃檪
Dumplings are delicious! I like the way you pleat them.
Hello,
I’ve fixed the “comment” problem on my blog and I think now should be fine won’t show any error message anymore.
Thank you for your comment.
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thank you very much !
Great! Love these….sometimes I make them with chicken apple sausage and then season to whatever my theme of the meal is…
Thanks!
Hi Tricia,
Chicken, apple, sausage this combination sounds so cool I must try that sometime. Is any kind of sausage or you use some certain kind of sausage ?
Oh Liv, these dumplings are calling my name! I do the same when making stuff like this, I make a lot. I don’t know how to make dumpling but now I can follow your recipe!
Hi Tanantha,
I’m happy that my recipe helps. I hope you will enjoy it and have fun making dumplings.
I bet my girls would love to make these…..they sound delicious
Hi Dennis,
I hope your girls will enjoy this dumplings however the chinese chive smells a bit strong before they been cooked. Some people might afraid of that smell lol.
Dumplings are one of my favorites too, I love your recipe. I would love to try it but I’m afraid of the work of making the pastry from scratch since I can’t get them ready made.I’ll keep looking . Beautiful photos.
Hello Nancy,
Where do you live? Do you have Chinese supermarket in the city you live ? Chinese supermarket usually sale Dumpling pastry. if there is no chinese supermarket around the city that you live maybe you really have to make dumpling pastry by yourself or you can try Japanese groceries because I know Japanese people eat dumplings too.
Good luck!!
Hi, Can you please let me know he brand or email me the picture of the Dumpling pastry that you use? I have used a couple of different ones before and they all taste like boiled dough, or they are too thick… yours look just about right … Many Thanks Jenny
Hi Jenny,
I will upload the photo on my latest blog “Taiwanese deep fried chicken and sweet potato chips”. I hope this will help you a bit.
Hey! Just read your recipe and I love it. Unfortunately the picture is missing. I live in London and I am from Hong Kong. I love Wonton and Shui Jiao. I have been searching for Shui Jiao recipes and it seems to me that everyone has different idea of what is in a Shui Jiao. Can you tell me what is the main difference between Shui Jiao and Jiao Zi? And how do you wrap a Shui Jiao? Is it the same way you do with Wonton or any way you prefer? Thanks!
Hi, thanks for your comment. Shui Jiao and Jiao Zi are exactly the same thing, just with different names. Both are the kind of dumplings that you boil in water but the fillings vary. I’ve just reuploaded the procedure photo but if you have anymore questions please ask.
Thanks
Liv