Hope you guys are well and, if you live in the UK, are enjoying the long awaited summer sunshine that the weather gods have finally bestowed on us. I’m thrilled that the weather is finally improving, although I am not able to take full advantage of it yet. I’m off to London today for a week to prep my bachelorette flat for completion so I’ve spent the last few days prepping for this.
I don’t have that much to do once I get to London, other than get rid of some furniture, pack up bits and pieces I used for staging, give the place a bit of a clean (as it’s probably quite dusty) and mow the lawn. Other than that I plan to sit out in the sun, perhaps hit some shops and visit a friend or two, although since it’s Bank Holiday here most have them are out of town unfortunately. It’s going to be interesting as I need to get rid of a bed, mattress, fridge, sofa, table and chairs so towards the end of my stay, I expect to be having ready meals cross-legged on the floor!!
Inspired by green yet still cool spring here in the UK, I made some potstickers filled with vibrant green edamame (although green peas would work just as well) seasoned with Japanese horseradish, popularly known as wasabi. These dumplings are not hard to make and worth the time spent, I promise. I personally find making the dough and rolling the wrappers quite therapeutic, but if it’s not your thing, you can use shop-bought dumpling wrappers instead. In terms of pleating, you can be as ambitious as you like.
There are a lot of various creative ways to seal Chinese-style dumplings (I found this video from Red House Spice useful), but if that’s too hard, simply fold them up into half-moons and ‘stand’ them on their bums so that the seams are facing up – this will create a nice, flat surface area that will crisp up nicely during cooking. I hope you’ll like these and hopefully, I will be in full-blown summer recipe mode by the time I come back.
- 260 g / 2 cups frozen edamame*
- 20 ml / 4 tsp tahini
- 10 spring onions / scallions, white and white-green parts only
- 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp grated ginger, adjust to taste
- 2½ tbsp / 35 ml soy sauce or tamari, more to serve
- 10 ml / 2 tsp rice vinegar
- 5 ml / 1 tsp toasted sesame oil (optional)
- 2 tsp wasabi powder, adjust to taste!!
- 1-2 tbsp vegetable oil, for frying (I used peanut oil)
- chilli oil, to serve (optional)
DOUGH
- 250 g / 2 cups plain flour
- 1 tsp fine sea salt
- 150 ml / just under 2/3 cup hot water
- Bring a medium pot of water to the boil, add frozen edamame and simmer them for 6 minutes. Drain and refresh under a cold tap.
- Place cooked edamame in a food processor. Blend until edamame are minced finely, then add tahini and process some more – until the filling clumps together.
- Heat a bit of oil in a large pan. Gently fry spring onions, garlic and ginger. Once the aromatics are softened and fragrant, add edamame mince. Season with soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil and wasabi (diluted in a little water first if using powder, follow the instructions on the packet) to taste. Add a splash of water if the filling is too dry and crumbly. Allow it to cool down.
DOUGH
- Combine flour and salt in a mixing bowl. Pour in hot water while mixing it into the flour with a pair of chopsticks. Once combined roughly, bring the dough together using your hands and then transfer to a lightly floured surface. You may need to add a touch more water if the dough is too dry but be sure to add it in gradually, in very small amounts.
- Knead the dough for a few minutes until elastic and smooth.
- Set the dough aside for 30 minutes under a clean kitchen towel or pierced (so that it can breathe) cling film so that the dough doesn’t dry up.
- Divide the dough into quarters. Cover three portions of the dough with a damp kitchen towel while you work on the forth. Roll the dough into a snake and then divide it into 8 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a small ball, flatten with your palm and then using a straight rolling pin, roll each disc into a thin wrapper. Ideally, you want the edges thinner than the middle following a ‘roll and turn’ technique (see this video).
- Place a heaped teaspoon of the mixture in the centre of the wrapper and seal the dough over the filling at the top. You can simple fold them into half-moons or use a more intricate pleating pattern. I found this video helpful.
- Arrange the finished dumplings, seam up, on a lightly floured surface and cover them with a kitchen towel while making the rest so that they don’t dry out.
- Heat up a little (I used 10 ml / 2 tsp per 10 dumplings) oil in a large frying pan that you have a lid for. Choose a reliable non-sticking pan – I use a stainless steel pan and it works well. Once the oil is hot, arrange as many potstickers as you can without them touching each other. Fry for 2-3 minutes, then add a splash of water to the pan (1 cm) and put the lid on. Let the dumplings cook in their own steam for about 6-8 minutes – depending on how thin your dough is. Once all the water has cooked out, take the lid off and leave the potstickers on heat for another minute or two so that any excess water evaporates and the bottoms turn nice and crispy.
- Arrange cooked potstickers with crispy bottoms up while you cook the remaining batches.
- Serve with a drizzle of chilli oil mixed with in with a small amount of soy sauce or tamari.