My first Dumpling

My first Dumpling
Originally uploaded by cutejoos

Having tasted my han yu lao shi's (chinese language teacher) home made dumplings during one of my classes at her home, I liked the taste so much that she so generously shared me some dumplings to take home plus her authentic beijing recipe which I the chaotic one lost even before I got to try it. Luckily she was patient enough to dictate it again to me over the phone one Sunday before I headed off to the wet market to buy the ingredients I needed to make her dumplings. My only apprehension from the very start was the dumpling skin which I had never ever made before. In my mind I knew what i had to do, knew the whole concept & theory behind it, but there are times that theory & the actual part don't gel at all. So I was keeping my fingers crossed that I would recall all those lessons at CCAC and be able to apply everything Mr. Lu had taught us about making the perfect dumpling. Another thing that I was afraid of was the recipe itself since teacher Mary did not have actual quantities & measurements. It was all "guesstimation" which for me, having a bakers background, we are so used to exact measurements that getting recipes like these can be unnerving. But being the determined cook that I was, I pushed all negativity aside & went for it. Part of the reason I was making these dumplings was because my aunt B had given me like half a kilo of garlic chives, which is the key ingredient in making dumplings. After mixing up all the ingredients for the filling, I cooked up a teaspoonful of it just to see if I got the taste & seasonings right. I then proceeded to combine the flour & water to make my dough. This step was easy eough, then came the hard part which was the stuffing & wrapping of the dumpling. After a few failed attempts, I finally got the hang ot it after maybe the 15th dumpling, by the 30th dumpling I was finally enlightened on the "secret" of wrapping the dumpling. It was getting easy peasy after this. As you can see I didn't do so bad for a first timer although some of he dumplings did have some holes - tiny one lah!!!