Traditional Potsticker Dumplings 煎餃 | The Dumpling Sisters

Hey Foodtubers! Welcome to the Dumpling Sisters kitchen. Now Chinese New Year is just around the corner so we're making some delicious potstickers. These pan-fried dumplings look like little nuggets of gold so legend says that they'll bring good fortune if eaten on New Year's Eve. Our potstickers have a juicy pork filling and we'll whip up a fab dipping sauce to go with them too. So let's get started. First stop, dumpling wrappers. Now these are so ridiculously easy that you'll never have to buy them from the shop again. In with 300 grams of flour goes a good pinch of salt and 220 mils of boiling water to bring it all together. Now this is a neat little trick to stop the wrappers from being too sticky but do take your time because the dough is scorching hot. Try getting your chopsticks in there too. Think of them as useful tools that take you from kitchen to dinner table. Now to work on those arm muscles. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes until silky smooth. Now before we let this baby rest we're going to chop him up into two then form each half into a bagel. This is our little secret for making all our potstickers the same size. Don't try that at home. Now while the dough's resting we're going to get started on our filling. So here we have some lovely pork shoulder. We're going to mince it up ourselves even though you can use pork mince because that's the way that mum taught us and it's always made from Give it a good bash up with your cleaver. 300 grams of pork shoulder should make 32 dumplings. To tenderize the meat we're just going to chuck in a little bit of baking soda and cornflour. These two are magic ingredients in the Chinese kitchen. The baking soda breaks down the tough proteins in meat while the cornflour creates a velvety mouthfeel. Then salt, sugar and a wee bit of white pepper. Then to plump everything up we're just going to chuck in some water, a bit of Shaoxing rice wine, dark soy, light soy and sesame oil. Then just grab your chopsticks and give it a good mix. And to make our dumplings a complete meal we're going to chuck in a wee bit of leafy bok choy as well. Then just to finish it off we're going to chuck in some garlic and ginger and of course as always spring onion. Another staple in the Chinese kitchen. Mix it up in one direction just to make sure that everything binds together so we get a lovely bite when we sink our teeth into those dumplings. Right these babies are ready to go. Cut through the middle, line the halves up and keep dividing until you get 16 pieces. There you have it, a little army of identical dough pieces. Place a piece cut side up, flatten with your palm and we'll get on with turning these into dumpling wrappers. Now arm yourself with a rolling pin, the skinnier the better. If you're right handed that's where the rolling pin will be. Here we go, roll, twist with your left hand, roll, twist with your left hand, roll, twist, roll, twist, roll, twist, roll, twist. And just keep going. Time to get our wrap on. So start by making a crater with your hand for the dumpling wrapper. Then grab some filling and pop it in the middle. Smooth down the top, then fold it over with your thumb in the middle. Give it a wee pinch at the end before guiding it over and folding with your thumb and index finger. And again, and again, making sure to pinch as you go along, all the way until the end when you're left with a lovely crescent shape. This is good for date night. Perfect for date night. Lovely. You mean like longingly into each other's eyes? Put your thumb in there. Get a frying pan with a tight-fitting lid, put onto a medium heat and a splash of veg oil. Let's get these bad boys in. Nestle them in really tightly around the pan. Big spoon, little spoon. When the bottoms are golden like this, pour in water and cover. While the dumplings are cooking, we're going to make up the easiest dipping sauce of all time. So first up is sesame oil. Boom. Then we've got some light soy sauce. Be generous with that one. Just to finish off, a nice blob of chilli oil. So chuck that in. I like it quite spicy. Done. Oh yum. Right, these are done when the water's all gone. Just remember to put those golden bottoms on show. And if you don't want to miss out on wicked recipes, then make sure you subscribe to Food Tube and the Dumpling Sisters too. We'd love to have you. So that's it guys, our perfect potstickers. A must have for Chinese New Year's Eve because they represent prosperity and good luck. And we love eating them in a huge pile like this. And don't forget that glorious sauce. Oh yum. Thanks so much for watching guys and Happy New Year.