How to Make Homemade Dumplings 三鲜水饺

Hi, I'm Kelly from Cook's Country, and today I'm going to show you how to make Northern Chinese-style dumplings. I grew up making these dumplings with my family, and I've realized that the best way to learn how to make them is by watching someone else. So I'm going to show you how to make your own homemade dough, filling, a couple ways to shape the dumplings, and how to cook them. So let's get started. So Northern Chinese-style dumplings are also called shuijiao in Mandarin, and this translates to water dumpling. The reason for this is because they have these thick, chewy wrappers that are actually best when boiled instead of pan-fried or steamed. I like to start with a little prep work. First I make the dough by combining flour and water in a food processor, and I process that until large clumps begin to form. Then I transfer the dough to the counter and knead it until it's smooth yet pliable. Then I transfer the dough to a bowl and let it rest and hydrate at room temperature for at least an hour. So next I make the filling. Today I'm making a traditional sanchian filling, which translates to three umami. I start by mashing lard into ground pork, which makes the meat extra rich and juicy. Next I season and mix the filling. I stir pretty vigorously here to help develop myosin proteins, which bind the water and fat in the meat to keep it moist and juicy. So my dough's been rested, and now it's ready to portion. I'm just adding a bit of flour to my board just to prevent the dough from sticking. It's really pliable now and feels well hydrated. I'm going to start by dividing the dough into quarters. This makes 48 dumplings, so enough to feed a crowd. So I'm gonna work with one dough quarter at a time. The remaining quarters I'll just keep covered with some plastic wrap on the side to prevent it from drying out. And with this dough quarter, I'm going to portion it into 12 pieces. I'm gonna start by rolling it out into a 12-inch cylinder, just squeezing it to stretch it slightly and also rolling it out. So I'm aiming for about 12 inches. And from there, I'm gonna portion this into 12 one-inch pieces. I just use my bench scraper and start slicing into portions. So now that my dough is portioned out, I'm going to form them into discs, which will help us achieve round wrappers. So to do that, I just take one portion here, and between the palms of my hands, I roll it like this, and I press to flatten. And the rounder that you can get the disc, the easier it will be to roll out more circular wrappers. I'm going to work with one disc at a time. The remaining, just like the dough quarters, I'm also going to cover it with some plastic. To roll the wrappers, I like to use a traditional dumpling pin. And using a smaller rolling pin is a little bit more nimble. It's easier to work with the small wrapper. So really recommend you getting a medium to small-sized pin. Starting from the outside of the dough, I'm going to push from the outside edge into the center, pushing from the outside in, until I get something that's about three inches wide. And sometimes if you're rolling quickly and you get thin edges, they can start to cup up slightly, and that's also really good because that helps with folding and pleating later. So at this point, I've rolled out a quarter of my dough, so that makes 12 wrappers, and I'm going to move on to filling and shaping them. But dumpling making is actually a communal affair, so I recommend you make it a party and grab some friends. And that way, some people can continue rolling wrappers while other people begin to fill them. And you can eat faster. I'm going to show you three different pleating methods. This is sort of a choose-your-own-adventure. On the one hand, there's the traditional method with a lot of pleats, and on the other, something more beginner-friendly and easy to approach. I'm going to start by showing you a traditional method. And here I just have a sheet pan that's been lined with parchment and dusted with flour. This is where I'll land my dumplings once I'm done pleating them. So my filling's been chilling for at least an hour, and it's nice and firm and not too sticky to work with. And I'm just going to place a scant tablespoon in the center of the dumpling. When you're first starting out, you don't want to overfill your dumplings, just to make it easier to handle. And the traditional method features a lot of pleats. It's super pretty and crescent-shaped. I'm just going to start by pinching one end of the dough shut, just like that, so it's just a little lip here that's sticking out. And I'm actually just going to feed my pleats all in one direction toward the part that I've already pinched. And just using my back index finger here, I'm going to push everything in this direction, and it'll start to curve this way. So I just take a little bit of dough and I fold it in itself, and I just fold it right down here. And I'm just going to continue to do that, feeding the dough over itself, pushing toward the end. You can see the pleats are starting to form here. And the dumpling's actually just going to cup in on itself slightly, so I like to elevate it slightly here so that it's almost like a little pouch holding the filling so that it's falling into the center of the dumpling rather than leaking out. And so I'm going to continue to push the pleats in one direction here. And when you reach the end and you just have a little bit of pocket, just press that to seal. And now you can see it's formed a beautiful crescent shape. The crescent shape is actually really lucky in Chinese tradition. It represents a gold ingot, which was an ancient form of currency in China. So for Lunar New Year, for example, we make dumplings to represent wealth and abundance. I really love to aim for this crescent shape. So I developed a method that still has the pleats and the crescent shape, but is a little bit more beginner-friendly. I'm going to grab the same amount of filling, so about a scant tablespoon. And this is actually a mirroring method, so I'm going to form two pleats on each side that go toward the middle. Similar to last time, just taking a small piece of dough and overlapping onto itself and pinching right along the middle. You don't have to stretch it all the way to the center, but just going in this direction. And leaving enough room for one more pleat on this side. Again, I don't need to stretch it all the way to the middle, but just folding it over itself. Naturally, you're going to have a little pocket here of space that's left over, and I just pinch to shut. And again, I'm aiming for a crescent shape, so if you need to sort of cheat it by tucking the tail this way a little bit, that's totally okay. I'm going to take a little bit of dough here, fold it over itself, repeat one more time, and just seal the bottom edge. I find it's really important to go back over and just reinforce your shape and also pinch any air pockets, just so that when you're cooking them later, nothing spills out. And you can see here, there's still the pleats and the crescent shape. It's just a little bit easier to approach. And if you're just starting out and struggling a little bit, don't be too hard on yourself. You can always turn to the half-moon method. There's no pleats or shaping, but as long as the filling is sealed shut, it'll still taste delicious. So I just lay it flat on the counter like this, and pushing the filling in slightly if it starts to squeeze out, this can apply to any of the methods. And I'm just using my thumb and index finger to pinch it shut. Nothing fancy going on here, just sealing it up nice and tight. Super cute still and equally delicious. So here I have a half batch of dumplings that have been folded, and I'm ready to cook them. In front of me, I have four quarts of water at a rapid boil. And today I'm going to be using a traditional technique that slowly adds cold water to balance out the boiling. So let's get the dumplings into the water. Just dropping them one at a time gently. And I'm just gonna give that a little stir. The water's gonna stop boiling as we drop the dumplings in, and I'm just going to wait for it to come back up to a boil. So the reason that I'm using this method of interspacing boiling and adding cold water is to gently heat the dumplings through so the center can be warmed up without breaking the outer skin. And traditionally, it also helps you keep track of when the dumplings are cooked. So usually two or three pours of water in between is enough to cook the dumplings through. Now you can see the water's starting to come back to a boil. So I just have some cold water here. I'm going to add about one cup of water, and that just immediately stops the boiling. So the dumplings are always swimming in this sort of ambient heat. And the whole process should take about five to eight minutes total. And I see bubbles coming up one more time, so you know the drill. In total, I should be adding water about three times. And what I'm really looking for is for the skin to start to become tender and the dumplings slightly puffy. You don't want them falling apart or overly soft, but just until the skin start to appear pretty tender. So it's coming back up to a boil, and one last time, I'm going to add a cup of cold water. You can see some of the dumplings are starting to puff up slightly, which is just what we're looking for. And we've sealed them tightly, so none of them have broken. I'm back up to a rapid boil, and I'm going to shut off the heat. You can see the dumplings look really tender. None of them have fallen apart or broken. So I'm going to transfer that to a platter. So my dumplings are cooked and ready to eat, and they smell so, so delicious. I'm going to be enjoying them with some sauces. Here I have a chili crisp dumpling sauce. You can find the recipe on CooksCountry.com, or you can enjoy the dumplings, the Northern Chinese way, which is with Chinese black vinegar. I can't wait to try one. So juicy and delicious. What really sticks out to me about these dumplings is just how well the homemade dough performs. It really is unlike any other kind of wrapper. Nothing store-bought can compete. It's just the perfect amount of tenderness, chewiness, and just feels like the perfect bite. Thank you so much for joining my dumpling party today. For step-by-step instructions, check out our Cooks Country Lunar New Year issue or CooksCountry.com. And if you try your own hand at making dumplings, leave a comment below and let me know how they turned out.