The darings cooks June challenge - Chinese dumplings

The June challenge is hosted by Jen from use real butter. It is about making chinese dumplings, something what is a little bit time consuming and needs patience. I remember I tried some kind of wontons before but it was a desaster ...
It was really great to have the instructions from her blog with pictures and explanation - I just printed the post and put it on my kitchen table.

Chinese Dumplings/Potstickers

meat filling (modified):

• 1 lb (450g) ground turkey
• 4 large napa cabbage leaves, minced
• 3 stalks green onions, minced
• 7 shitake mushrooms, minced (if dried - rehydrated and rinsed carefully)
• 1/2 cup (75g) mung bean sprouts, minced
• 1/4 (55g) cup ginger root, minced
• 3 tbsp (40g) soy sauce
• 2 tbsp (28g) sesame oil
• 2 tbsp (16g) corn starch

dough: (double this for the amount of filling, but easier to make it in 2 batches - or just halve the filling recipe)

• 2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup (113g) warm water
• flour for worksurface

In a large bowl mix flour with 1/4 cup of water and stir until water is absorbed. Continue adding water one teaspoon at a time and mixing thoroughly until dough pulls away from sides of bowl. We want a firm dough that is barely sticky to the touch.
Knead the dough about twenty strokes then cover with a damp towel for 15 minutes. Take the dough and form a flattened dome. Cut into strips about 1 1/2 to 2 inches wide. Shape the strips into rounded long cylinders. On a floured surface, cut the strips into 3/4 inch pieces. Press palm down on each piece to form a flat circle (you can shape the corners in with your fingers). With a rolling pin, roll out a circular wrapper from each flat disc. Take care not to roll out too thin or the dumplings will break during cooking - about 1/16th inch. Leave the centers slightly thicker than the edges. Place a tablespoon of filling in the center of each wrapper and fold the dough in half, pleating the edges along one side. Keep all unused dough under damp cloth.

I decided for steaming and bought two steamers baskets with lid. Because I had no pot for the baskets to fit in I used my electric rice cooker. I placed them in the steamer which came with the cooker and sealed the extra space around with a kitchen towel.
Place dumplings on a single layer of napa cabbage leaves or on a well-greased surface in a steamer basket with lid. Steam covered for about 6 minutes.

In every basket was space for 5 dumplings, so each of us got five dumplings served with some leftover mango chutney.

The result was very tasty! It was a lot of work indeed, but it was worth it ...

I had increased the amount of dough and ingredients about 1/3 so I had at at the end 27 dumplings. I steamed 5 extra for taking to work the next day and froze the rest. Two days later I tried again but the dough was a little bit to dry and the filling with smoked chicken and sweet potatoes not sticky enough so the outcome was not as good as the first one.