They say noodles originated from China.
Nowadays, most Chinese style noodles are not home made - for home cooks. Even when we do dumplings, we can buy the dumpling skins.
However, home made noodles are nicer even though they are time consuming.
There are a lot of varieties of Chinese noodles, this time, I started off some very simple water and flour dough, and used the same dough to make some stretch noodles and pot stickers.
400g flour
300ml water
a pinch of salt
From a soft dough, knead till elastic and let it rest for an hour or so, till it's more pliable.
Dust the bench top with dry flour and roll the dough into a long stick, cut small chunks out and roll out the dumpling skins. The skins should roll out when turning around, making sure the outer sides are thinner. Add in the filling (pork mince, Chinese chive, mushrooms, Chinese cabbage, salt, pepper, light soy sauce and a bit of rice wine) and make small dumplings. Dust more dry flour at the bottom and let it sit.
It is time consuming to make the dumplings, especially making the skin as I go, making the dumplings.
I have explained how to cook pot stickers in earlier posts.
I left 1/3 of the dough for the noodles, just roll out as thin as I can, both sides dusted with dry flour, and cut, stretch. Dust in more dry flour.
The youngest wasn't a big fan of pot stickers, so I just made some simple noodle soup with peas and egg for her.
There are all kinds of pot stickers, but I think there are two main catagories, one fermented, the Sang Gyen Baos and the other one plain skin - not fermented the Wok Tek which is more well known.
I decided to make the pot stickers yesterday, the Baos for the gathering of Monique's friendship group, one of the mum was from Shanghai and she'd like those I think, and the Wok Tek for dinner.
The doughs can be prepared a day ahead and the mixture, so there is no rush on the day.
The Fillings (for both)
500g pork shoulders
1 knob of ginger
1 small bunch of Chinese Chives
5 leaves of Wom Bok (Chinese Cabbage)
1 tbsp Chinese Wine
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 small pinch of salt
1 tsp raw sugar
Chop pork shoulders into rough mince, and use food processor to blend everything together. The mixture can be stored in fridge overnight, in freezer bags.
Bao Dough:
200g super white bao flour
100g plain flour
1 tbsp yeast
1 pinch of salt
1 tbsp white sugar
220ml tepid water (half milk half water if you would like something a bit creamy)
Method:
Warm up water to around 40C and let yeast desolve in water. Put salt, sugar flour into a big bowl and make a well for the yeast mixture. Knead into a soft dough. Keep kneading till smooth. Let dough proof till double.
Wok Tek Dough:
300g plain flour
1 pinch of salt
220-240 ml water
Method:
Make it into a soft dough and work the dough till elastic. It's a very soft dough. Let it rest for half a day or over night for better result.
Making the pot stickers, methods are similar for both.
Roll the dough into long sticks and dice off small knobs.
Roll the little knobs in dry flour and rub into a small ball, and use lower part of palm to press it flat, roll out into small disks, turn when rolling, make sure the edges are thinner. Baos are usually made into a round shape with gatherings on top and a twist, and let it proof for another hour or so.
The Wok Teks are usually half moon shapes.
Add a bit of oil on a non stick frying pan, put pot stickers on the pan and fry them, add water and put the lid on, let the steam do the rest of the job. Water may need to be added a couple of times. Only a little water can be added at a time, just touching the bottom, otherwise the pot stickers will be soggy.
When placing the Baos in the pan, leave enough room, they will grow a bit more in the pan, the Wok Teks can be placed closer to each other, as their skins are not fermented and won't grow.
Sang Gyen Baos are usually eaten as is, with no dippings, but my family prefer dippings for the Wok Teks, and hmm...
heaps of home made chilli sate sauce...
Mum said her favourite yumcha food is the prawn dumplings. Have worked during yumcha service when I was like, 20 something? and saw Chefs churning out dumplings of all sorts fairly quickly, and it never clicked me much that I should make it some day until 15 years later.... I wish I had pay more attention when I was young and ignorant.... as prawn dumplings were not easy.... well, sort of...
I've made a lot of dumplings, but to get the clear skin right... is a different ball game.
But first of all, the fillings.
100g pork mince
150g peeled fresh green prawns.
1 knob of garlic
3 white roots of spring onions
1 pinch of salt...
I used the mortar and pestle today to pund the mince, the meat, prawn, herbs... well, I only used half of the prawn in the mince, the other half, cut in small cubes and gently marinate with salt.
and then the skin. I did make too much, so I put more than half away. so I'm giving out the list as how much I should use for the fillings:
200g tang flour (glutenless wheat flour - from Asian grocery shops)
35g tapioca flour
1tbsp of lard
Use boiling hot water to pour into the flour mix and stir well. Pour in as much water as you need to make flour wet, it takes a fair bit of water. Massage in lard and form a dough, knead till it's smooth and no lumps. set in cling film for 30 minutes.
I have to get used to this type of dumpling skin - it's not like the normal dumpling skin made out of plain flour - it has got no glueten and not stretchy... anyway, add in the mince and some cut prawn chunks in a flattened dumpling skin, and they are not too hard to make, well, I have made them rather big.... Guess I'm not selling them in restaurant, no one will tell me off for over sized dumplings...
I lined the steamer (call me lazy, I used the rice cooker steamer rather than the bamboo one) with baking paper and they are quite nice after being steamed for 6 minutes in high heat....
Mothers day today...
Hubby made pancakes for brekky... We had lunch out yesterday to avoid the rush and something simple today... as I got my Kaffir Lime tree and a persimmon... We digged the composting out of our bin and planted them... Amongst all the lime trees in Bunnings, I was happy to find the Kaffir Lime because I can use the leaves as well.... I was tossing between some fig trees but was hoping the cuttings from neighbour's big fig tree will live... otherwise, I will go back for a fig - I love it, and love to cook with it...
Below is from the children... simple heart warming presents and they rememberred I like pink...
I was preparing some doughs from yesterday, what's a weekend without my "play" doughs...
One of them is the Roti dough, but then I sorta changed my mind... I'm making Chinese tonight, and maybe I should make spring onion pancakes - and what I end up with, is Spring Onion Roti... I stretched the doughs (I can't flip like the pros) as paper thin and fold up some spring onions in them, bit of canola oil and made up those little envelops...
And the other overnight dough is the Brioche dough, hmm, usually they don't need overnight proving... but I used sourdough starter - I'm bad am I - I must say, the yeast is still better, but hey, I wasn't happy with ciabatta yesterday and somehow... I came up with these... and to make things so not tradtional.. I even added a banana - I know I know, too many bananas. The children shaped the brioches, the older one made the bottom and little one made the top... so excuse the different shapes... and they even put on the egg wash... I do have little tart sheels, but it's just as easy to use the muffin tins...
And this is what they look like after second proving and 25 minutes baking in 180C oven.
For dinner tonight, I found some beef mince mixture from the "bao"s (Chinese buns) I made the week before in the freezer and decided it's better to get rid of it... It's a mixture of Beef, Onion, Parsley (not exactly chinese but hey it does taste alright) with Fish Sauce, Shaoxin Wine, Light Soy, Ginger and bit of sugar. I decided the family might be sick of yeasty buns, so I made dumplings - family like panfied version, so in the pan they go.... sit the dumplings in a lighly oiled pan, and watch it sizzle to make them ready, traditionally you just need to add a bit of boiling water and close the lid, so the steam will cook the dumplings thoroughly... I made my own dumpling skin today, normally I was lazy and just buy dumpling skins - must say the hand made dumpling skins are so much better, however, I do need some lessons from dad!
I have to get used to this type of dumpling skin - it's not like the normal dumpling skin made out of plain flour - it has got no glueten and not stretchy... anyway, add in the mince and some cut prawn chunks in a flattened dumpling skin, and they are not too hard to make, well, I have made them rather big.... Guess I'm not selling them in restaurant, no one will tell me off for over sized dumplings...
I was preparing some doughs from yesterday, what's a weekend without my "play" doughs...
And the other overnight dough is the Brioche dough, hmm, usually they don't need overnight proving... but I used sourdough starter - I'm bad am I - I must say, the yeast is still better, but hey, I wasn't happy with ciabatta yesterday and somehow... I came up with these... 
For dinner tonight, I found some beef mince mixture from the "bao"s (Chinese buns) I made the week before in the freezer and decided it's better to get rid of it... It's a mixture of Beef, Onion, Parsley (not exactly chinese but hey it does taste alright) with Fish Sauce, Shaoxin Wine, Light Soy, Ginger and bit of sugar. I decided the family might be sick of yeasty buns, so I made dumplings - family like panfied version, so in the pan they go.... sit the dumplings in a lighly oiled pan, and watch it sizzle to make them ready, traditionally you just need to add a bit of boiling water and close the lid, so the steam will cook the dumplings thoroughly... I made my own dumpling skin today, normally I was lazy and just buy dumpling skins - must say the hand made dumpling skins are so much better, however, I do need some lessons from dad!
The rest of the dough, I made them into noodles - I wish I did it with the pasta maker! But I managed to roll them out really thinly and they are bit like papadelles' shape... however the dough hasn't got any eggs... It's just a simple thin sliced beef broth with bok choi and sliced birdeye chilly, spring onion and the flavour came from a bit of fish sauce and salt.... some home made oil chilly sauce to make it even hotter...
