Chinese Dough meets ... Challenge!

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CraigC

Master Chef
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Jan 27, 2011
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Choose your "dough", wanton wrappers, pot sticker, dim sum and bun. Use fillings from another ethnic cusine and whatever sauces/condiments you wish to create a "fusion" dish. The only rule is that you must use some form of Chinese dough/wrapper. You can fry, steam, boil, bake etc.;) Pics are a must and we can even have winners, 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Recipes must be included! Anybody game?
 
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I haven't tried a Chinese dough, love to try out some pot stickers, southwest would be easy, peppers tomatoes and corn or Greek, thinking feta spinach and green olives? Interested, I need to figure out how to make the dough, though.

Count me in.
 
We used to do something like this. We called it DC's Golden Chef Competition, where we would choose a theme ingredient, and have to make an appetizer, a main course, with complimentary sides, and a desert containing the theme ingredient. The results were very creative, and delicious. But we tried doing it monthly, and it became too much.

I'm interested in seeing the results of this culinary exercise. It ought to produce some happy faces.:yum:

Seeeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
 
The only rule is that you must use some form of Chinese dough/wrapper. You can fry, steam, boil, bake etc.;) Pics are a must and we can even have winners, 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Recipes must be included! Anybody game?

Ya betcha. I can confirm that homemade potsticker skins are better than shop-bought, but not by enough to be worth the extra bother, but I can also confirm that making hand-made potstickers allows you to dial in any country you wish, with great results. Sauerbraten and sauerkraut are a killer combination, for example, especially when served with sweet cabbage and lots of mustard.

There's a current thread about appetizer finger-food, and I should go and mention shu mai, which are trivially-simple to make, because they don't need to be sealed, and are gently steamed:

shrimp-shumai-no-recipes_380.jpg

I'll post an original recipe when I get a minute, but this is the one I learned from, again from Marc at norecipes.com.
 
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Oops, I guess I didn't mention that you don't have to make the dough!:huh:
 
Ya betcha. I can confirm that homemade potsticker skins are better than shop-bought, but not by enough to be worth the extra bother,.

I actually prefer the frozen skins from the Oriental market over the homemade and certainly don't taste any difference since the dough really has very little flavor and is just there as an envelope for the yummy insides and to soak up your dipping sauce.

The homemade dough tends to get very brittle and break when you freeze them, besides the fact that the dough fairy better be firmly on your side if they happen to start defrosting before you get them in the pan (they stick to just about anything and tear if you so much as look at them wrong). I made the dough for years and it was such a job that I'd always makes lots to have enough to freeze for a couple more meals since it was such a production. It would take hours between making the dough, rolling out all those little circles, then filling, and I'd be exhausted by the time everything was done.

Now, with the frozen dough skins (that just take a-half hour or so to thaw) I can make up a batch of 50 or so in about another half-hour once the filling is made or pulled from the freezer and defrosted.

Just a tip to help with filling for the challenge. Make sure everything is chopped small and get an ice cream scoop of about an inch or so diameter. The scoop makes the filling process MUCH faster and you get even amounts of filling in each dumpling.
 
Mu Shu Pork wrappers, homemade

Oops, I guess I didn't mention that you don't have to make the dough!:huh:

But where's the fun in that? This posting qualifies as a Stop Press, because Cooks' Illustrated just today came up with a brainless way to make transparently-thin mu shu pork wrappers. (They're usually out of their depth talking Asian recipes, so I'm impressed.)

7 1/2 oz or 1.5 C all-purpose flour
3/4 C boiling water

Mix, knead for 4 minutes until smooth. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and rest 30 min, then roll into 12" log, cut into into 1" pieces and form by hand into circles approx 3" around. Paint tops of half of them thoroughly with toasted sesame oil and place the other six on top. Roll the dough-sandwiches out to 7".

Add thin slick of oil to medium-heat nonstick frying pan and fry on each side for 40-60 seconds per side, looking for occasional bubbles in the dough. Cool down for a few seconds then peel the layers apart, giving transparently-thin wrappers.

Perhaps all-purpose is best, here, but CI considers all alternatives to be beyond the reach of their audience, so experiment away.
 
A month it is then! I'll make the first of our offering over the weekend.:yum:

OK I am leaving tomorrow for a week of camping (Chincoteague Island, going down for the pony swim), but I'll make something next week, so I am in. I'm thinking of Russian cuisine, so we are talking beef, cabbage, radishes onions and turnips. Like an oriental perigoi, right? I was gonna go Greek, and still might if feta cheese is still on sale, but I kind of like the idea of Russian pot stickers. If we have a month I can do it, I am going to be away from my kitchen this week, and I'm not gonna try an unfamiliar dough on the campfire.

I haven't tried a Chinese dough before. Should be fun.

Best,

TBS
 
Don't forget that blue crab is in down there. Steamed and soft-shell should be on the menu!:yum:
 
Don't forget that blue crab is in down there. Steamed and soft-shell should be on the menu!:yum:

Heck yeah! outRIAAge just posted a cool sounding crab recipe, maybe to complex for camp, but we are gonna be crabbing. Worst case I am just gonna pack them into a dutch oven with some corn, onions, and Old Bay.

So you decided what cuisine you are using, or you leaving it a surprise?
 
We're going Korean fusion, 1 will be with Cuban sandwich and the other will be Cajun/Low Country with andouille, shrimp and grits. I'm brining the cabbage for my 2 kinds of kimchi and all the other ingredients are ready to mix up with the cabbage as soon as it's ready to go.
 
We have tried these kinds of events before. The harder you make it for people to participate, the fewer will. I think it's more fun to enable more people to get creative :)

I was the one complaining that it's no fun to use pre-made wrappers, and I was dreaming of Mediterranean potstickers using my newly-invented grape-leaf dough, but I completely take your point. Restrictions don't limit creativity, they enhance it.

For example: the villanelle, which is probably the most extreme and arbitrary-sounding set of restrictions of all poetic forms, and yet Dylan Thomas came up with "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night", which is only improved by hewing to the supposedly-arbitrary form.

SO: Only pre-made wrappers allowed. Everybody agree?
 
AND we're only allowed to use snips and snails and puppy-dog tails, agreed?

(Be careful in answering: those are typical Scottish ingredients :)

Not quite off-topic: Here's a lovely Scottish song: "For Mr. Thomas," that echoes the sentiment of that poem:

Ah, Mr. Thomas let us ramble through the midnight fair
Let us throw old bottles at the Ferris wheel
Let us paint "Library" on the library let us raid the moonlight
Let us steal whatever we are supposed to steal

Let us watch while the days grow daily more mundane
That rough God go riding with his shears
Hack wide the belly of the swollen mountains
And rip molten heroes forth from their furious tears
 
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You can use whatever wrappers, filling, etc you want. That was the whole point of Craig's and GG's posts. Makes it easier for people to find/use ingredients and make what they'll eat.
 
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