Alicia has invited us over to her place for a dumpling making party!!! I LOVE Dumpling making parties. Pretty much everybody gets together and wraps dumplings!
Ok so when I make dumplings, I make my own skin too, it doesn't take long, if you know what you're doing that is.. it's actually really fun and it tastes a lot better than the frozen ones or the factory produced skins.
How to make the skin:
Get weak flour, it's less chewy and tastes better. We get the Japanese weak flour, of course, anything Japanese is better.
Then you mix it with cold water. Ratio? I don't know, just keep adding water until it is semi dry dough consistency.
Next, take a chunk of dough, knead it between your palms into a long stran, not too thin, about the thickness of a small to medium rolling pin.
Now, cut every inch so that you get a ball of dough about the size of doughnut holes. Use your palm to flatten them and then cover them in lots of flour on both sides.
The trick to roll them out is....
Take 1 flattened dough ball in your left hand, take the rolling pin in your right hand, use your right hand to roll and use your left hand to turn the dough.
If you're standing, the rolling pin should be closer to you on the table, and the dough is in front of the rolling pin.
What you want to do is roll the rolling pin away from you onto the dough, about 1/2 way (stop at the middle). Then roll the rolling pin back towards you, and then rotate the dough and roll again towards the middle.
After you've rolled over all the edges of the dough, the middle should be the thickest. This way, when you wrap and cook the dumpling, it won't break.
During the process of rolling, you can always add more flour to prevent the dough from sticking to the rolling pin.
When you get good at it, you can roll multiple skins at once, I have only managed to do 2 at once, just put enough flour in between the skins when you roll, they won't stick together.
Ok enough reading for today. I'll post the recipe to the stuffing and the WORLD'S BEST HOT & SOUR SOUP from scratch tomorrow.
Man, I just love making dumplings and hot & sour soup!! Enjoy!
