Once you have rolled out the first batch of skins start wrapping the shui jiao. A perfect jiao zi should be wrapped in such a way that it can sit on its filling and not topple over on its side. Mine has pleats on one side.
Wrapping Shui Jiao
With Homemade Wrappers
Makes 100 shui jiao
Preparation time: 20-30 minutes
1 pound pork with Chinese chive filling, click here for recipe
100 home made shui jiao wrappers, click here for recipe (Double the recipe)
Have a large tray ready to hold wrapped shui jiao. Unlike store bought wrappers, homemade wrappers don’t need to be sealed with water.
Place one round wrapper in the palm of your left hand.
Scoop ¾-1 tablespoon filling and put it in the center of the wrapper. Fold wrapper in half and press to seal top point of the semicircle together.
Make two pleats in the semicircle that is facing away from you and press that edge to the edge of the semicircle closer to you.
Press your forefingers and thumbs together to seal shui jiao securely. When pressing the edges together turn the edge so that it is slightly curved towards you.
Wrapped shui jiao should have pleats on one semicircle and is flat on the other. When the edge is squeezed and curved, leave the dumpling on the tray sitting on its filling balanced by the horns so it will not topple over.
Repeat and wrap all 100 dumplings! Place them neatly on a cookie sheet so they don’t touch each other. Enjoy your workout. You can either refrigerate the dumplings or place them in the freezer until you need to boil them.
To freeze for later use, freeze until dumplings are hard. Transfer them into a plastic bag and seal.
Boiling shui jiao
There’s an art to this as well. Watch your pot of dumplings on the boil. Water will boil over when cooking dough. I use a large, 4-quart pot. And It still boils over if I’m not paying attention.
Cooking time: About 10 minutes for a batch of 30 shui jiao.
Fill water to halfway in pot and bring to a boil. Carefully put dumplings in individually. Don’t throw the bunch in; it will stick to each other. You can probably cook 25-30 at a time. Bring it to a boil, stirring periodically so dumpling doesn’t stick to bottom.
Fill a measuring cup with 2 cups of water. When water starts to boil, quickly add one cup of tepid water to reduce the heat. Bring it back to a boil again and then add second cup of water. Bring it back to a boil. Dumplings should be floating then and ready to eat.
Scoop dumplings up in a slotted ladle and place into a serving plate. Sprinkle sesame oil over dumplings and serve hot.
Dipping sauce
Place condiments in center of table and have diners make their own dipping sauce. Popular condiments are soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, and chili sauce. In some shui jiao restaurants in Taiwan they offer raw garlic cloves at the table. It’s good.
My favorite dipping sauce combination is:
1 clove raw garlic, cracked and broken into pieces
1 tablespoon Vietnamese garlic chili
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil
Serving suggestions
Instead of regular dinner plates, I usually offer diners deep plates so they can make their dipping sauce in the plate.
