What's Cooking?

[rps]

21 hours ago, Mitch f said:

Rib Eye roast!!! I'm hungry now Gavin. Why the string? Is it stuffed or something?

Regardless of whether a roast has had the muscle split, tying aids in attaining a uniform degree of doneness because it helps form a more uniform shape. I tie pork tenderloins, for example.

[Mitch f]

After much of my nagging, my wife translated the Pot Sticker recipe...Enjoy Ness, Billethead, and RPS



The recipe for our homemade dumplings

Ingredients:  

Ingredients for dumpling wrappers:

plain flour 2 cups  

Room temperature water 0.75 cup and 1 tea spoon) , for around 50 dumplings

Dumpling fillings

Ground pork or beef (your choice) 250 gm，cabbage leaves 7 pieces 

soy sauce 3 table spoons

cooking wine 1 table spoon

salt ¼ tea spoon

finely chopped ginger 0.5 table spoon，finely chopped spring onion 1 table spoon

olive oil 3 table spoons

sesame oil 1 table spoon

Making the dumpling wrappers: 

Add the flour to a big mixing bowl. Then slowly stir in the water.

 

Using your clean hands, mix the flour and water into a dough. If there is leftover flour, add a teaspoon of water and mix the remaining flour into the dough. At this step the surface of the it may be a little rough.

Cover the mixing bowl and leave the dough for 20 minutes. During these 20 minutes, you can make the dumpling filling. 

After 20 minutes come back and knead the dough. After kneading the surface of the dough, it should be smooth.

Using your hands, make a hole in the middle of the dough. Slowly expand the hole; grab the sides of the hole with both hands and pull and squeeze at the same time. Form the dough into a large ring. Stop when the ring is about as thick as a small rolling pin (as shown below).

 

Cut the ring, then cut small pieces off the ring from one end. Roll the end ninety degrees after each cut. 

Using the palm of your hand flatten each piece into a small round disc.

 

 

To roll out the wrappers, hold the rolling pin with one hand and a disc with the other. After each push of the rolling pin, rotate the disc. Continue for one revolution of the disc or until the disc has uniform thickness (if the wrapper is too thick you can roll it out more). 

 

 

 

 Now the dumpling wrapper is ready, it's time to make the stuffings

Making the dumpling filling:

Add ginger, soy sauce，cooking wine and salt into ground beef or pork of your choice and mix all the ingredients well;

 

Boil the cabbage leaves for 5 minutes. Then put the leaves into cold water to cool down, finely chop the leaves and strain the water from the cabbage leaves. Add them into the pork mince and mix well.

 

Holding a wrapper (dumpling skin) in your hand, put a small amount of filling onto the middle of the wrapper. Fold the lower part of the wrapper up to cover the filling completely. Use your fingers to press the edge of the wrapper so that the edge and both ends of the wrapper are completely sealed. 
 

The dumplings can be placed on top of baking paper or kitchen towel in a large tray.

 

 

 

 

 

Fill a medium-sized pot with water and bring the water to the boil; 
 

Add dumplings to the pot (normally around 20 dumplings for a medium-sized pot). To avoid the dumplings sticking, stir the water once along the edge of the pot, then cover the pot with a lid. Cook till the water boils then add half a cup of cold water and cover the pot again. Wait till the water boils again, and add another half cup of cold water. Cover the pot until the water boils again. This time, when all the dumplings are floating, they are ready ：-）。

 

Take the dumplings out of the pot. If you would like, you can avoid the dumplings sticking together by briefly dunking them into a large bowl of cold water before serving.

 

 

 

 

 

If there are extra raw dumplings, you can store them in the freezer. Place them on baking paper or kitchen towels with small gaps between the dumplings. After two hours, when the dumplings become hard, put them into a zip-lock bag. In this way you can store them for one or two weeks. Cook the frozen dumplings as you would the fresh dumplings
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[BilletHead]

Yes, Yes, Yes, yes, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

BilletHead

[ness]

Outstanding! Thank you Mitch. I've copied and pasted the recipe to where I store mine. Please thank your wife on our behalf. 

[rps]

My wife will be forever grateful! Me too, of course.

[Mitch f]

Sorry it took so long! Anyway I noticed after I posted, the pics are not in the right order. 

The last step is optional, browning them in the pan, to make them "pot stickers"

[ness]

12 hours ago, Mitch f said:

The last step is optional, browning them in the pan, to make them "pot stickers"

Hah -- never had made the connection. I like the browning step.

[Gavin]

Awesome Mitch!

 

[Mitch f]

So when grilling steaks, I have gone full circle on methods. I have finally convinced myself of 4 things......

1. Let meat set out of the refrigerator for 3 hours to get to room temperature before grilling.

2. Season meat with Salt and pepper only, 1 hour ahead of grilling time for each inch of steak thickness.

3. This one will probably loose a few........flip steaks every minute by the clock, until they're done.

4. Use a charcoal grill when possible.

[MOPanfisher]

Absolutely agree on most of it Mitch.  I dont flip them that often, but if the result is what you want that is all that matters.  Often I will put a dab of butter on them also.  I like nice grill marks on them so I will often grill them hot to a medium rare.  In a completely unrelated note while on Grampa duty with my grandson at a Wal Mart I discovered they were clearancing out hams, down to 97 cents a pound, bone in, hide and fat on them can't wait to get to eat some and make a pot of beans afterward.  I may be a hillbilly but I am a well fed one.