Gok Jai (Vegetable Crystal Dumplings)
Ingredients: Celery, Carrots, Shiitake mushrooms (rehydrated), Wood ear mushrooms (rehydrated), Water chestnuts · 60 min cook time · 250kcal · $12.51
Ingredients
1stalk Celery, 1medium Carrots, 100g Shiitake mushrooms (rehydrated), 50g Wood ear mushrooms (rehydrated), 1can Water chestnuts, 50g Zha cai (Pickled mustard stems), 200g Extra-firm tofu, 2tbsp Neutral oil, 1tsp Sugar, 2tbsp Soy sauce, 0.5tsp Salt, 0.5tsp White pepper, 2stalks Scallions, 1tbsp Cornstarch, 200g Wheat starch, 50g Tapioca starch, 50g Potato starch, 250ml Boiling water
Instructions
1. For the filling, add celery, carrots, rehydrated and squeezed shiitake mushrooms, wood ear mushrooms, water chestnuts, zha cai (pickled mustard stems), and extra-firm tofu to a food processor. Pulse until nicely chopped, but not pureed. You can also chop by hand if preferred.
2. Heat a large skillet or frying pan over medium-high heat. Add a little neutral oil, then add all of the chopped filling. Add sugar to the filling. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes, until the vegetables soften and the mushrooms are cooked.
3. Once the soy sauce is in, turn off the heat. Season with salt and white pepper. Taste and add more if needed. Add scallions and cornstarch. Mix well. The cornstarch absorbs any excess moisture, preventing the filling from becoming too saucy. We want the filling to be quite flavorsome because the wrapper is completely neutral in flavor.
4. For the dough, in a big pot, add wheat starch, tapioca starch, and potato starch. Get your boiling water and pour it right on top of the starch. Stir the boiling water into the starch with chopsticks until mostly mixed. You don't have to get it completely mixed in; you'll still see some dry bits.
5. Put the lid on and let the starches steam for 10 minutes. The dough is still very hot. You can wear gloves if you want. Bring the dough together in the pot with your hands until there are no more dry bits.
6. Put a little neutral oil on your countertop. Knead the dough for 10 minutes. The kneading is important because it means that when you steam the dough, it's not going to crack. You need to get that kind of elasticity in.
7. Divide the dough into six equal pieces. You can use scales to weigh them if you like, or just eyeball it. Place them on a sheet pan or a plate and cover them in a wet cloth.
8. Work with one piece of dough at a time. Roll that into a log that's about 1.5 inches in thickness. Cut that into 1-inch pieces. You should be able to get between 7, 8, or 9 pieces out of each log.
9. Roll the 1-inch pieces into a ball. Then, roll them out into a wrapper that is about 3.5 inches in diameter. You can either roll them by hand by just pressing them out, or use a tortilla press, which makes quick work of the task of rolling.
10. Add about 2 teaspoons of filling to the center of each wrapper. Fold the dumpling over and seal the edge. This dumpling dough is quite tacky, so you don't need any water. Just press them together all the way around to create a border for yourself.
11. Crimp the dumplings. Use your thumb and index finger to press down with your thumb to create a little pleat. Keep working all the way around. Place the finished dumplings on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper.
12. Steam the dumplings. Line the steamers with either parchment paper or silicone liners. You can also use napa cabbage or something similar. Put the dumplings on the top, not touching if you can. A wok is great because the large-sized bamboo steamer fits perfectly in it. The water steams off really fast, so every few minutes, add more water to the wok.
13. Before they're ready, they're going to be quite white. But once they're ready, you're going to start seeing a little bit of translucency. As they sit and cool, they're going to become much more translucent, and you're going to see the filling through the wrapper. They are very beautiful.
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