Jiaozi, dumpling

To celebrate Chinese New Year, I invite my friend to come to my home and we make dumplings by ourselves. My friend grew up in Canton, the south of China. She didn't know how to make dumplings from the very beginning, i.e. kneed the flour and make the dough. Usually, she bought the dough already-made from the grocery store, which are round and thin. She only need to put the stuffing inside and fold it up by putting some water around the rim of the wrap. But she has to admit that the fresh dough of dumpling is much better than those machine-made ones. I'm not good at cooking Chinese dishes, which require many techniques, like pan frying, stir frying, deep-frying, steaming, and also requires well controlling the time and the fire. I am proud of my dumpling-making skills and I am grateful of my mother, who always says that nothing is more delicious than Jiaozi (Chinese dumplings). Our family always eat them at weekends, festivals, or the time when family members gather around. The process of preparing dumplings is a joyful time. All the members can give a hand and chat at the same time. Using the rolling pin to flatten a small ball of dough and make a round and thin wrap needs more skills than the next step, i.e. putting the stuffing inside the wrap and envelope it. The wrap needs to be thin and robust at the same time to avoid the stuffing getting out when the dumplings are boiled in the water. My mother takes the main role to make the wraps. She rolled them so fast, even the other members, including me, all envelop jiaozis, we still have enough supply. Usually we make the dumplings into the traditional shape, like a crescent. My father, who has a mood of  artist, likes to make some jiaozis into other shapes, like a kitten with two ears or a fish with a large queue. But I admit that the traditional shape is more reasonable since more stuffing can be put inside. When eating jiaozi, we would like to enjoy the stuffing, which holds all its juice and flavor in a well-sealed wrap. My mom prepared different stuffing, like pork with shallots, chicken with mushrooms, or beef with celery. No wonder I always like eating them. The  jiaozi is a popular food with significance in the  north of china. As more people from the north immigrate to the north America, you can also find the special restaurant of Jiaozi here in Chinatown. From the restaurant window, you can tell that it is a jiaozi restaurant when you find several workers stand behind a working table and busy wrapping them. Usually the workers are middle-aged ladies since making the jiaozi wrappers fast and reliably needs many years' experience and some talents also. If making jiaozi seems difficult for you (here is a recipe), I suggest you going to the jiaozi restaurant and ordering a plate. They are so good. In the end, you really wish that you could make them by yourself in order to eat them all the time. They are healthy since they are boiled in the water or steamed and there is no oil or smoke when making them.

饺子 Jiaozi (Ravioli chinois)

Aucun plat n'est plus délicieux que le Jiaozi. C'est la phrase que ma mère ou la plupart des gens au nord de la Chine dit souvent. On l'appelle le raviolis chinois en français. Mais je cherche la définition de ravioli, qui est un carré de pâte farcie de la viande hachée ou des légumes. En plus, la pâte de raviolis de style italien qu'on trouve souvent aux marches est épaisse. Ça ne va pas bien le Jiaozi puisque sa pâte est ronde et fine. Quand on remplit de la garniture dedans, la pâte est si fine qu'on peut voir la couleur des garnitures. Ça me rappelle un objet fait de jade. D'habitude, on cuit le Jiaozi a l'eau bouillante. C'est un art de fabriquer ça. Il faut beaucoup d'expérience de préparer des pates pour éviter qu'elles sont abimées pendant la cuisson et la garniture échappe. La finesse de la pâte est aussi la raison que le jiaozi est délicieux. Quand on prend un morceau, on déguste directement la farce qui est bien enveloppées. Ainsi toutes ses saveurs et ses jus se gardent bien. La plus difficile et la plus importante étape de faire le jiaozi est de pétrir la farine et former des petites pâtes rondes. Ne découragez pas. On vend des pâtes faites à la machine aux épiceries asiatiques. Vous pouvez remplir vos farces favoris. Voilà une recette végétarienne simple. Bien sur, le plus simple est d'acheter des raviolis congelés emballés dans un sac plastique. Il y a beaucoup de choix de saveurs, comme du proc avec des échalotes, du poulet avec des champignons shiitake, du bœuf avec des céleris, ou végétarien. Mais on admet que les raviolis frais faits à la main ont le meilleur gout. Quand plus de gens au nord de la Chine immigrent au nord d'America, on voit des restaurants de jiaozi au quartier chinois. Pourquoi pas y aller et déguster des jiaozis frais? Vous pouvez reconnaitre de tels genres de restaurants quand vous regardez par la fenêtre de restaurant que plusieurs travailleuses s'occupent à aplatir des pates avec un rouleau, en remplir de la farce, et former des jiaozis en format joli. Il n'y a pas de la fume de huile comme dans d'autres restaurants qu'offrent des cuisines régionales de la chine qui requit souvent des techniques de la frite et la sauté.