Cross Cultural

Some may remember I lived a year in Taiwan when I was in college. It was a terrific year filled with a very Eastern culture. Besides studying Mandarin Chinese, I also took Chinese landscape painting and cooking.


At one time I could make a Chinese banquet with 14 different dishes. Cross my heart. But I have to admit it's been a long time since I have done that. In fact, it's been so long my children may not even remember those days.

Since my University Chinese Global buddy, Jie, had shared that she didn't know how to make sweijyau, Chinese dumplings, (Seriously?) I decided then it'd be a perfect activity for her 21st birthday. You see swei jyau (water dumplings) are a very traditional Chinese birthday food. The task is easier because you invite all of your friends over to help you make them. Jie obliged and even brought a friend with her. The more, the merrier and the sooner you can eat. Wink, wink.

We saved time by using premade wonton wrappers which happened to be square, so we placed an inverted bar glass a top the wonton cutting away the excess dough and creating circles. Do place a damp towel over the wrappers to not let them dry out.

The filling: (makes about 50)

1 lb hamburger (we don't do pork in our home)
1/2 bunch scallions, chopped
1 sm chopped Bok Choy/Chinese Cabbage
1 t salt
1 t sugar
1 t garlic, diced 
1 t ginger, diced
1 t 5-spice Oriental  (optional)
1 T light soy sauce
1 T sesame oil
1  egg/ 1 T cornstarch as binder

small bowl/glass of water for assembling

Dipping Sauce:
 Heat 1/2 cup of soy sauce with
1 t ginger powder

Not real appetizing looking but it sure smelled good

In a large bowl, mix together beef, bok choy and scallion. Stir in sugar, salt, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, oil & cornstarch. 


Start large soup pot of water on stove to boil. Fill 1/2 to 3/4 full.

Place large teaspoonful of filling in the center of dumpling skin.

Moisten edges of the circle wonton by dipping a finger in the water and using that moistened finger to wet perimeter.

Now fold dumpling in half, pinching the center together first, then the end edges together to seal. (the water creates a  seal) If the filler leaks out, remove some the excess. Your goal is to encase the filling. Seal the ends as you would wrap a package, pinching the ends. Any technique is fine as long as you make sure the entire pouch is pinched shut otherwise the contents will escape when you cook them.
You can create a pleated pattern along the pinched edge by gently pushing together small folds to seal it. Continue process 'til all the wrappers are filled and dumpling pockets are made.
** See below for 'jyaudz' fried dumpling vs 'swei jyau' boiled ones.

2. Add dumplings to boiling water until they float to the top, about 5 minutes. I actually do this in stages and I will add, do not crowd the dumplings. For each batch bring the water to a full boil. Add the dumplings. Allow water to come to 2nd boil adding a cup of water. Repeat this process adding an additional cup of  water, and wait til the pot returns to a boil one more time and they are done just like... Use a strainer to remove. 

              Serve with a dipping sauce ie ginger soy sauce.

                                     Hen hau chr. (Yummy.) 

**You can also fry the dumpling instead of boiling them. When you fry the dumpling, the sweijyau becomes jyaudz which means fried dumplings. Use 1 T sesame oil in a skillet. When oil is hot, add jyaudz one side down, when brown flip over, adding 1/2 c of water. Cover and the water will evaporate while cooking for 5minutes.  

Since it was also Chanuka Saturday night and it's traditional to eat fried foods so we also fried some of our sweijyau. 

We are just so multicultural here in the End of the Rainbow Valley.