Ever take a cooking class and you’re not sure that you’ll like it? Yeah, me too. I’m not a big fan of steamed dumplings. Sure, I can eat them and I don’t gag or try to feed them to the dog but as far as orgasmic, well, nah. So why would I sign up (and pay for) a class on how to make Gow Gee? They’re really cute to look at and I love learning to cook all sorts of things.
It turns out that the dumplings I’ve had just weren’t seasoned to my liking because the gow gee we made in class as well as the ones we made at home were really yummy and full of flavor.
I started by making the filling. There’s quite a bit of chopping but there’s no pressure to hurry up so I took my time and here’s what it looked like before I started mixing.
After mixing all the ingredients with hoisin sauce and soy sauce, it looks like this
Now comes the fun part. You can buy frozen gow gee pastry in most Asian food stores and it comes wrapped up in plastic and looks like this. The trick is to separate the layers before you start filling and you won’t get gooey fingers all over the pastry.
Next get out the trusty pastry folder overrer – I’m sure it has a name but the ones I bought were in a set of three with Chinese writing so I’m clueless as to what the official name is.
Now this is where the fun begins. Get a small bowl of water or a bowl of water with a bit of flour in it because you wet the edges of the pastry so it will stick together and your gow gee won’t end up gow gee whiz it’s all over the bottom of the pan. Next time I make these it will be at a party and we can all help.
Put about a teaspoon of the gow gee filling into the middle of the pastry, wet the edges of the pastry and fold over and hold for a few seconds while the edges meld together to form a well sealed little dumpling. Then it looks like this!
In addition to steaming you can deep fry them but that’s probably not the healthiest way to eat them. Here’s the recipe!
- 5 slices dried shitake mushrooms (I used fresh but dry is good)
- 1 tbs soy sauce
- 1 tsp samabl oelek or 1 tsp fresh chilli chopped fine
- 100 grams minced chicken
- 2 tbs finely chopped water chestnuts
- 1½ tbs finely chopped dry roasted peanuts
- 2 shallots (green onions) plus extra to serve
- 1 clove garlic finely chopped
- 3 tsp hoisin sauce
- 18 gow gee wrappers
- 2½ tbs light soy sauce
- 2 tbs finely sliced coriander root and stems
- 2 tbs finely diced fresh ginger
- 2 tbs finely sliced shallots (green onions)
- 2 tbs kecap manis (sweet soy)
- 2 tbs malt vinegar
- ¼ tsp chilli oil
- 2 tbs sesame oil
- Soak mushrooms in a bowl of boiling water for 15-20 mins to reconstitute
- Drain and chop mushrooms and chop finely
- Combine all ingredients and combine well. (I used my hands)
- Spoon one tsp of mixture into center of gow gee pastry and brush edges with water.
- Pinch edges together to seal.
- Steam til cooked (about 15 minutes depending upon how much steam you have.. 15 was fine for me)
- Serve with sauce
- Combine all ingredients in a bowl and blend til smooth. I whizzed with a hand blender for about 2 seconds
- Serve as a dipping sauce for gow gee
hoi sin
wow ive never done that before.. wonder how it would taste.
hoisin is a bottle every cook should have in the pantry!
Your pictures look good enough to eat!
Those dumplings are beautiful and making my stomach growl – at 7:20 am no less lol This just made me think that the leek – bell pepper saute I used in the prosciutto cups would make a great ‘stuffer’ for a veggie dumpling 😛 ~~
OMG yes, that would be fantastic! I found dumpling pastry yesterday for $2.29 ! I just might whip up some of those veggie dumplings this afternoon!
That filling looks amazing. Chef Pandita picked another great one. Love this recipe and wonderful photos too.
Wow, I’m shocked that she found me! I follow her links all the time and missed myself! Thanks for letting me know, I really appreciate it.
I just love steamed dumpling 🙂 yours looks so yummy…
Love these!
Hi
Can you tell me where you can buy the “gow gee press” ? This would save time as I love making all sorts of dumplings.
Thanks. Tony
It certainly will, Tony. You can buy one of those presses at any cookware store. I got mine at the how to cook store in Cotton Tree on the Sunshine Coast but they’re everywhere. Just ask for a dumpling press and they’re really inexpensive!
I didn’t know that gow gee means chinese steamed dumplings!! Very interesting. my granny is a Chinese, she used to make dumplings by herself… I miss her so much…