HOW TO FOLD POT STICKERS AND WONTONS

When I lived in NYC my girlfriends and I would go to this amazing Dim Sum House in Chinatown call Jing Fong. It is this MASSIVE warehouse of a place with hundreds of seats, steaming carts whizzing by, and super long lines of people waiting outside to get in. Jing Fong is ALWAYS packed to the brim!

One day, I decided that I really wanted to learn how to make these delicious little dumplings at home instead of standing in line for an hour. So I left the restaurant line and wandered over to some of the incredible Asian Markets. I grabbed a variety of veggies, shrimp, chicken, mushrooms, etc… basically anything that looked good to me. I also grabbed some wonton and gyoza wrappers and headed home. How difficult could it be after all?

Well, it took a little Googling and YouTube action and lots of time practicing how to wrap things correctly, but ultimately it really wasn’t that hard. The general rule of dim sum seems to be 1) super fresh veggies 2) simple seasonings 3) patience in wrapping 4) an adventurous mind and 5) a little time.

My first adventures into dim sum were solitary. I didn’t really want to force other people to eat my unproven experiments LOL! But, eventually I got my roommates involved, and then lots of friends. It is so much fun to roll out little dumplings together, laugh, make a mess and then eat all the delicious results. We still went to Jing Fong from time to time, but we had just as much fun in a tiny Brooklyn kitchen making our own food.

In my Dim Sum & A Movie post I gave a recipe for Shrimp Gyoza, but I didn’t show you how to wrap them. I had a lot of people asking for a tutorial on that. I made my own video, but it didn’t come out as well as I had hoped so I am linked to the ones that I found the most helpful.

These videos, by Andrea Nguyen, show some very basic wrapping methods. I don’t pretend to be a professional, and sometimes the results are not as pretty as at the restaurant – but the taste is divine!

So grab some friends/lover, fresh veggies and wonton/gyoza wrappers to make some homemade dumplings! You really won’t regret it!

Bon Appetit

B~

Next week on FLK I will give three new recipes of fillings that I created with friends. YUM!