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Friday 17 August 2012

Gluten Free: Pot Stickers

If you'd have suggested, five years ago, that I'd should make my own Chinese dumpling wrappers, I'd have thought you were crazy. Life is definitely too short for such nonsense, right? Now, though, after five years without pot stickers, I'd say - let's do it! Ok, it's a bit fiddly and a bit long-winded but, they really are worth the effort. Plus, the more you make them, the quicker and less awkward the process becomes. Anyway, if you're on a gluten free diet and miss Chinese food as much as I do, you'll want to give it a go.

Ideally, you'd use sweet white rice flour - which is made from sticky rice - to make these but, since I haven't found one that's both definitely free from cross contamination - through milling and packing - and affordable (all the certified gluten free ones have to be imported from the USA so you pay more on delivery than on the actual flour), I've used regular rice flour and added xanthan gum to make it pliable. You'll find xanthan gum in most supermarkets, just look in the free from aisle. If you know of a brand of sweet white rice flour that is suitable for Coeliacs, please share, I'll be eternally grateful!

You'll need

For the wrappers:
  • 65g cornflour
  • 75g rice flour (I use Dove's Farm rice flour)
  • 1 tsp xanthan gum
  • 120ml hot water
For the filling:
  • 2 chicken breasts, finely chopped (or about 200g chicken or turkey mince)
  • 1 small pak choi (about 80g), finely chopped
  • 1 tsp grated ginger
  • 2 tsp sake
  • 1 tsp gluten free tamari*
  • pinch salt
  • 1/4 tsp ground white pepper
  • pinch chilli flakes
  • 1 tbsp chopped chives
  • 1 tsp sesame oil
  • 1 tsp sugar
To cook:
  • 2 tsp groundnut (or vegetable) oil
  • 75ml water
Make it!
  • Mix the cornflour, rice flour and xanthan gum in a bowl with a fork. Slowly add the water, stirring all the time with the fork until well mixed. Cover the bowl with cling film and leave to cool slightly.
  • Put all the filling ingredients in a bowl and combine. Pop it in the fridge while you finish the wrappers.
  • Take the wrapper dough out of the bowl and knead it well on a (corn)floured worktop. It'll take about 10 minutes of kneading to get the xanthan gum to do its thing. the dough won't be stretchy, but it will have a bit of give. Roll into a sausage and cut into 5 equal pieces. Wrap four pieces in cling film to stop it drying out.
  • Cut the sausage-fifth into 4 pieces and roll each one into rounds, about 7-8cm in diameter, you don't have to be too exact since you can always trim them later. As you go, cover the rolled out wrappers with a clean damp tea towel. Repeat with the other 4 pieces of dough.
  • Once all your wrappers are ready, remove your filling from the fridge and place a teaspoonful of filling in the middle of a wrapper, brush a little water around the edges and fold dough in half, over the filling. Pinch the edges to seal, the dumpling should look like a tiny cornish pasty when it's done. Don't worry if they look a bit rubbish to begin with, you'll be an expert when you've done all 20!
  • Heat the groundnut oil in a large frying pan and place the dumplings in the pan. You can put them quite close together, just don't squash them up or they'll stick to each other as they steam. Cook for a few minutes until the bottoms start to brown, then pour in the water and cover with a lid or large plate. Leave to steam for 10-15 minutes, checking halfway to make sure the water hasn't boiled away. Serve while still hot.

You can make an easy dipping sauce by mixing 3 parts tamari with 1 part rice vinegar and 1 part chilli oil. If steamed dumplings are more your thing, just put your dumplings in a bamboo steamer (you can get them in most Chinese supermarkets for not-very-much) and place over boiling water for about 10 minutes.

*Regular soya sauce contains wheat, so look out for tamari which is usually made with rice flour. As always, check the ingredients to make sure it's gluten free. Kikkoman, Clearspring, Tiger and Sanchi all make tamaris that are available in most supermarkets.

15 comments:

  1. I had no idea soy sauce had wheat in it. I'd have dished it up to you like nobodies business - I put it in everything.

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  2. It's one of those things that catches most people out, that and English mustard. I actually danced a little jig in Sainsbury's when I discovered tamari!

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    Replies
    1. Awww man. If I'm not putting soy sauce in stuff, it's got mustard in it.

      Bring your own sandwiches when you come for tea.

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  3. You can buy gluten free soy sauce at Tesco and Waitrose!! :o)

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  4. You can buy gluten free soy sauce at Tesco and Waitrose!! :o)

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  5. I had a complete disaster making gf potstickers from the gluten-free asian kitchen recipe, ended up really gummy and gross. But you've inspired me to give these nuggets of goodness another go!

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  6. so do you think you could make these wrappers in bulk and freeze them - I'd love to be able to just whip together a few dumplings when my coeliac son wants them. plus I have lots of other recipes that use these wrappers!
    [email protected]

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    Replies
    1. You can often buy the wrappers frozen! The main issue you'll have is them sticking together as they freeze - they'll need to a stronge coating of flour if you're to stop that. Or, make the dough and then roll out when you're ready. I don't think it'll keep for long, but it'll be handy to have in store - putting them together is fiddly, if you've got ready made dough it's much less of a faff!

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  7. Weird question possibly, but one I'm hoping to get an answer to as these look amazing and it's been about 4 ~years~ since I had a potsticker! (Yes, yes, no longer sick, yay huzzah, whatever. I still miss gluteny goodies.) Folks seem to have a much better grasp on GF cooking in the UK then sources here in the States so I have been using more and more UK recipes and being ever so glad my gran insisted I learn how to cook with weights instead of by volume. The one thing that I often get hung up on is that, depending on whether or not the recipe writer is working for the UK market or trying to take things more 'American' the term 'cornflour' can wobble back and forth. So. When you call for cornflour - are you using the pale yellow soft flour made from milling the whole corn OR are you using what is more often called over here in the States 'cornstarch' - the white powder of just starch with a similar texture to say tapioca starch? (I've given up guessing. Inevitably I guess wrong. And then there is a mess and I despair. Then there is vodka and tequila. So no more guessing, as I'm out of ice.) I've got both in the pantry (as well as a huge jug of tamari waiting for to dip the pot stickers in) so all I need is a "This" or a "That" and I'm off to the kitchen.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, we mean cornstarch! We should add a list of commonly confused terms to our conversion chart. This will at least help with the conversions to cups!

      http://www.domesticsluttery.com/2009/03/cooking-conversion-charts.html

      If you're not sure about anything in a recipe, just ask and we'll do our best to help.

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    2. Thanks so much! I've been rummaging through the rest of the site (I stumbled onto it from a Google search for GF Clootie Dumplings) and have pretty much lost my afternoon. A rapidly growing stack of index cards with all the lovely goodies I'm going to have to try soon - as well as an equally large list of items to see if I can track down some of the clothes from on this side of the ocean (I have a massive closet redo to manage so I'm not sure which is better at the moment to find through this site - all the food or all the clothes! I went from an US 20 down - large but when you take in the fact I'm a couple inches over 6 feet, oddly not that noticeable - to a US 8 and I have not a stitch to wear for spring. Or summer. Next fall. Eep!). So thanks so much for both and even more so for clarifying what I need to pull out of the pantry.

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    3. Is clootie dumpling a thing in America?!

      So pleased you're enjoying the site, Jenna! Looking forward to hearing how your pot stickers go!

      Delete
  8. Weird question possibly, but one I'm hoping to get an answer to as these look amazing and it's been about 4 ~years~ since I had a potsticker! (Yes, yes, no longer sick, yay huzzah, whatever. I still miss gluteny goodies.) Folks seem to have a much better grasp on GF cooking in the UK then sources here in the States so I have been using more and more UK recipes and being ever so glad my gran insisted I learn how to cook with weights instead of by volume. The one thing that I often get hung up on is that, depending on whether or not the recipe writer is working for the UK market or trying to take things more 'American' the term 'cornflour' can wobble back and forth. So. When you call for cornflour - are you using the pale yellow soft flour made from milling the whole corn OR are you using what is more often called over here in the States 'cornstarch' - the white powder of just starch with a similar texture to say tapioca starch? (I've given up guessing. Inevitably I guess wrong. And then there is a mess and I despair. Then there is vodka and tequila. So no more guessing, as I'm out of ice.) I've got both in the pantry (as well as a huge jug of tamari waiting for to dip the pot stickers in) so all I need is a "This" or a "That" and I'm off to the kitchen.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Small question and then I'm off to the kitchen as these look amazing and it's been 4 years since I had a potsticker. (Yes, yes. No more being sick since I was diagnosed. Huzzah, Hurrah... but I'd still kick a nun in the shin for some real bread. And faced with most GF bread, I think the nun would then offer up the other shin for kicking.) UK cooks seem to have a much better grasp on GF cooking then most sources here in the States, but the one thing that also gets me tangled (thankfully my gran insisted I learn to cook with a scale so I'm fine there) is the whole Cornflour/Cornstarch issue. I've had UK cookbooks that use cornflour - when they mean what we call cornstarch here but others that simply mean cornflour. So. Do you mean - cornflour, the soft often pale yellow flour made from finely milling the whole kernel of corn OR do you mean the white powder, rather like tapioca starch, made of only the starch of the kernel? I've got both in the pantry (as well as a jug of good tamari to dip the resulting goodness into AND some freshly made sweet chili sauce) but I absolutely have given up trying to guess because I always ALWAYS seem to guess wrong way round, no matter what. And guessing wrong leads to a horrid mess. Which leads to vast amounts of vodka and/or tequila being consumed (medicinally, of course). And frankly, I'm out of ice so guessing would just lead to much sadness. Help this gluten free Yank out? Please? I'm in the home stretch of completely re-doing my kitchen and this would be the perfect 'christening' of my new totally fresh and completely gluten free kitchen.

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  10. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bobs-Red-Mill-Naturally-Delicious/dp/B004T395J6
    It's expensive but here is sweet white rice flour in the UK

    ReplyDelete

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