Zui2 zian1 giao2 水晶餃 Crystal Dumplings

In the family of zui2 ziaⁿ1 giao2 水晶餃 - crystal dumplings - there are many examples of Chaoshan snacks [DioSua siao2 ziah8 潮汕小食], which falls under this family of dumplings.

I have already posted about DioSua Hung Guê 潮汕粉餜 - and this is an example of a zui2 ziaⁿ1 giao2 水晶餃- crystal ball dumpling.

DioSua Hung Guê 潮汕粉餜

However, there are many others such as zui2 ziaⁿ1 giu5 水晶球 - crystal balls, which could be either savoury or sweet.  

Swatow gucai guê 山頭韭菜餜 is a very good example of savoury zui zian giu. In other places like Teochew 潮洲 or GigIoⁿ  揭陽  -Jieyang, they make their gucai guê with rice flour and in Swatow we do not - we use this crystal dumpling wrapper to wrap our Chinese chives - gucai.  In Teochew 潮洲 or GigIoⁿ  揭陽  they wrap their gucai guê in a half moon shape and in Swatow, we wrap it as a ball - hence a crystal ball - which is an example of zui2 ziaⁿ1 giu5 水晶球. Why?  This is because zui2 ziaⁿ1 giao2's 水晶餃 birth place is Swatow - my home town. 

Do also notice all our local Diosua dumplings are called guê 餜 and not giao 餃, even they are all technically a giao 餃. However, those dumplings made outside our Diosua 潮汕 area are called giao - for example zuigiao 水餃 which is actually jiaozi 餃子 in Mandarin.  Another example of a giao 餃 is he giao 蝦餃 - prawn dumpling - a Cantonese dumpling which we know perhaps by the Cantonese name of haa gaau 蝦餃. However, in our DioSua 潮汕 language it is said as he giao 蝦餃. 

We have many other types of guê in Diosua but in this posting, I am limiting myself to just to the family of zui2 ziaⁿ1 giao2 水晶餃 and specifically the recipe for the wrapper.

There are two general recipes for making zui2 ziaⁿ1 giao2 水晶餃 - does not matter if it is Swatow gucai guê or hung guê or the famous dessert zui2 ziaⁿ1 giu5 水晶球.

The first recipe:  If you want your wrapper texture to be chewy - which we say as kiu3 kiu3  in DioSua Ue and in Mandarin is rong2 rong2 茸茸. In Taiwan, they just write it as QQ. LOL

Then you make the wrapper as follows

1 cup of potato flour
1 cup of wheat starch 澄粉
a little salt to taste [for sweet dumplings - do not add salt]
2 cups of boiling water [450 ml - if you use US measuring cup]

Pour the boiling water into the wheat starch which has the salt, and stir vigorously until the steam has stop coming out of the glue like mixture, then add the potato flour and knead into a dough.  Roll out the dough into a roll and cut into equal pieces.  [Note you need to be able to handle the boiling hot dough - and I have done it for years and I have not burnt myself.  If this is impossible for you, then get your Kenwood Chef out and use a dough hook to knead the dough.]

Do notice the proportions - 2 cups of flour, 2 cups of water. One cup of potato flour, one cup of wheat starch - and hence your cup could be any size.  

Note:  For every US cup of flour or English tea cup, you can make 12 medium size dumplings - so in the above case, you will be able to make 24 medium size dumplings as there are two cups of flour. 

Second Recipe: If you were to make the more delicate Swatow gucia guê 山頭韭菜餜 or zui2 ziaⁿ1 giu5 水晶球 then you need a softer dough which is will not give you the kiu kiu texture then you follow the recipe below.

1/3 cup of potato flour
2/3 cup of wheat starch 
a little salt 
1 cup of boiling water [225 ml]

- method same as above

You cannot make the dough in the morning and then make the dumpling in the evening.  The wrapper will break and crack just like those of second rate restaurants.  The dough needs to be used immediately.

How about steaming duration?  8 minutes is a general guide for medium size dumplings.  Then you need to him5 for 4 minutes after switching off the heat. 

What does him5 mean?  You allow the dumplings to rest in the steaming basket on top of the pot without you lifting the lid - and in Diosua Ue we call this him5.  I cannot find the character for this him5.

Like kiu3 kiu3, I have not found the character either.  I think these are local dialect words which have no Chinese characters.  Perhaps people long ago knew these characters.  Remember, we have over 47 000 characters in our Kangxi dictionary.  Perhaps we have forgotten these characters through generations of illiteracy.  Even in my biggest Chinese dictionary, there are only 10 000 characters and an educated modern Chinese only knows about 3000 characters.  

So I am sure if we were to try hard enough, we could find these characters in the Kangxi dictionary.  哈哈 A joke! I am not an expert in Chinese and how do I know?  I just read Diosua Ue dictionaries, this is all I am able to do.  哈哈

How about adding oil or lard? - I have tried adding oil and not adding oil and I found no difference in the wrapper and I have stopped adding oil.

How about brushing the dumplings with oil after steaming to make them shine?  There is no need to do this.  The dumplings will naturally shine. For those dumplings which you cannot consume, just allow them to dry out on the pieces of paper which you use to steam the dumplings, on a plate, perhaps covered.  When they become cold, they will not stick together.   

Please remember I am writing this blog to help our people in the West who have no access to Chinese recipes because we are unable to read Chinese.  However, I cannot totally not use Chinese characters.  So, for those of you who want to ask questions, please do so.  I am doing this to preserve our culture through food.  It would be very sad if future generations do not know about our food and that would be very zaogao 糟糕.