We finished our culinary stop in China with one everyday dish, and one holiday celebration dish.
1. Jiaozi, or Chinese dumplings, are traditionally served around Chinese New Year. I love all kinds of dumplings, so I was really looking forward to trying this recipe. But let me tell you, it's a lot of work for a novice. The meat filling is easy to mix and making the dough is easy, too - it's just flour and water. But rolling out and folding the filling into the dough is no joke. I got frustrated with it, so Younes stepped in and finished the job for me. The problem is that I couldn't get them to look good when I folded and pinched them shut (neither could Younes, though). So, our dumplings didn't look as good, but they still tasted good and that's what counts!
Just look at that mess!
Once they were all folded, I boiled them according to the recipe, and then pan fried them to get a nice golden outer layer. This also helped them look just a little more appetizing.
2. Our second dish, chow mein, is an easy, typical noodle dish with stir fried veggies, egg-noodles, and meat. There are lots of different ways to make it. The recipe I used called for beef, broccoli, and peppers, among other things. The problem with this dish was the noodles. I used too much for one pan and they all kind of stuck together. 😳 Oh well, live and learn.
Our thoughts:
My favorite part of this meal by far was the jiaozi. I loved the taste of the sesame oil in the pork filling, and the dough wasn't too chewy even though it was thicker than I thought it should be. I had also bought a hot dumpling sauce for dipping and that really complemented the dumplings well and completed the dish.
Younes preferred the chow mein in this meal. He was happy to see beef, and he liked the soy sauce flavor to the noodles. He doesn't usually like pasta, but it was filled with enough meat and peppers that he didn't mind it this time.
Overall this meal is 6/10. It was comforting and filling, and felt like we were eating a real Chinese meal. It's definitely something that I would make again!
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