Italian flavor’s dumplings / Just enjoy to be pretty, so what! 義大利口味水餃 / 就是愛美, 怎樣!

Italian flavor’s dumplings / Just enjoy to be pretty, so what!

義大利口味水餃 / 就是愛美, 怎樣!

Everyone knows I am a foodie, in fact I am a middle age woman who is helpless and to enjoy being a beauty too. My father always asked me to dress neatly and nicely at home when I was a kid. So whoever came to our house, I would still look appropriate. I still remember I returned home on that weekend. I had put on my big T-shirt over my short pants, and didn’t put on any makeup for my eyebrows either. My father did not like it at all and instead gave me a lesson. My husband asked me, would I become a ugly woman after we got married. In fact, I never really worry that. I guess I already had these good habits since I was a kid. It could be because I had been surrounded with most friends who enjoyed looking pretty just like me. So dressing myself nicely has been so natural for me. I don’t dress for someone else, but it’s all about the fun to please myself. The minute that I wake up, I wash myself, put on my 5 minutes make up. I would pick the clothes, pick the accessories based on how I feel that day. Then, I would feel energized. I don’t need to worry who I would be bumping into that day. I won’t be feeling embarrassed or lose control. I would just simply put on my apron to get on the busy day. This is how I get myself ready in the early morning.

I still remember when I just got married and moved in to live with my husband’s family. My mother in law wasn’t used to see me all dressed up. She asked me why didn’t I go change into some comfortable clothes. Therefore I did get comfortable for one week, but I became lazy. Everything I did just felt as if there was no purpose at all. I didn’t even like myself when I took a look in the mirror. I was back to the way I used to be pretty soon. Actually, my style is very easy and simple. I almost always wear jeans in four seasons, shorts for summer, long one for winter. I will choose the style that would fit me and get all different colors from the deep to light at each one of them. That’s all! Matching with the nice cutting or interesting pattern cute tops are always more attractive. It also fits the body shape better. I love the loose cotton dresses during the hot summer time. No matter short or long dresses. These one piece of clothing will get me ready to go out in no time. I like accessories a lot. If the clothes represent a person’s personality. I would say the accessories like the earrings, necklaces, shoes pocketbooks will show your taste. This will be including to show your ability to put everything together, same with the way how you manage your life. Accessories is not just to make the ordinary clothes vivid, but I could become a great conversation starter. Other than this, I dress with four seasons colors, so I could blend in with natural as one.

I know somebody will ask me, aren’t you tired of living like that? As a matter of fact, I have a little bit OCD. I enjoy my everything to be organized. My clothes will be nicely folded or hanged. I even organize them by rainbow colors, long and short to keep them in the closet. This way I could feel free and easier to get on my everyday life. It’s all about to have a good habit, that’s all! I remember my junior high school teacher said, our parents give us the looks before we were 25 years old, but we need to be responsible for our looks after we pass that age. No matter you are skinny or chubby. You just need to understand your good and bad, willing to learn about the knowledge of being pretty. We all know there’s no ugly women but only lazy girls. So it’s the way we enjoy ourselves and bring other some joy when we could dress ourselves nice and neat at least. This is also the way we learn how to love ourselves and gain the respect from others. Showing our beauty to ourselves and whoever around us. It’s all depends what knowledge you have and how wise you could be to be looked gracefully and comfortable.

My dumplings should look nice and pretty, the same size, of course. It should carry its own personality too. I like to create all different flavors of dumplings, and keep the meat fresh in taste. My kids love my Italian dumplings very much. They always lie to me and say they will help me to make it, but they will all disappear in 5 minutes later. I often couldn’t make them fast enough to feed them, but I just suck it up. Because once you had fresh homemade dumplings, you will never go back to the frozen dumplings again. Come and try my Italian dumplings!

Ingredients:

Dumpling wrappers:

1. 3 cups All purpose flour. Can make 54 piece of dumpling wrappers.

*You can buy the dumpling wrappers from the Asian supermarket.

Filling:

1. 2 pounds of 70% ground lean pork. 80% ground lean pork is also fine. Just remember if it’s too lean the texture will be dry !

2. Broccoli rabe.

3. 1 medium onion diced.

Seasoning:

1. 1 tablespoon of garlic powder.

2. 1 tablespoon of dried basil.

3. 1 teaspoon dried oregano.

4. 1 teaspoon of rosemary, grounded.

5. 1 teaspoon of fennel seeds grounded.

6. 1 teaspoon of sugar.

Dipping sauce:

Basic flavors: mix 3 tablespoons of soy sauce with 1 tablespoon of balsamic or red vinegar.

Special dipping sauce:

The basic ingredients plus 1 teaspoon of ginger syrup. 1/4 cup of diced scallions, 1/4 cups of roughly chopped cilantros. 1 teaspoon of light sesame oil. 1 fresh red chili diced, and your favorite red chili sauce.

Making dumplings wrappers:

Get a large size bowl or container with a lid. Place in the flour, slowly add in the room temperature water. Use the rolling pin or any fork or chopsticks to mix it to avoid getting the wet flour sticky on your hands. Then use hands and bring the rest of flaky flour together and clean the bowl to make a dough. * This dough shouldn’t be too wet, otherwise it will be to soft to manage after set aside and rest for a while. Doesn’t need to be kneaded now, because the gluten is tight at this moment. Let it set and rest for 30 minutes, it will only take 3-5 minutes to knead the dough to be clean and shine stage. Cover with the lid, let it rest for 1 more hour. When the dough is soft and easy to roll. It’s ready to make dumpling wrappers. *When the dough is soft at this stage, don’t not manipulate the dough too much, otherwise this will make to gluten tough again!

Poke a hole in the center of the dough with thumb, use both hands hold on the dough and squeeze the dough becomes a big circle. Then cut it in half and roll it to about 1 inch diameter log. Cut this log into 1 inch little pieces. Sprinkle some flour on these little pieces of dough to avoid the stickiness. Place the cutting

size up, fix the shape close to circle a bit. Press the dough flat with palm. Use rolling pin to roll out the dumpling wrappers about 3 1/2 inches diameter.

Or you could roll out the dough as a big piece of sheet, then use cup or cookie cutter to get the dumplings wrappers. *During the rollin dough process always remember sprinkle some flour on the bottom of dough to avoid the stickiness. If the room’s temperature is dry, please cover with towel or leave in the container with lid on.

Making filling:

1. Place scallions and ginger with white wine and water together, grasp them to release the flavors into the water. Or I personally like to mix everything in the blender. Then add into the ground pork. Mix with the same direction till the ground pork becomes look like the sticky dough. This step will get rid off the gamey taste from the meat by itself, also could avoid the meat to be try out during the cooking process. Cover with the plastic wrapper and keep in the refrigerator for later use.

2. Medium heat, cook the diced onion, sprinkle few salt will help the onion to sweat faster. When onion becomes transparent, add in the oil and all the spices. Sauté it till the fragrance shows. Turn off the heat, let it cool to be used.

3. Boiled a pot of hot water, add few salt. Add the broccoli rabe in order to kill some bitterness taste. Take it out, drain it under cold water then squeeze the broccoli rabe dry. Cut it into little pieces.

4. Mix the fried onion and spices into the ground pork well, then add in the broccoli rabe. Easy mix with the vegetables, especially the vegetables are soft and tender, so it won’t effect the looks.

Making dumplings:

1. Store bought dumpling wrappers needs the water to seal it, hand rolled dumpling wrappers are soft and it will be still easy to stick together without water.

2. Excluding the extra air inside of dumpling wrappers, so during the cooking process that dumplings will less change to burst out the filling or getting lots of wrinkles.

3. Non stick baking sheets are the perfect container for these dumplings. Or you could use few corn starch to keep dumplings stick on any surfaces.

4. Place these dumplings in the freezer till the wrappers are getting a little bit harder. Then remove it to the zip bags and store them in the freezer. These dumplings could still be fresh in three months.

Cooking the dumplings:

Boiled a big pot of hot water. Nonstick pot is the better choice. Water is better 2-3 times more than the dumplings you want it to be cooked. When the water is boiling hot, stir and make the water swirl. Gradually add in the dumplings, avoid to be over crowded, no crazy stirring either, so you could keep the dumplings in shapes. When the water boil after you add in the dumplings at first time, add in the cold water just enough to kill the boiling. Let the water temperature rise again then add the cold water for the second time, and bring it to boil. You will now see all the dumplings are puffy and the wrappers are becoming transparent. Dumplings are done. Rinse the plate with hot water, so the dumplings would stick on the cold plate. Take the dumplings out with drainer and it’s ready to be served.

These Italian flavor dumplings are meaty, juicy, left unbelievable fragrances in the mouth after you eat. That hand rolled dumplings wrappers are al dente in great texture. I already knew you will pass the frozen dumplings section and ready to make some of these. Try to gather family or friends together. That will be the best way to keep the relationship closer. Do you get the idea how to make the dumplings now?

大家都知道我是個吃貨, 其實我還是位無可救藥的愛美大嬸. 從小父親就規定我們在家要穿的整整齊齊的, 隨時可以見人才算得體. 我依悉記得高中週末返家, 換上大丅恤蓋過短褲, 眉毛原本就淡的我也懶得畫了. 還被爸爸訓了一頓. 談戀愛的時候, 現在的老公還問我, “結婚以後的我會不會成為黃臉婆?” 其實我一點也不擔心自己有天會變醜. 也許是從小被養成的習慣吧! 或許身邊都是愛漂亮的朋友. 所以愛美對我來說是一件天經地義的事情. 既不為了別人而打扮, 純粹就是讓自己開心的一種興趣嗜好而已. 每天早上醒來梳洗完畢, 利用五分鐘的時間畫上淡淡的粧. 我會隨著當日的天氣和心情挑選衣服, 配上了飾品後確認滿意鏡中的自己. 心情自然就舒服清神了起來. 一整天裡不管遇見任何人也不會手足失措. 做家事的時候穿上圍裙就可以開始忙碌的一天了.我就喜歡在每一天的早晨做好這樣的凖備.

我記得剛結婚進入夫家生活時, 婆婆見我全副武裝很不習慣. 她問我為什麼不換上舒適的家居服. 所以我試著舒適一星期, 整個人犯懶. 做任何事都不起勁, 更糟的是我也不愛鏡中的自己. 所以很快的, 我又換回自己心怡的裝扮. 其實我的穿衣打扮很簡單的. 我幾乎一年四季都穿牛仔褲的, 夏天牛短褲, 冬天牛仔長褲. 從深到淺的顏色, 適合自己的款式各一條就搞定了. 配上別出心裁的剪裁或是喜歡的圖案布料所做的上衣永遠比T恤更來的有意思, 而且也能修飾身形呢! 夏天𥚃, 我還喜歡寬鬆的連身純棉洋裝, 長短皆可, 透風清涼, 趕時間出門時, 一件搞定. 我也很喜歡飾品配件, 如果說衣服代表著一個人的個性, 那麼飾品像是耳環項鍊, 鞋子, 包包則是展現了一個人的品味, 也像是你如何經營你的人生一樣. 飾品除了可以讓平凡的衣服變的更生動, 也是生活中遇見他人時製造有趣的話題的開始喔! 除此之外我還會依照四季的顏色穿著打扮, 總得配合季節的顏色才能融入大自然的美景中不是嗎？

我知道有人一定會覺得, 這樣過日子不累嗎？其實我還是個收納狂, 我很享受我所有的東西都歸納就位. 衣服除了折疊掛好, 我還喜歡按照彩虹顏色, 長短分類放整齊的放在衣櫥裡. 如此一來每天取用的時候就能不經太多的思索而運用自如了. 將美融入生活的一部分. 其實就是好習慣的養成而已. 記得國中時的國文老師說, 二十五歲以前的美麗是父母親給的. 過了二十五歲後就得為自己的外表負責任. 不論你是環肥燕瘦, 只是你了解自己的優缺點, 願意學習美的知識. 我們都知道天底下沒有醜女人只有懶女人的. 所以每天至少把自己弄得整潔大方怡人怡己. 這更是珍惜疼愛自己的方式, 也才能受人尊重, 對吧?! 生活中當然要呈現最美的一面給自己, 也給身邊的人呀! 愛美也可以很舒適優雅的, 就看你有多少智慧與知識囉!

我包的水餃當然也要漂漂亮亮整整齊的, 大小更得一致. 而且還要有屬於自己的特色和風格. 我很喜歡開發不同口味的水餃, 並且著重在於維持肉的鮮度. 我家孩子們很喜歡我包的義大利口味水餃. 他們也老是騙我說要幫忙, 結果5分鐘後大家就逃之夭夭. 我常常包到來不及餵他們. 而沒耐心的我也只好認了. 因為一但你懂得如何做水餃也嚐到它的美味後, 你就再也回不去冷凍水餃了! 來試試我的義大利口味水餃吧!

餃子皮:

1. 3杯中斤麵粉. *你也可買現成的餃子皮代替.

內餡:

1. 2磅豬絞肉, 7分瘦3分肥最佳, 8分瘦2分肥也行. 記得肉太痩肉易柴.

2. 球花甘藍菜.

3. 1顆洋䓤切細丁.

調味料:

1. 1大匙香蒜粉.

2. 1大匙羅勒.

3. 1小匙牛至.

4. 1小匙迷迭香, 碾碎.

5. 1小匙茴香籽, 碾碎.

沾醬:

基本的口味: 3大匙的醬油加上1小匙的黑(紅) 醋.

特調沾醬: 基本口味再加上1小匙的薑糖, 1/4杯的葱花, 1/4杯的香菜末, 1小匙香油, 1根紅辣椒切粒, 隨自己所好添加紅油辣椒醬即可.

餃子皮的製作:

取一大碗或是有蓋的大容器. 放入麵粉, 緩慢加入室溫冷水, 先用小桿麵棍或是任何叉子筷子攪拌可以避免太多粉黏手. 最後再用手把容器中的麵粉收光. *這麵團不移太溼否則鬆弛後會太軟而難以操作. 此時的麵團無須揉光. 麵筋呈緊繃的狀態, 蓋上蓋子醒30分鐘後再揉個3-5分鐘就可以把麵揉的細緻光亮了. 然後上蓋子再醒1小時, 待麵團柔軟易操作即可桿平做餃子皮. *醒過1小時的麵團切勿再揉麵了, 麵筋才不會又再度緊繃.

在麵團中間挖洞, 用大姆指將麵團挖個洞, 然後用雙手揑握延展麵團成空心圓. 然後分割成兩半. 再揉成約1吋左右直徑的長條, 切割成1吋左右寬的小塊, 切割面朝上整圓, 先用手壓扁後再用桿麵棍桿成約3 1/2 的圓型水餃皮.

又或是把麵團桿成大張麵皮, 用杯子或是製餅器蓋出水餃皮也行. *桿麵的過程中記得底部補上少許的麵粉防止沾黏. 如果室溫乾燥的話記得將未桿的麵圑蓋上布或置於加蓋的容器中.

餡料製作:

1. 青葱和薑加入1大匙的白酒和1杯左右的水, 用手抓出味道來然後只取蔥薑水使用. 或者是我個人則喜歡用食物調理機打勻. 然後加入絞肉, 再以同方向拌勻直到肉産生黏性像麵團一樣. *這步驟可以除去豬肉的腥味, 並且再烹煮的過程避免肉汁的流失而導致口感乾柴. 蓋上保鮮膜先置於冷藏待會使用.

2. 中火熱鍋, 下洋蔥, 少許鹽助洋蔥出水軟化. 當洋蔥變透明時, 放入油和所有調味料, 炒香後熄火冷卻.

3. 燒一鍋熱水, 加少許塩. 將球花甘藍花整齊的放入鍋中殺青, 去些苦味. 撈出, 沖冷水, 擰乾, 切細丁.

4. 將炒過的洋蔥和調味料均勻拌入絞肉, 最後再拌入球花甘藍菜. 蔬菜拌勻及可無需過度攪拌影響外觀.

包水餃

1. 現成的水餃皮需用備水沾黏. 現桿的水餃皮柔軟舒適仍具黏性所以不須沾水黏合.

1. 包水餃時, 盡量排除餃子皮內的多餘的空氣. 在烹煮的過程當中, 內餡就能減少爆開或是呈現許多皺折.

2. 不沾鍋的烤盤是裝這些水餃很好的器皿選擇, 要不然灑些玉米粉在一般的容器內也有防止餃子黏上容器表面的功能.

3. 置入冷凍, 待餃子皮稍硬後再挪至封口袋冷凍儲存. 這些餃子在三個月內一樣可以很新鮮.

煮水餃

大火燒一鍋水, 若能使用不沾鍋更佳. 水量至少是下水餃量的兩倍. 當水燒沸騰時, 攪出漩渦, 然後逐漸放入水餃. 過程中避免過度不必要的攪拌才能保持水餃的完整. 第一次水滾後加入冷水至沸騰平息即可. 再次煮開至沸騰, 然後再加入第二次冷水煮沸. 待水餃浮上水面, 餃子皮豉起則熟了! 盤子用餃子熱水先燙過再呈上餃子便不會沾黏.

這些義大利口味的水餃, 肉鮮, 汁多, 滿口留香. 尤其是手桿的餃子皮咬勁佳. 我知道當下次你看到冷凍餃子時, 你會願意親手製作這些美味水餃的! 試著聚集全家人或是找朋友一起包水餃, 會是培養感情的好方法喔! 你學會了嗎？