Vareniki - Russian Mashed Potato Dumplings

My favourite thing about travelling is eating new cuisines. In Russia last year I was super hungry and late one evening we stopped into a little diner. I ordered what is basically a bowl of comforting delights - mashed potato wrapped in dough. Perfection. Carbs on carbs, my kind of cuisine.

I have been meaning to make these for AGES but honestly, folding dumpling wrappers can be a little bit tedious. Then I saw a thing. A gadget. The coolest thing ever!

DUMPLING PRESS OMG

So this was an absolute breeze. Easy, delicious and kind of quick for dumplings! I don't think my recipe is strictly traditional but it was really really good. Usually you'd just have this on your own but I served it with some sausages for a little extra protein.

Chinese-Style Turkey Dumplings (Potstickers)

THESE ARE SO EASY. What a revelation. These are so great, simple, a little time consuming, but perfect for a weekend dinner when you have a little more time.

So, I won’t lie. I am not as fast at rolling and filling these as the people at my local dumpling joint. I could watch them make dumplings at lightning speed for hours. But I got it done. I watched a few videos for the rolling technique, but you really just have to get your hands on the dough and see what you can do.

Gorgeous little dumpling

A few things I learned - roll from the centre out, in one direction only, rotating the dough about a quarter turn after each (one) roll. This gets the most uniformly round dough circle.

Ta-da!

The good thing is, I’m going to let you into a secret.. They don’t need to be perfectly round! You can still fold them into a dumpling shape if you end up with a square, an oval, a rectangle, or something in between!  I rolled about 25, and hand on heart, I probably rolled 3 proper circles (the ones I photographed!)

For better photos of how to fold the dumplings (and bonus dipping sauce recipe!), see this previous post (where I used pre-madewrappers). The homemade ones are SO MUCH easier to fold, though.

Gyoza (Dumplings)

I GOT A NEW CAMERA! It's red and lovely. It is taking a bit of getting used to, so please bear with me while I adjust.

Do you ever just make something that works out so well and leaves you so deliciously satisfied that you are happy for day after? I'm posting this recipe now so everyone has time during the week to go get the ingredients so you can all make them this weekend. You'll thank me.

So, last weekend I stuffed myself full of these bad boys. I first had these in Japan, and they were unlike anything I’d ever eaten before. The succulent filling, wrapped in a soft yet crunchy wrapper. I was keen for more, and actually found them in Brussels in an amazing little Thai restaurant, and that time they came with the most DIVINE dipping sauce which looked like plain soy sauce, but was actually nectar of the gods.

Ever since my second exposure to them, I was itching to have a go at home, and when I came across the technique I used here I knew that I had to have a go. I don’t have a steamer so I thought they would be lost to me. I also thought it would be hard to source the wrappers, but all the Asian grocery stores I checked had them in the freezer section.

They are extremely not hard to make, you just need to be organised (boo) and efficient, as this is a time-intensive cook. Try not to do what I did and start the whole process at 5pm. We ate at 8pm. Worth it.

The only tricky part was those characteristic and essential “pleats” which took a little bit of folding. For the technique, which is pictured in detail below, I folded it in half, and pinched it together in the centre. I then folded one side in on itself and pinched it to the other half on one side, and repeated it on the same side. I then did the same on the other side of the centre pinch. I then pinched the ends closed. Voila!