Hi guys, this is Stephan from InternChina. As this is my last week in China before heading back to Germany for Christmas, this will be my last blog for you. In this one I will explain to you how to make dumplings on your own at home.
Last Saturday we met in our apartment with a group of friends to have a farewell dinner along with some home-made dumplings. As Leo and Amber are masters in the art of making dumplings, they were the ones teaching us. And it turned out to be a real fun night.

The Chinese name for dumplings is Jiǎo Zi. In China making and eating dumplings together is an important, traditional activity. Dumplings are made with a wrapper and a filling. The wrapper is made from flour and water, the fillings on the other hand can vary a lot.

We created 3 different fillings, one consisting of eggs and vegetables and the other two being a mixture of pork and various vegetables. So let me break down for you on how to make dumplings step by step.

Step 1: Get the wrappers. You can choose to either make them on your own or you buy some that are already prepared. We decided to get prepared wrappers and focus on the fillings.

Step 2: Prepare the fillings. Clean the meat and vegetables and cut them into small pieces. Prepare different bowls for the different fillings. If you do an egg filling, cook the eggs in advance. Then start mixing things up the way you want it to be.

Step 3: Add things like cooking wine, soy sauce, ginger, onions, salt and different spices to get the typical Chinese taste of dumplings. Don’t be shy with adding a lot of these ingredients!

Here comes the fun part. Now it is time to get the filling in the wrapper. There are various techniques to do it.

Step 4 Beginners: Put the filling in the center of the wrapper. Fold and pinch the wrapper in the middle first and then work the right and left side. At the beginning you might find it hard to do but with each one you will get better.

Step 4 Advanced: If the usual way of putting dumplings together gets boring, you can live out your whole creativity and find new forms to make some nice Jiǎo Zi.

Step 5: The final step is to get your prepared dumplings ready and cook them for around 7 minutes in boiling water. After this, get together with your friends to enjoy your hard work.

Personal Tip: Snicker-Dumplings – this is by no way a traditional Chinese dumpling, but you should still do it. Buy some snickers, cut it into pieces and get it into the wrappers. Then cook it the usual way and enjoy it as a dessert.

If you would like to do an internship with us and learn how to cook some traditional Chinese food, apply now!