今日は、中国ご出身のお若いお友達に餃子の作り方（中国の餃子）を教えていただきました。皮から手作りです。皮のレシピもお家によって、人によっていろいろのようですが、今日は強力粉と薄力粉半分ずつで作りました。ネット検索するとだいたい３０分寝かせるとあるのですが、２、３時間寝かせた方が伸ばしやすいそうです。今日は２時間ほど寝かせました。生地は５００グラムずつ２人で捏ねましたが、水分が少なめなので生地を捏ねるのがかなり大変でした。多分、明日は腕と胸のあたりが痛くなると思います（笑）。

A friend who was originally born in China taught me and another friend how to make Chinese Gyoza from scratch.  Even the skin is home made like most Chinese do it.  Apparently there isn’t just one recipe for the dough, everyone makes it differently.  Today, she used a mix of half strong flour and half plain flour. We made 2 batches of dough, each with 250g of strong flour and 250g or plain flour.  When you search online most (all that I found) of the information says let it rest for 30 minutes but my friend says it’s better to let it rest for 2 to 3 hours.  It’s not a very soft dough so it was quite time-consuming and hard work to knead the dough, I expect to have pain on my arms and chest tomorrow!  However the prepared dough was very easy to handle.

捏ねて寝かせた生地をもう一度捏ねて、ドーナツ型にしてから１枚分ずつ切り分けます。そんなことにも知らなかったコツがあり、いろいろと勉強になりました。生地はとても扱いやすい生地でした。

After letting them rest for 2 hours she kneaded them again then made a donut shape from each then cut them in small pieces.  There were a few important things you need to know –  how to shape these donut shape and how to cut etc.

餡は、（ウェットマーケットはまだ旧正月のお休み中なので、今日は海老なしで）豚ミンチ、長ネギ、韮、少し青ネギ、調味料は生姜、お醤油、塩、四川山椒（お肉の臭み消しだそう）。他に薄焼き卵を細かく切ったものと生卵が入りました。そういえば、お酒やお砂糖などは入らなかったですし、ニンニクも白菜やキャベツも入りません。こんな風に、お箸４本くらいでぐるぐると一方方向に混ぜて生地を馴染ませて、少し寝かせました。

The filling was a mixture of minced pork (usually most people add some shrimp but the wet market is still closed for Chinese New Year so no shrimp this time), oriental leek (thin and long leeks), Chinese chives, green onion, ginger, soy sauce, salt, Chinese pepper (just a little to get rid of any gameness of the pork).  Thinking back, no sake, no sugar, no garlic, no cabbage/Chinese cabbage.  She mixed everything using 2 pairs of chop sticks like this – only one direction.  After mixing everything we let it rest for a short time.

生地を伸ばすところや包むところは忙しくて写真のことはすっかり忘れてしまいました。生地の包み方も教えていただき（日本の餃子とは随分違いました）、これもまたお勉強になりました。

After this I totally forgot to take photos as I was very busy with making the gyozas!  It was interesting to learn how she closes each gyoza (very different from the Japanese way).

少し味見をしただけで、今日は各自家に持ち帰って夕食に夫婦でいただくことに。そうそう、茹でてから持ち帰られたのですが、茹でたあと、餃子同士がくっつきにくくする裏技も教えていただきました。２時前から生地を練り始めて、生地を伸ばして餡を包んで、茹で終わったのは６時ごろだったでしょうか。お友達と一緒に作ったから楽しかったですが、一人ではとても出来ないな。

After we’d made them all we tried a couple after boiling them and just divided the rest by 3 and kept them to cook for dinner for our husbands.  We started preparing the dough a little before 2.00pm and I guess it was about 6.00pm when we finally finished making them and boiling most.  They took them home after boiling them and this friend taught us a special trick for not letting them all get stuck together after boiling until you use them.  It was fun because I made them with friends but I doubt very much if I will make it alone…  So much hard work,.

まずは、水餃子。ニンニクは入っていませんし調味料も少なめなので、あっさりとした餃子です。目の前で作ってくださった自家製のラー油といただきました。

So for our dinner this evening. First, boiled gyoza.  As there isn’t any garlic in the filling and the seasonings were quite light, they were light in taste (but the skin is much thicker than Japanese style so they do fill you up).  This friend also made chilli oil for us right in front of us, which we enjoyed to dip the gyoza in.

そのあと、一度茹でたものを焼いた焼き餃子。皮が分厚いので焼いたのよりやっぱり茹でた方が美味しいと思いました。ちなみに、今日の餃子は大きすぎたそう。本当はこの３分の２くらいの大きさに作るそうです。

We then fried some (with not so much oil, they are what people call “pot sticker”). As the Chinese style gyoza’s skin is much thicker than Japanese ones, I feel they are much nicer just boiled rather than fried .  This friend also told us that they were made too large today – they should be about 2/3 of the size.

疲れましたが、お友達とこういう作業をするのはとても楽しいものです。いろいろ教えていただいて、嬉しかったです。また、一緒に何か作りましょう。

It was tiring but a lot of fun to spend time making them with our friends.  I hope we’ll have more opportunities like this.

‘