No Food is Better than Jiaozi
2 min readJiaozi or pot sticker is a Chinese dumpling that has widely spread to Japan,Eastern and Western Asia.
Jiaozi typically consists of a ground meat and/or vegetable filling wrapped into a thinly rolled piece of dough.which is then sealed by pressing the edges together or by crimping. Jiaozi should not be confused with wonton: jiaozi have a thicker,chewier skin and a flatter, more oblate.double-saucer like shape(similar in shape to ravioli),and are usually eaten with a soy-vinegar dipping sauce (and/or hot chili sauce).while wontons have thinner skin,are sphere-shaped,and are usually served in broth.The dough for jiaozi and wonton wrappers also consist of different ingredients.
Common dumpling meat fillings include pork,mutton,beef,chicken,fish,and shrimp which are usually mixed with chopped vegetables.Popular vegetable fillings include cabbage, scallion(spring onions),leek,and garlic chives.Dumplings are eaten with a soy sauce-based dipping sauce that may include vinegar,garlic,ginger,rice wine,hot sauce,and sesame oil.
Jiaozi are one of the major foods eaten during the Chinese New Year and year round in the northern provinces.They look like the golden ingots yuan bao used during Ming Dynasty for money and the name sounds like the word for the earliest paper money,so serving them brings the promise of wealth,good luck and prosperity.Many families eat Jiaozi at midnight on Chinese New Year’s Eve so they have money at the changing of the years.Some cooks will even hide a clean coin in one for the most lucky to find.
Jiaozi are eaten all year round and can be eaten at any time of the day-breakfast,lunch or dinner.They can constitute one course,starter or side dish,or the main meal.Every family has its own preferred method of making them,with favourite fillings,and of course,jiaozi types and preparation vary widely according to region.
Chinese dumplings (jiaozi)may be divided into various types depending on how they are cooked:
Boiled dumplings,(shuijiao)literally”water dumplings”.
Steamed dumplings,(zhengjiao)literally”steam-dumpling”.
Shallow fried dumplings(guotie)lit.”pan stick”,known as”potstickers”in America , also referred to as “dry-fried dumplings”.
Dumplings that use egg rather than dough to wrap the filling are called “egg dumplings”.
Jiaozi were so named because they were horn shaped.The Chinese for”horn”is jiao, and jiaozi was originally written with the Chinese character for”horn”,but later it was replaced by a specific character,which has the food radical on the left and the phonetic component jiao on the right.
According to folk tales,jiaozi were invented by Zhang Zhongjing,one of the greatest practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine in history.They were originally called”tender ears” because they were used to treat frost-bitten ears.
