Gluten Free Dumplings
Dumplings, Potstickers, or Gyoza... however you call them, I've cracked a recipe which means you won't be missing them any longer! The only place I've ever had good gluten free dumplings was in Tokyo, and while I would go back to eat them again, figuring out this recipe is saving me about £600 on the return flights.
I've even gone and made a How-To video for GF dumplings which may be easier to follow than the recipe below, especially if you are a visual learner like me. Please check it out and subscribe!
The filling
Dumplings are made to be customised! You can put (pretty much) anything you like inside them. I've even used this recipe to make dessert dumplings, filled with Nutella and strawberries. For this recipe I'm using a vegan filling of tofu, carrot, cabbage, onion and gluten free soy sauce. It provides a nice texture, perhaps similar to a vegetarian spring roll. So other ideas for fillings are mushrooms & leak, sesame & chicken, kimchi & tofu, spinach & pan choi, pork & scallion. The only thing you really have to think about is making sure that you've cooked off the excess moisture from the filling, otherwise you might find the dumplings disintegrating from the moisture.
Freezing
This recipe makes 30 dumplings! Which is a lot for one, even two people. But luckily you can freeze these so easily. Once you've filled and sealed the fresh dumpling, wrap them in cling film/glad wrap, or pop them in reusable sealed bags and place them into the freezer. So far I've had some that have been in the freezer for two weeks, and they taste exactly the same. To cook from frozen, simply cook as you would a regular dumpling, but steam for a few minutes longer before taking the lid off the saucepan.
The Sauce There are plenty of dipping sauces that go well with dumplings but my favourite is super simply soy and rice vinegar sauce. All you need to do is mix 3 parts gluten free soy sauce (I like using a darker soy sauce like the Yaemon one from Clearsping) and 1 part rice vinegar. Then add a dash of mirin, and a little bit of chilli or sesame oil, and sprinkle sesame seeds on top. And that's it!
I N G R E D I E N T S
For the filling
1 carrot
1 spring onion
1/8 cabbage
3 cloves of garlic
30 grams of ginger
1/4 brown onion (or 2-3 shallots)
100 grams of tofu
2 tbsp gluten free soy sauce
1 tbsp of sesame oil
A sprinkle of seaweed flakes (Optional)
For the wrappers
100 grams plain gluten free flower
100 grams of tapioca flour
80 grams of rice flour
1 tsp xanthan gum (1/2 tsp if you flour mixture already contains it)
1/2 tsp salt
160-200mls boiled water
M E T H O D
Make the filling:
Finely dice the carrots, onion and spring onion, and grate the ginger, garlic, and cabbage.
Heat up the sesame oil in a frying pan over a medium heat.
Once warm, gently fry the carrots, onions, ginger and garlic for 3-4 minutes or until the carrot begins to soften.
Crumble in the tofu and fry for 2 more minutes.
Add in the cabbage and the soy sauce, and fry until there is not excess moisture.
Put in a bowl and set aside to cool while you make the dumpling wrappers.
To make the dumpling wrappers, first boil a kettle.
Measure out the flours (I suggest with digital scales) and combine them together in a large bowl.
Slowly pour in 160ml of boiled water to start with, and gently start mixing with a spoon. When the temperature of the dough has cooled down, start mixing it with your hands. If you are finding the dough a bit dry - add another 20-40ml of water.
Knead the dough until you have a smooth round ball.
On a floured surface and with a floured rolling pin, roll out half the dough at a time to about a millimetre in width. This is quite thin I know, but the dough can handle it.
Cut out your wrappers using a circle cookie cutter, between 9-12cm in diameter.
Continue rolling the dough out until you have used it all up. You should get about 30 wrappers!
TIP: If you are finding that the dough is drying out before you get to roll it, add 20mls more water to it, and re-knead it and it should be fine. The dough does dry out pretty fast - this is because of the tapioca and it's ability to infinitely absorb moisture (or so it seems)
Once you have your 30 wrappers, it's time to fold them! I am no expert in this and I would suggest watching a video on the best way to do it. I folded mine the traditional Japanese way, which is like a pleat - I show this in my how to video above! But let me have a go describing the process.
Taking a wrapper in your least dominant hand, wet your fingers with water and run them around the perimeter of the wrapper. This is to make the dough sticky and ready for sealing.
Take about a teaspoon and a half of your filling and place it directly into the centre of the dough.
Fold the wrapper in half over this filling and pinch it together (but don't seal it), then starting from the side closest to you, make a pleat fold about ever 2cms. You should get about 4-5 folds in before you reach the end. Please watch my video for a visual example.
Once you have sealed all the dumplings, you can either wrap them in glad wrap/clingfilm and freeze them for another time of cook them fresh!
To cook the dumplings you will need a reliably non stick pan with a lid, some oil and 100ms of cold water.
Heat the oil in the non-stick pan to a medium heat, on my induction stove I go to 7.
Place the dumplings in the pan and let them sizzle for about 30 seconds, then pour the water in and very quickly place the lid on top! Please be careful with this part because hot oil + water causes a lot of spitting!
Steam the dumpling for 5-6 minutes.
Carefully remove the lid and let the excess water steam away, and the bottom of the dumplings brown.
Serve with a dipping sauce (recipe above) and enjoy!
