I thought long and hard about posting, or attempting to post, my Mother-In-Laws recipe for Jiaozi….but have failed each time. Being from the city of Qingdao in Shandong Province, Jiaozi is a way of life. Having made these dumplings by hand for Her entire life, there are no measurements, and the 
dough is done by "feel". She knows when it is "right", making adjustments for temperature and humidity. The filling is done by "nose" something covered in a post by FOY(friend of Yoso), CAB, in a post you can find here. My "nose" has improved over the years, so nowadays I will often make the filling(plus there’s one more hint I’ll reveal at the end), but leave the dough making to my Mother In Law. So I guess you could say, my MIL’s recipe, is no recipe, but a process so deeply rooted, and ingrained, that it is beyond second nature. I often kid the Missus, telling Her that "dough is your destiny", as you can see here She does a pretty good Jiaozi Herself(and there’s even a recipe for the Shrimp and Chive filling someone requested….I forgot that I posted that). The one thing the Missus lacks is the "staying power"….once tired and distracted, Her Jiaozi gets bigger, and bigger, until it is literally bursting at the seams. After making one batch, She announces Her "retirement" from making Jiaozi…this latest retirement has lasted over 2 years!
I attempted to at least capture a few photos three times. The first attempt was a bunch of blurred photos. What you see are combined photos from the second and third attempt. It is hard to keep up……
Note on the dough; my MIL really likes working with High Gluten Flour, but will use All-Purpose Flour. Unlike most Jiaozi recipes, She prefers room temperature water.
One key point on rolling out the wrappers. The edges of the wrappers are thinner than the center. This is done to ensure that the thickness of the wrapper is more even when the dumpling is made.
One quick tip; get a small pot of water going at a low simmer when beginning to roll out the wrappers. You can check the flavor of your Jiaozi by creating a "test dumpling".
So there you have it……how a dumpling "army" is created.
The best part is, I get to choose what kind of Jiaozi I want….3 Treasures perhaps(pork, shrimp, and sea cucumber)?
And maybe a batch of Pork & Dill as well?
Sometimes, life is good! I know some of the readers kid me about being really picky when it comes to Jiaozi….you can see where it comes from, right?
The "Rotation" page:
By request, I’ve redone our "rotation". This time, I made a "Typepad Page" with our rotation. You can find it in the sidebar, under "Pages"…or here. Thanks to Ed and Mizducky for posting and freeing up some time so I could build the page. I’m still thinking about the best way to divide up the restaurants based on location (hang in there Anna!), I hope to get that done soon.