Hello 韭菜盒子 (Chive Pockets), We Meet Again!

The first attempt I tried making  韭菜盒子 (Chive Pockets) was back in 2008.  It was a noble try but nothing to get excited about.

Checkout how I did the first time: Chive Pockets

Now that I have a better handle on FLOUR, I thought I would give it another try.  Can you believe that I am now experimenting northern Chinese food (steamed buns, pork buns, etc...)??  I'm not even from the North!!  OK, that's a story for another time.

Lessons Learned from my second attempt last night:

#1 - Follow the recipe.  Yes, flour is not your friend if you don't follow its rules!!  I learned that I need to use the right water temperature.  Cold, lukewarm or hot.  It depends on what you want to make.  For chive pockets, you need a temperature of between 65°C - 70°C (or 149°F - 158°F.  Yap.  Good luck with that).

#2 - Knead the dough.  I know! I know! And I'm pretty good at kneading dough now.  I know I need to knead that baby until smooth and elastic - just like breads!

#3 - More chive please.

#4 - Cook the ground pork first.  This was a big discovery for me.  I used uncooked pork filling the first time and it took forever to cook through.  I ended up cooking the chive pockets as if they were pot stickers.  And the result was GIANT pot stickers with dried hard skin.  The correct way is to gently brown all sides of the chive pockets and cover the pot for couple of minutes to heat through.  That's it.  So point #5 from my first try is a bad one.  Chive pockets are not pot stickers!!

So, here's the result of my second attempt.   Much better yes?  I now need to work on shaping the pockets so they stand up like little purses.