Recipes

Shannon asked for the jiaozi recipe that I use. I am lazy and buy frozen Chiripdong dumpling wrappers at our local Asian market. The recipe that I use/modify a bit is from the back of the dumpling package. If you want to make your own dumpling wrappers, China Sprout has a recipe: http://www.chinasprout.com/html/new_year3.html

I'm also providing the delicious ravioli lasagna recipe from Doodle's first week of cooking class. This week Doodle says that she wants to be a chef when she grows up. Tootle wants to be a soccer player.

Dumpling Recipe
11 oz. (213g) ground pork meat
0.7 (20g) each of minced Chinese cabbage, Chinese mushroom (I used standard mushrooms; I consider this to be an optional ingredient), carrot, ginger, scallion, and bamboo shoot (I didn't include this)
1 whole egg
2 teaspoons each of water and soy sauce
1 teaspoon each of cornstarch and cooking wine
1/2 teaspoon each of salt and sesame oil

Mix filling ingredients well. Put a teaspoon, or slightly less, in the center of a dumpling wrapper and fold over to form a semicircle. Seal the circle edge with water. Press together firmly to make sure that the filling is inside the wrapper.

The recipe calls for putting the dumplings in hot boiling water for 4-6 minutes until they are floating on top of water. Instead I steamed them in a bamboo steamer (with cabbage leaves on the bottom to avoid sticking) positioned above my electric wok for about 7-8 minutes. We found the boiled ones to be a bit watery and not as flavorful. Tip: I minced the cabbage, carrots, mushroom, and scallion in a food processor.

Ravioli Lasagna
1 jar (26 oz.) tomato and basil pasta sauce
1 family size package (20 oz.) frozen and thawed or refrigerated ravioli
1/2 red bell pepper, finely diced
1 cup shredded zucchini
1 1/2 cups reduced fat shredded mozzarella cheese

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Coat a 9-inch square baking dish and the bottom side of a square foil sheet with nonstick cooking spray.

Spread a few spoonfuls of sauce in the bottom of the dish. Top it with 1 layer of ravioli (let their edges touch but not overlap). Top the ravioli with 1/2 of the sauce, 1/2 of the vegetables, and 1/2 of the cheese. Repeat the layers once more, starting with the ravioli and ending with the cheese.

Cover the lasagna tightly with foil, sprayed side down. Cook it for one hour, removing the foil for the last 5 minutes of baking.