Blog

As temperatures rise to 10-20 degrees, nature in Finland woke up and came back to life. One of the best activities right now is gathering wild herbs. This year, I joined a herbal collecting course and discovered Ground Elder (Vuohenputki in Finnish). This common herb is easy to find in suburban areas or even backyards.
In Eastern Finland, Ground Elder has already sprouted and is currently about 5-15 cm tall, though it can grow up to a meter by summer. The fresh sprouts have a hint of celery flavor, making them a great addition to dishes. I decided to make dumplings (Chinese:Jiaozi) with them, and they turned out delicious!
Ingredients:
dumpling filling
300 g minced beef or pork
150 g ground elder
8-10g salt
2 table spoon of sunflower seeds oil
30 ml water
dumpling wrapper
250 g wheat flour
1 g salt
130 g hot water
dip:
vinegar with a few drops of chili oil

Mix the wheat flour with hot water, and make a dough. Leave the dough aside in a covered container for a while

Rinse the ground elders, in the mean while take a pot and boil water (add one table spoon of salt so it will keep the color of the leaves in fresh green).

Blanching the herbs (around 10 seconds in boiling water and then put it under cold running water for a while) (in Finnish: Röypätä). Squeeze the water out and fine dice the herbs.

Add salt, and oil and mix the filling, add the water slowly during the process

When the filling is ready, take the dough out. It should feel softer than before.

Roll the dough first into a strip, and then split the strip dough into smaller portions (around 10 g per portion)

Round the small doughs, and then make them flat with a dough roller into the dumpling wrappers.

When the dumpling wrappers and fillings are both ready, start to make the dumplings. Use a table spoon, and scoop half table spoon of the filling and put it to the center of the wrapper, make a circle with water around the filling and seal it.

There are several ways to cook dumplings, you can boil, steam, or pan fry them.

My favourite way is to frying them on a pan. Toss a bit oil in the pan, and heat it with high temperature, place the dumplings in the pan and sizzle them for half a minute to get the bottom crispy, and reduce the heat to medium or a bit lower than medium, then add some water into the pan and put the lid on. Let the steam make prepare the dumplings ready. (You may repeatedly add water if needed).
↑Back to Top