| The long walk was necessary to prepare for the next phase of a traditional Spring Festival Eve. All the dishes from the meal were washed and put away, the room was cleaned, and the preparations began. Making jiaozi wrappers starts with a bowl of flour. How big a bowl? Well, big. Then you add in two bowls of water, a little at a time. How much water? Just enough. If you get too much in, just add flour. The dough is allowed to set for a bit, and is divided into several large balls. Then a section of one of the balls will be broken off and rolled by hand into a sausage. The sausage is stretched from time to time and then rolled again. The stretching helps aline the "fiber" of the dough. |
