Thursday, October 8, 2015

Pork Potstickers


I love these pot stickers. My mom claims that my pot stickers are the best things I have ever made for her. I'm not sure about that, but these are quite tasty. They aren't quite as easy to make as some of the other recipes I have put up, but that is mostly in how you make the dumpling.

Ingredients:

1 lb of ground pork
1 T of Worcestershire sauce
1 T of low sodium soy sauce
¼ C of green onion chopped fine
½ C of nappa or Chinese cabbage roughly chopped
½ t of salt
¼ t of black pepper
36 pot sticker wrappers
Vegetable oil (canola or olive)
Low sodium chicken stock

Directions:

Place the pork, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, onion, cabbage, salt, and pepper together in a bowl. Mix until thoroughly combined. When it comes to assembling the pot stickers I like to have my station all set up and everything organized before I begin.

Here is how I set up my fabrication station: my filling, my wrappers (covered by a moist paper towel to keep them from drying out), a plate for construction, a teaspoon for portioning (and an extra spoon to coax out the filling), some water to wet my fingers to make the seal, and a baking sheet with some damp paper towels to keep the finished dumplings from drying out before they get cooked.

Steps in pot sticker construction:

Here are my wife's instructions for how to assemble the pot stickers. She is much better at it than I am:
  1. Place one on wrapper on the plate in front of you, dip a finger in the bowl of water and then wet the outside edge of the wrapper, and place about 2 teaspoons of filling in the middle. (Note: Be sure to only lightly moisten the dough. It should feel a bit tacky, but not slippery, so that the wrapper sticks to itself without sliding.)
  2. Fold the wrapper in half and seal it by pressing gently outward from the bulge of filling to the edge of the wrapper. Make sure to get out as much air as possible, since air pockets will expand as they're heated up and might burst open in the pan. Then moisten both sides of the wrapper along the outer edge of the crescent.
  3. Starting just inside one corner of the crescent, curve the wrapper into a small S shape.
  4. Flatten the S shape so that the wrapper is folded against itself, and pinch it tight.
  5. Continue making crimps until you reach the other corner of the crescent, making sure that none of the crimps overlap. (I can usually fit four to five crimps along the edge of each wrapper.)

When you are finished constructing the dumpling. place it on the cookies sheet lined with a moist paper towel. Make sure to also have a damp paper towel to place over top the waiting pot stickers. My wife usually fills one and I cook the pot stickers on that one while she fills the next. You can also freeze the pot stickers on the sheet pan and then stash them in a plastic bag in the freezer to cook later.

Heat a 10" skillet over high heat, one with a lid, on my electric stove I put it at 8 out of 10. Heat the pan until water spritzed on the plan doesn't skitter but boils off instantly. Put a tablespoon of oil in the skillet and use a paper towel or basting brush to thoroughly cover the bottom. Place the pot stickers in the skillet with a little space between each, in a 10" one I can usually fit 6 or 7.

Cook on high for 2 minutes, or until browned on the bottom, then pour in ½ cup of chicken stock, slap the lid on, and reduce the heat to low. Steam for 3 minutes and then remove from the pan. Repeat until all the pot stickers are cooked. If you are cooking frozen dumplings, add ¼ cup more chicken stock and steam for 2 minutes extra.

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