Saturday, February 19, 2011

Potstickers


I love Chinese Dim Sum! For those who aren't familiar with dim sum, these are little plates of Chinese appetizers. At a dim sum restaurant the servers come around the dining room with carts filled with all these savory treats. You point to what you want and they put it on the table and mark your ticket. You get to try so many different things in one sitting and everything is so good! Of course a restaurant kitchen is able to produce upwards of 30 different little dishes to send around the dining room. I love to try to recreate my favorites at home and sometimes get over ambitious with the menu because all those little dishes add up time wise. So as long as I remain realistic about what I can do in a specific timeframe (easier said than done) dim sum is fun to make and guests just love it.

Tonight I had my friend April ( http://www.aprilslittlefamily.com/) and family over. Actually we were supposed to go to her house but I got a little carried away in the kitchen and things just were not going to make it over to her house so they ended up coming over here. See what happens?

I made my Vietnamese spring rolls, fried rice and I made potstickers as well. April brought chicken wings with a hoisin sauce glaze and dessert. Everything was delicious and the company awesome. So here is the recipe for the potstickers. Try them, they are really good.
Potstickers
Filling:
3 dried black Chinese mushrooms
8 ounces ground pork
1/4 cup minced scallion
1 tsp minced ginger
2 tbls chicken stock
1 large egg
2 tsp sesame oil
1/8 tsp white pepper
2 tsp oyster sauce
1 tbls dry sherry
2 cups finely shredded green cabbage
1 tsp salt

Wrapping:
1 package round wonton wrappers
1 large egg

Dipping sauce recipe follows

Pour boiling water over the mushrooms and set aside to soften. Shred the cabbage and place in a bowl. Toss in the 1 tsp of salt and mix well. Set aside.

Combine remaining filling ingredients. When mushrooms are soft remove the hard stem and chop them fine. Add to the meat mixture.

Put the cabbage in a kitchen towel and squeeze until all the bitter juices have been squeezed out. Add to the meat mixture. Mix well.

Beat the remaining egg and brush some around each wonton wrapper. Place a heaping teaspoon of filling in each wrapper. Fold over into a half moon and pleat it as you seal it shut. Grease a large non stick skillet with shortening. Place the put stickers in the skillet in a single layer. add 1 cup of water to the pan. Cover tightly and bring to a boil. Turn to low and let simmer until the water is evaporated. Continue to cook in the dry pan until the bottoms brown. Serve with this dipping sauce:
Mix 1/4 cup soy sauce with a teaspoon of sesame oil, a teaspoon of sugar and a tablespoon of rice vinegar. Stir well and serve with the potstickers.

2 comments:

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