I love pot stickers so much! I have yet to work at restaurant with Chinese influence, and it would be impossible to cover Chinese cuisine as a whole in one course during culinary school let alone a year, because of so many regions in China and so many influences. Pot stickers have become an American favorite though. You see and hear more people ordering them and talking about them now, then you did 10 years ago here in the States.
Though I do not have restaurant experience that involves making pot stickers in mass production, I love making them at home. Whether I make the skins by scratch, or buy them. I do HIGHLY suggest if you buy the skins, to purchase them from an Asian market. The ones you buy at the grocery store do NOT have a good consistency, they blister, and have this weird, not natural aroma to them. So in my opinion, I'd ditch the bi..., well you get the point.
So, here is an easy recipe I came up with tonight for dinner! Hope you enjoy it. It's really fragrant from the lemongrass, light and is making me excited that winter is pretty much over. (I love winter, I'm just freakin sick of it!) lol
This recipe yields 12 pot stickers
prep time: 30 minutes
holding time: 20 minutes
cook time: 10 minutes
Ingredients:
12 pot sticker skins
1/4 head Napa cabbage chopped finely (chiffonade)
1 Carrot fine julienne
1/8 fresh jalepeno minced
2 TBS lemongrass paste (find this in the produce section)
1/8 tsp sesame oil (please remember that it is very potent! A little goes a long way!)
1/2 TBS salt
Oil of your choice. If you use peanut oil, make sure you are not cooking for someone with allergies. Be sure to ask any guests ahead of time if they have allergies.
Do NOT us sesame oil for frying. I have eaten food (not made by me I promise) by someone who used sesame oil for frying and I swear it tasted like something died in my mouth.
Combine all ingredients. Lay pot sticker skin down on a clean surface. Do not stuff your pot stickers. Add a little less than a TBS of filling. I suggest using a measuring spoon to ensure consistency.
Have a small bowl of room temperature water. Using clean hands, dab your fingers in the water to seal your pot stickers. Crimp them gently like an accordion. This is trickery than it seems and takes much practice. Trust me, I'm practicing! ;)
Take a sheet tray, and line it with parchment paper. Place your delicate pot stickers on this sheet tray, and hold them in the fridge for at least 20 minutes.
Contrary to popular belief, it is important to chill something with a soft dough of this type before frying it. This way, your pot stickers will be able to withstand the shallow frying process AND steaming process, without falling apart. This step is so important.
Remember, cooking amazing food requires patience. It will be so worth it. Before cooking professionally, I was extremely impatient, and frustrated. lol!
You will need two pans. I do not think it's a good idea to fry and steam in the same pan. It's also quite dangerous. So use one pan for shallow frying, and one to steam and finish cooking your pot stickers. This will allow you to make them in big batches too so you don't have to waste time or over crowd your pan, which results in lowering the temp in your oil, which means you'll have to cook them longer. You don't want oily pot stickers, or gummy ones! They'll start to break down.
So fry the bottoms of your pot stickers until they are a golden brown. Add them to your steam pan with a steamer. Steam them for about 6 minutes. Do you not know what a steamer is? It's this crazy looking thing:
They cost about $4.00 US currency, and will become your best friend!If you have one of THESE... even better for pot stickers! YUM!
Ingredients for Sauce:
1 tsp Sambal Sauce (found in Ethnic Food Section)
3 TBS Apricot Preserves
1 tsp Soy sauce or mushroom soy sauce
1/2 tsp rice wine vinegar
Simply heat up apricot preserves and combine other ingredients. Set to cool. It will thicken up slightly. So easy right?!!!
I hope you enjoy this recipe. Pot stickers, and anything hands on really, are so fun to make with your family, kids, best friends, or by yourself. I love cooking so much because making things like these that take a little time, do bring peace to my mind, and when I'm making them with my best friends from culinary school, or my children, it really does create memories. I'm totally not trying to sound generic. I just have amazing memories with my best friends from school in my kitchen in the middle of the night, maybe a little tipsy on wine sometimes, cooking and laughing and enjoying family meal together. I have amazing memories with those same friends, and my children, making dough, pastries, pot stickers, empanadas, etc. I love cooking with my hubby. We catch up on our busy lives, we joke around, and sometimes I tend to get a little bossy and he tends to roll his eyes.
We live in a society where we want everything done under 30 minutes. It doesn't have to be that way all of the time. We can make time to cook together. Enjoy this recipe with some friends. Have a "Take Out Night" indoors. Make some yummy food, and buy some cute chopsticks.
Enjoy guys!
Amber~
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