Potstickers (Daring Cooks’ Challenge)

This month, the Daring Cooks recipe was to stuff, pleat, and prepare either postickers or dumplings entirely from scratch (potstickers are pan-fried, while dumplings are boiled or steamed). Having never had a potsticker before, I was excited to give this one a try. The opinions were mixed in the end – I enjoyed them, a friend we had over for dinner loved them, but Husband said they were just “okay” and complained that they lacked flavor. However, he was in a foul, miserable mood, so I’m going to discard his opinion since he was in a “hating everything” mood, and go with the fact that the other two of us were quite pleased.

I altered the original filling suggestions slightly, and went with two versions – one containing pork and one containing shrimp. If Husband hadn’t been unimpressed, this would have been the perfect food option for us, since I won’t eat pork, and he is allergic to shrimp, but both use the same dough. I wound up making three batches of the dough and still had quite a bit of filling remaining, so I’m planning on using them to make some fried rice for lunch today.

pleated dumplings, waiting to be fried into potstickers

Potstickers
Adapted from Jen of Use Real Butter

Pork Filling:

• 1/2 pound ground pork
• 3 stalks scallions, minced
• 1/4 pound shitake mushrooms, minced
• 1/4 cup bamboo shoots, minced
• 1/4 cup water chestnuts, minced
• 1 1/2 tablespoon light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon corn starch

Shrimp Filling:

• 1/2 pound shrimp, peeled, deveined, and chopped
• 3 stalks scallions, minced
• 1/4 pound shitake mushrooms, minced
• 1/4 cup bamboo shoots, minced
• 1/4 cup water chestnuts, minced
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon corn starch

Dipping Sauce:

• 4 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• few drops sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons spicy mustard
• pinch sugar

Dough:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup warm water
• flour for work surface

Directions:

1. Prepare fillings by combining all ingredients and mixing well. (Minicing all the vegetables was my least favorite part of this by far; our old, dull knives were not up to the task.) Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
2. In a large bowl, mix flour with 1/4 cup water and stir until water is absorbed. Continue adding water one teaspoon at a time and mixing thoroughly until dough pulls away from sides of bowl. Dough should be firm and barely sticky to the touch.
3. Knead the dough for 20 strokes, then cover with a damp paper towel and let rest for 15 minutes.
4. Take the dough and form a flattened dome. Cut into strips 1.5 to 2 inches wide, and shape the strips into rounded long cylinders. On a floured surface, cut the strips into 3/4 inch pieces. Press palm down on each piece to form a flattened circle. With a rolling pin, roll out a circular wrapper from each flat disc, about 1/16th inch thick. Place a teaspoon of filling in the center of each wrapper and fold the dough in half, pleating the edges along one side. For a picture tutorial of how to form pleats, see here. Personally, I found pleating the dough to be quite relaxing.
5. Place dumplings in a frying pan with 1-2 tablespoons of vegetable oil. Heat on high and fry for a few minutes until golden (pork took 2-3 minutes, shrimp took less than a minute because of lower fat content). Add 1/4 cup water (1/2 cup if you have a large frying pan and can fit lots of dumpings in at a time) and cover. Cook until the water has boiled away. Uncover pan and reduce heat to medium. Let the dumplings cook another 2 minutes to crisp up, and then remove from heat.
6. Serve with prepared dipping sauce.

frying to a crispy golden bottom