Forevermamas Authentic Pot Stickers Northern Chinese Recipes

Steps:

• Combine the pork (or chicken), cabbage, rice wine, soy sauce, salt, pepper, scallions, sesame oil, sugar and stock. Mix well and set aside.
• Once you remove wrappers from its packaging, keep them covered with a damp dish towel (this will prevent them from drying out -- they need to remain moist for a successful result).
• Place 4 wrappers at a time on a work surface. Place about 1 teaspoons of filling in the center of each wrapper and fold in half. Moisten the edges with water and pinch together with your fingers, making sure there are no open gaps. Pleat around edges, pinching to seal well.
• Transfer the dumplings to a floured sheet pan and keep covered with a damp towel until you have finished stuffing all the dumplings.
• Heat a large skillet over high heat until it is hot. Add the peanut oil (you may need to use more than 1 T) and place the dumplings, flat side down in the pan. Turn down the heat and cook about 2 minutes or until they are lightly browned (you do not need to turn these over). (You may need 2 skillets). Add the 2/3 cup of water; cover the pan tightly and cook for 10-15 minutes over low heat until most of the liquid has been absorbed. Uncover the pan and continue cooking another 2 minutes. Remove the dumplings to a serving platter and serve with the Dipping Sauce.
• Dipping Sauce:.
• Mix all ingredients together. Taste for seasoning and correct if necessary. (The amounts given are approximate, as I normally eye-ball it).
• NOTE: Though the authentic recipe uses pork, I have used chicken breast as well which I ran through the food processor.
• The serving size of 4-5 is approximate because it all depends if you serve this as an appetizer versus a main meal.

Steps:

• Sprinkle cabbage with the 1/2 tablespoon of salt and let stand for 30 minutes. Place the cabbage on a clean dishtowel or cheesecloth and squeeze out any water. The dryer the cabbage the better. In a large bowl thoroughly mix the cabbage with all of the other ingredients, except the chicken stock. Cook a tester to check the seasoning.;
• GUEST CHEF: MING'S MOM (IRIS LEE TSAI) .
• In a stainless steel bowl mix flour and salt. Slowly add hot water to flour in 1/4 cup increments. Mix with chopsticks until a ball is formed and the dough is not too hot to handle. On a floured surface, knead dough until it becomes a smooth, elastic ball. Place back in bowl and cover with a damp cloth. Allow to rest for at least 1 hour. Working on a floured surface with floured hands, roll out dough to form a long 'noodle', 1-inch in diameter. Cut 1/2-inch pieces and turn them over so the cut sides are facing up. Flatten with your palm and roll out thin using a rolling pin. The dumpling wrapper should end up about 3 inches in diameter.
• MAKING THE DUMPLINGS: Place a small mound of filling in the middle of the wrapper. (Be very careful not to touch the edges with the filling as this will impede proper sealing of the dumplings. Nothing is worse than dumplings breaking during cooking.) Fold the wrapper in half to form a half moon shape. Starting on one end fold/pinch the wrapper tightly together. Proceed with this fold/pinch method until the dumpling is completely sealed. There will be approximately 10 to 14 folds per dumpling. Rest the dumplings with the folded edges straight up.
• COOKING THE DUMPLINGS: In a hot saute pan coated well with oil, place pot stickers flat side down and cook until the bottom is browned. Have pan cover ready and add 1 cup of chicken stock, cover immediately. Be careful, the liquid will splatter! The stock will steam the pot stickers. Check them in 5 minutes as more stock may be needed. The trick here is that once the dumplings are firm and fully cooked the stock will evaporate and the bottoms will crisp-up again.
• Combine all and serve in a small bowl.
• PLATING: Serve pot stickers on a large platter lined with lettuce with a bowl of dipping sauce on the side.

Steps:

• In medium bowl, stir together flour and salt. Gradually stir in boiling water. Gradually add cold water, stirring constantly, until a dough forms. On floured surface, knead dough until smooth, adding more flour if necessary. Cover with damp towel; let rest 20 minutes.
• Meanwhile, in large bowl, mix Filling ingredients. In 10-inch skillet, cook Filling over medium-high heat, breaking up chicken into crumbles as it cooks, until chicken is no longer pink. Remove from heat.
• Sprinkle additional flour in shallow baking pan. To mold potstickers, pinch off 1 tablespoon dough; roll out into a 3- to 4-inch round. Place 1 tablespoon filling in center of dough round; fold over dough and seal edges. Crimp edge, if desired. Place pot stickers in floured pan.
• Heat 3-quart saucepan of salted water to boiling over medium-high heat. Next to it, heat a few tablespoons oil in 10-inch skillet over medium heat. Boil potstickers 4 minutes; remove with slotted spoon, allowing excess water to drip off. Place potstickers in skillet, stepping back because this could cause spattering. Once bottoms of pot stickers are browned, remove from skillet with slotted spoon. Pat off any excess oil with paper towel. Serve potstickers with additional soy sauce.

Steps:

• Place the shrimp in the work bowl of a food processor, and process until the shrimp are finely ground. Set aside in a large bowl. Working in batches, process the ground beef to a fine grind, and set aside with the shrimp. Combine the shrimp and ground beef with ginger, shallot, green onions, napa cabbage, soy sauce, sesame oil, salt and pepper, and white sugar, and mix the ingredients until thoroughly combined.
• To fill the pot stickers, place a wrapper on a work surface in front of you, and place a scant teaspoon of filling in the center. With a wet finger, dampen the edges of the wrapper. Fold the dough into a half-moon shape, enclosing the filling, and press and seal to remove extra air and tightly seal the edges together. It's nice to fold several small pleats in the top half of the wrapper for a traditional look before you seal in the filling. Refrigerate the filled wrappers on a parchment-lined baking sheet while you finish filling and sealing the pot stickers.
• Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet with a lid over medium heat. Place pot stickers into the hot oil, flat sides down, without crowding, and let fry until the bottoms are golden brown, 1 to 2 minutes. Turn the dumplings over, and pour the water over them. Cover the pan with a lid and let the dumplings steam until the water has nearly evaporated and the dumplings have begun to fry in oil again, 5 to 7 minutes. Uncover the skillet, and let the pot stickers cook until all the water is evaporated and the wrapper has shrunk down tightly onto the filling, another 2 to 3 minutes.

Steps:

• Crumble pork into a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium high heat until evenly brown. Drain and set aside.
• In a medium bowl, mix together the pork, cabbage, green onion, ginger, water chestnuts, salt, sugar and sesame oil. Chill in the refrigerator 6 to 8 hours, or overnight.
• Place a tablespoon of the pork mixture into each of the wonton wrappers. Fold the wrappers, and seal the edges with a moistened fork.
• In a large, deep skillet, heat 3 tablespoons vegetable oil over medium high heat. Place the pot stickers into the oil seam sides up. Heat 30 seconds to a minute. Pour water into the skillet. Gently boil 7 to 8 minutes, until oil and water begins to sizzle, then add remaining oil. When the bottoms begin to brown, remove pot stickers from heat.
• In a small serving bowl, mix together the chili oil, soy sauce, and vinegar, adjusting proportions to taste.

Steps:

• Mix first 10 ingredients in a bowl.
• Take a wonton wrapper and place 1 heaping teaspoon of filling in center.
• Moisten edges with water, fold over and press to seal edges.
• Add 3 tablespoons of Peanut Oil to a large skillet and saute until the bottoms are golden brown.
• When golden brown, add 1/2 cup chicken broth, cover pan and simmer 8 minutes.
• Remove from pan.
• Reserve broth in a separate bowl and repeat process until all potstickers are cooked.
• Keep warm on a plate covered.