Occasionally I take a couple of goes to figure out how to make a dish and pot stickers are one of those with multiple attempts required, but I think they ended up quite tasty in the end. The first go around, we made the dough way too watery and didn’t chop up the filling enough. The second time, we used beef instead of pork for the filling which was OK but not right. The third times the charm – well if Americanized Chinese food is what charms you that is.
The Dough:
-2.5 cups of flour
-1 cup water
-1 tsp of salt
Mix everything up and knead into a firmish dough, a bit firmer than your normal bread dough, then let rest for at least 30 minutes (up to 2-3 days in the fridge)
The Filling:
-0.75 lbs of bacon, slice roughly (ground pork would also work)
-Half a head of cabbage
-Half an onion
-4 serrano chilies
-2 tbsp of 5 spice
-1 tsp salt
-Various spices, say about 2 tbsp of ginger, cilantro or garlic or whatever you want
-2 tbsp mirin (cooking wine)
-2tbsp seame oil
-1tsp honey
Saute the bacon and the vegetables till soft, then add the rest of the ingredients and cook for 5 minutes. Then using a food processor, or in my case a blender, cut up everything finely. Now for the tricky bit: roll out the dough into thin 3 inch circles, then place a tablespoon of filling into the center and fold over into a half moon pouch. Crimp then roll the edges over and store on a floured surface until done with the batch. You could steam them, but we always fry then in a thin layer of oil for about 3 minutes a side or until done. For a dipping sauce, I use a mix of chili paste thinned down with equal parts mirin, soy sauce, and sesame oil. Be forewarned this recipe makes a lot!! of pot stickers, like maybe 60 or 70.
Mmmhhh… bacon.
The filling waiting to be dished out. It separates somewhat so mix up the liquid and solid before each use.
A batch all pouched up and ready to fry
And all fried up and ready to eat. I’ll admit it is a bit time consuming, but quite tasty.
