April 17, 2011

MOUTHWATERING MONDAY: Perfect Potstickers!

Posted by Ethne~

One of my ULTIMATE VERY FAVORITE THING EVER to make is potstickers.  My hubby and kids inhale them like they’re candy.  My brother-in-law calls them “crack” because he’s addicted.  I, myself, have been jonesing for some lately.  So they became our dinner tonight.

I’ve made potstickers true to traditional recipes, so I know how – Napa cabbage, fresh ginger, ground pork, special sauce, the whole deal.  But we don’t need it fancy - after all, we just live in big city, MN, where meat and potatoes are a national pastime.  So I have COMPLETELY Americanized this tasty treat.  And it’s a bit thriftier, too.

What you’ll need:

Dumpling wrappers (refrigerated produce section of the grocery store) - $2.49
Ground turkey, 1lb. - $5.49
Bag of shredded broccoli slaw (in place of cabbage – I snuck veggies in – genius!  A package or head of shredded cabbage are traditional, and you wouldn’t need to steam it in advance.) - $1.83
Fresh ginger - $0.70
Fresh garlic - I had this
6-7 green onions - $1.19 (there are leftovers in the bag)
Soy sauce (get low sodium – I can’t taste a difference and it still has loads of sodium) - I had this
Corn starch - I had this
Water
Olive or canola oil
Chicken broth* - I had this

the Goods

Steam (in your Ziploc steamer bag) the bag of broccoli slaw until it’s tender, but not mush – 3-4 minutes.

Steam City

Chop the ginger into small bits – I use the equivalent of about 1 tablespoon.  Chop or garlic press 3 cloves of garlic – the equivalent of about 1 tablespoon.  Finely slice the green onions – both the white and green parts. Shake in about 1-2 teaspoons of soy sauce, ¼ t. salt and ¼ t. pepper. 

Ready to smash

Mix it all in with the ground turkey – use your hands, they’re the best cooking utensil there is!

Ready to stuff

Lay out a couple of wrappers, take a brush or your finger, wet with water, and wet the entire edges of the wrappers.  (My wrappers today are triangular and bigger than normal – Super Target didn’t have dumpling ones, just egg roll size, so I cut them in half diagonally – worked fine, but they did end up much larger.  For an app, use the dumpling/potsticker size.) 

Potsticker wrappers are going to be smaller than this

Put about 1 teaspoon of filling onto the center of each wrapper and bring the sides together and squeeze lightly to seal.    Pretty versions have you scallop the tops by squeezing pleats into the wrapper, but I don’t mess around with that so much.

Easy Mac snapped this shot!

When you’ve got 10 or so made, heat up a pan of oil on medium/medium-high heat, and put the potstickers bottom down into the pan.  They want to fall over on their side, but don’t let them.  Smoosh the tops down if you need to so they sit upright.  (Be gentle!)  Allow to cook for a couple of minutes until the bottoms are browned but not burned – you’ll know!

Ready to cook or freeze
I actually froze this pan

Once the bottoms are browned, pour in chicken broth (*or water would work too) until the liquid is about ½-way up the sides of the potstickers.  Cover immediately with the pan lid and steam on medium-low for about 10 minutes until the broth is nearly gone, but not completely bone dry and the potstickers become kind of translucent.

Steam-ola
Ready to gobble

You can make a traditional dipping sauce, which is yummy, but I don’t mess around with that.  We drizzle light soy sauce on them and PERFECTION.

The girls and I ate this whole plate.  You can see their mouths are full in this picture. J

Mow 'em down

The best part is there’s no way we can eat all of the potstickers one batch makes.  I put the extras onto a baking sheet which is well sprinkled with corn starch (no sticking) and freeze individually.  Once frozen, they can be combined into a freezer bag and gently stored until you want to use them.  Take directly from freezer to pan and cook like I’ve instructed above, perhaps just a few minutes longer to account for thawing.

So we’ve got future snacks or a great appetizer for when company comes.  Do you even know how awesome you’ll look pulling homemade potstickers out of the freezer to make for your guests?  (Don’t reveal how easy they are to make – you want people to think you worked all day long to make the little suckers.)

If you’d like, you can search all over for traditional recipes, and more power to you, but if you want WOM-ified potstickers, these are the ticket.  Enjoy!

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Ethne,
A while ago I learned that pot sticker wrappers are a great cheat if you want to make homemade ravioli filling. You make the filling (two I like are a roasted squash/smoked gouda mixture and a ricotta/mint/prune mixture (this one goes under a lamb ragout - divine!). Then you just wet two edges of the wrappers (or 1/2 of the circle if you're using circular ones) and fold and press to stick.

Then you poach gently in shallow salted simmering water and lift out and put on your sauce/ragout. A lot easier than making the pasta fresh (I do also make fresh pasta on occasion but only flavored (basil, spinach, dried tomatoes, etc). I find it's too much work just to make plain pasta.

Chrissy

WOM-MOMS said...

Chrissy, this is a great tip! Lori and I will try it - and blog about it. You should follow the blog so you'll know when we post it! :)

~Ethne

Anonymous said...

Lets not forget about your sister and brother in law Bryan loving them

WOM-MOMS said...

Yes - and you used my recipe to make them for Bryan! Yippee! They're easy, huh Whit?

Leah Beyer said...

I love potstickers but have never been brave enough to make them. You have convinced me that I should at least try. Thanks for linking up to Hunk of Meat Monday .

Anonymous said...

I always thought they were scary and counted on Ethne to always make them for me, but because I moved to Georgia I had to do it myself. With E's instructions mine came out perfect except stuck to the frying pan. And be sure to use lots of water to seal them up.

WOM-MOMS said...

Whit - what do you need to do differently so they won't stick to the bottom? A little oil for sure. But also, they are potstickers, so some sticking is bound to occur. It's in the name!

WOM-MOMS said...

Whit - what do you need to do differently so they won't stick to the bottom? A little oil for sure. But also, they are potstickers, so some sticking is bound to occur. It's in the name!

Candace said...

Potstickers are my most favorite food ever, I think. I tried to make them once and I couldn't get them sealed up correctly. You've inspired me to give them another try. I could eat that whole batch, I think. Thanks for sharing your recipe. They look delicious! :)

Anonymous said...

You said you use broccoli slaw instead of cabbage to sneak some veggies in... isn't cabbage a vegetable? hmmmmm.... =)

WOM-MOMS said...

Well, Anonymous, you are sassy! Yes, cabbage is a veg, and a good one. I like the nutritional qualities of the cruciform vegetables, so that's why I like to sneak those in when I can. But good point - keep us in line! :)