Potstickers

The June Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Jen of use real butter. She chose her family's recipe for Chinese Dumplings, also known as Potstickers.

In my pursuit of egg free homemade pasta, I've previously made these yummy little darlings, but neglected to blog the recipe. Thanks to Jen and her terrifically versatile recipe, that wrong is now being righted.

For a simple filling, I combined the following:

1/2 lb turkey sausage
1/2 cabbage, thinly sliced, salted, and drained
2 green onions, including bottom half of green section, thinly sliced
1 carrot, grated

The first time I made these, I was concerned that the turkey sausage would not cook thoroughly. It ends up perfectly done after pan frying, and I really like a filling with minimal prep work.

I didn't exactly follow Jen's instructions for making the dough, sticking (teehee) to the formula that had worked for me before:

2 C all purpose flour
1 C boiling water
additional flour for rolling

By using my standmixer's dough hook, I was able to knead the flour with the water while it was still boiling without scalding myself. The flour sucks the water right up into a remarkably soft and flexible dough.

Once the dough is ready, divide it in half and cover the unused dough with a wet towel. Roll the half batch of dough into a 12" snake, then cut it into 24 evenly divided pieces. Shove most of them under the towel with the other half of the dough, and start rolling them out into flat circles. Place a tablespoon of filling in the center, fold in half, and try to make the characteristic pleat. (Good pleating tutorial at Lunch in a Box.) Repeat until fingers fall off, making sure to either keep finished potstickers under towel or place on cooling rack in freezer.

Most recipes for potstickers direct the cook toward a wok or nonstick skillet to pan fry them. I've found that a cast iron skillet works suprisingly well, and gives the dumplings beautiful brown bottoms. Heat a few tablespoons of vegetable oil to medium high and cook dumplings until golden brown on the pan side. Add 1/2 cup of water, cover, and turn down the heat, allowing to simmer for a few short minutes.

After that, move them onto a plate and start dipping them in this wonderful sauce that...I forgot to write down any sort of measurements of the ingredients for it:

soy sauce
rice wine vinegar
sesame oil
fresh ginger, grated
fresh garlic, smushed
brown sugar

Be sure to check out all the other amazing dumplings made by the brand new Daring Cooks!