POTSTICKERS(A) USENET Cookbook POTSTICKERS(A)
POTSTICKERS
POTSTICKERS - Delicious Northern Chinese snack and hacker's
staple
Hackers on both coasts and most places in between love
potstickers (though if you're from the Right Coast, you
probably know them as Peking Ravioli, or just ravs. This
recipe is based on one found in Chef Chu's Distinctive
Cuisine of China. Total preparation time is about 45
minutes. They don't come out as good as the ones from Cho's
in Mountain View, but if you don't happen to be within 45
minutes of Mountain View, they'll do very nicely, thank you.
INGREDIENTS (Makes about 2 dozen)
DOUGH
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup water
FILLING
1/2 lb ground pork
1/2 small Chinese (Napa) cabbage, cored and chopped
1 green onion, coarsely chopped
2 thumb-sized slices fresh ginger, minced
2 water chestnuts, chopped
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
pinch white pepper
1 tsp sesame oil
TO COOK
5 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 cup water
SAUCE
hot chili oil
red rice vinegar
soy sauce
PROCEDURE
(1) In a bowl, combine flour and water, mixing to form
a ball. Remove to a floured board and knead with
your palm for about 3 minutes. Shape into a ball,
cover with a damp towel, and let stand for about
10 minutes.
(2) Make the filling by combining the Filling
ingredients above. Refrigerate until ready to
use.
(3) To shape and assemble, knead dough for about 3
minutes. Roll into a cylinder that is about 1
inch in diameter. Cut off the ends, then cut into
about 24 pieces, each about 3/4-inch wide. With
the cut side up, press the dough down with your
palm to flatten. Use a rolling pin to make pan-
cakes about 2 1/2-3 inches in diameter. (They get
quite thin; that's what you want.)
(4) Spoon 1 tablespoon of filling into the center of
each pancake. Fold the dough over to make a half
circle and pleat the edges firmly together.
(5) To pan-fry, heat cast-iron or other heavy-bottom
skillet over moderate heat. Add 3 Tbsp oil, swir-
ling to coat bottom. (Watch out, it sizzles quite
a bit. Don't get burned!) When oil is hot, place
potstickers, seam side up, in skillet and agitate
(shake) for 30 seconds. Pour in water, cover, and
gently boil over moderate heat for 7 to 8 minutes.
When oil and water start to sizzle, add remaining
2 Tbsp oil. Tip skillet to distribute oil evenly;
watch carefully (uncovered) to prevent sticking.
When bottoms are brown (usually several minutes
later), remove from heat and carefully lift out
potstickers with spatula.
(6) To serve, turn potstickers over (dark side up) and
arrange on serving platter. Combine chili oil,
vinegar, and soy sauce in proportions to suit your
taste and offer sauce for dipping. Alternatively,
cut up a hot chili pepper into red rice vinegar.
NOTES
You can freeze uncooked potstickers for later use, if you
squeeze out the water from the cabbage during preparation
(in a colander or cheesecloth). Freeze potstickers
separately on cookie sheets until firm, then put them in
plastic bags.
When rolling out the pancakes, leave the centers slightly
thicker than the edges. A thicker center will hold up better
during the browning.
If you prefer, steam potstickers for about 12 minutes over
boiling water instead of pan-frying. (No self-respecting
hacker would be caught eating steamed potstickers, though.)
These are really not hard to make, and come out quite
nicely! Following the dough recipe above leads to a fairly
dry and floury dough; this makes it hard to roll out and
pleat. Feel free to add a little more water. There are also
now commercially available potsticker presses that take care
of folding and pleating; they're cheap and plastic and work
rather well.
The perfect potsticker is uniformly brown with a thick brown
area on the bottom (where it sticks to the pot); it seems
that achieving this only comes with practice. I tend to fry
both sides a bit before adding the water; this helps. Beware
of too much heat; the bottom will bubble and crack. This
doesn't taste any different, but doesn't look as nice.
If you don't cook the whole batch at once, store the potst-
ickers so that they don't touch; the dough tends to stick to
itself, so the potstickers may tear as you remove them.
Many restaurants serve Hoy Sin sauce instead of hot sauce.
RATING
Difficulty: moderate. Time: 45 minutes. Precision: measure
the ingredients.
CONTRIBUTOR
Chris Kent
DEC Western Research Lab, Palo Alto, California
kent@decwrl.DEC.COM {ihnp4,ucbvax,decvax}!decwrl!kent
Path: decwrl!recipes
From: liz@unirot (Mamaliz)
Newsgroups: mod.recipes
Subject: RECIPE: Orange pound cake
Message-ID:
Date: 18 Jul 86 03:42:03 GMT
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