Pot Stickers (锅贴) with Ground Pork and Chinese Chives (韭菜)

[MTH123]

I’m sharing my mom’s great recipe for Pot Stickers with Ground Pork and Chinese Chives. I’ve never seen anything close to it in a restaurant, including restaurants in Asia. But, it’s great, and it’s still one of my favorite dumplings. I’ve tweaked it a bit, based on what I’ve recently learned from Fuchsia Dunlop’s fantastic cookbook Every Grain of Rice and Carolyn Phillips’ spectacular cookbook All Under Heaven.

 

In the recipe below, I cheat and use store-bought, frozen pot-sticker wrappers. Fresh home-made pot-sticker wrappers make a significant difference. I haven’t done that in decades. Now that I’m retired, I still find myself cheating, lol. The filling is by far the most important part.

 

Ground Pork 16 oz

Chinese Chives 16 oz

Pot Sticker Wrappers 16 oz (?)

 

Soy Sauce 2 Tbsp

Salt 1 tsp

Pepper 1/8 tsp

Shaoxing Wine 1.5 Tbsp

Chicken Broth/Stock 5-1/4 Tbsp

Ginger, grated 1/3 oz

Cornstarch 1-1/3 Tbsp

Sugar (optional) 2/3 tsp

 

Egg 2

Sesame Oil 2-1/4  tsp

Cooking Oil

 

1.         Thaw frozen pot-sticker wrappers in the refrigerator overnight.

2.         In a work bowl, combine the ingredients listed above from soy sauce through the optional sugar. Mix well.

3.         Rinse the Chinese chives and chop them into 1/4-inch to 3/8-inch lengths. Set them aside.

4.         Beat the eggs lightly. Add them to the garlic chives. Mix well. (Egg helps bind vegetables.)

5.         Add the sesame oil. Mix.

6.         In the work bowl, add the ground pork and Chinese chives. Mix well. Let it marinate for at least 15 minutes. It’s preferable for the bowl to be covered and put in the refrigerator. (It marinates better and slows bacteria growth.)

 

7.         Pre-stage a large plate or baking pan lined with plastic wrap. This is to prevent the pot stickers from sticking to the plate/pan.

8.         As you wrap the pot stickers, put them on the plate/pan, so they aren't touching each other. If you’re slow at wrapping them, like I am, put a damp paper towel(s) over made ones to keep the wrappers from drying out.

9.         Optional: Extra pot stickers can be frozen for cooking another time. I freeze them on a plastic-covered plate/pan first, until they are frozen enough to be unlikely to stick to each other when thrown together. After several hours or more, I transfer them to a plastic freezer bag(s).

 

As far as wrapping pot stickers, there are many ways that it’s done. For a beginner, maybe just plan to fold a pot sticker in half and make a semi-circular shape. Use your index finger and water to wet the outer edges of the circular pot-sticker wrapper with water. Then, put 1 Tbsp or so of filling in the middle. The idea is to put as much filling in as possible without overfilling it.

 

Then, fold the wrapper in half and seal it around the filling, while pushing out as much air as possible. If you put too much filling in, then just fish some of it out before finishing wrapping it. You’ll quickly get the hang of it. If I haven’t explained it well enough, search for YouTube videos that show the process. Or, ask me more about it.

 

10.      In a large non-stick pan that has a cover, add 2 Tbsp oil (2 Tbsp per 16 oz pot stickers). Spread the oil evenly.

11.      Place the pot stickers in a single layer, seam side up and not touching each other.

12.      Add 1/2 cup water (1/2 cup per 16 oz pot stickers). Cover. Start cooking on medium heat.

13.      For fresh potstickers, cook 3 minutes until water is absorbed or all but absorbed. For frozen potstickers, cook 7 minutes.

14.      Remove the cover. Continue cooking until the water is completely gone, if it isn't already gone.

15.      After the water is completely gone, cook 2 to 5 minutes until the bottoms of the pot stickers are lightly browned.

16.      Do not move the pot stickers during heating.

17.      Serve. Consider serving the pot stickers with a dipping sauce, like a combination of soy sauce, Chinkiang vinegar and sesame oil.

Edited July 15, 2022 at 10:21 PM by MTH123
Added Chinese to the Title, thanks to a comment made by abcdefg

[abcdefg]

Sounds delicious. Thanks for posting. 

 

This is the kind of "everyday food" I miss the most now that I am no longer in China. I had a favorite small cafe for 饺子 and 锅贴 near the Kunming art and history museum. Would ride my bike there on a nice day and have a very pleasant outing. Across the street was a large flower market, so at the end I would pick up a bundle of lilies 百合 or roses 玫瑰 and carefully carry them home across my handlebars. Kunming was the "flower capital" of China.  

[MTH123]

I used to visit my parents in Taipei every year or two. They moved back to Taiwan when I was in my late 20s. Before I was born, their families had immigrated from China to Taiwan when they were kids. So, my mom’s cooking was probably mostly a mix of Shanghai, Taiwanese and Cantonese cuisines. She probably picked up the Cantonese part in the U. S.

 

The first thing I ever ate in Taipei was Boiled Dumplings (饺子 jiaozi) with Chinese Chives (韭菜 jiucai) at a random restaurant. I couldn’t stop eating them, because they were so good! It became kind of a tradition for my future trips to Taiwan. I would get off the plane, and we would eat Boiled Dumplings with Chinese Chives. Talk about small thrills in life!

 

The restaurants that made better Boiled Dumplings with Chinese Chives were better than my mom’s home-made pot stickers (锅贴 guotie). But, there were some restaurants that weren’t. That’s how good my mom’s recipe is.

 

Also, I couldn’t believe how cheap great food could be in Taipei. It was like NT$5 or US$0.17 per dumpling in a restaurant. In the U. S., it’s more like US$1.00 per dumpling (or more?) in a restaurant, and it isn’t as good. So, I prefer making my mom’s recipe.

 

For decades, I was a dumpling-aholic. I like dumplings of all kinds. For a while, shumai (舒迈) was my favorite. For a while, soup dumplings (小笼包 xiaolongbao) were my favorite. (Good luck finding that in a restaurant in the U. S.) For a short time recently, wontons (馄饨) were my favorite. It may become my favorite again, if I can repeat what I did the very first time I made a great recipe by Fuchsia Dunlop from her awesome cookbook Every Grain of Rice. Regardless, dumplings with Chinese chives will always be at the top of my list or very near it. I always keep going back to it.

 

Dim Sum (点心 dianxin) for brunch in a Chinese restaurant in the U. S. is a real treat. Everyone interested in Chinese dumplings should try Dim Sum at least once. Take some friends with you, so you can try more stuff. It’s an experience!