Potstickers

Today I'm giving you one of my favorite recipes. Haha, I think I may be saying this about every recipe I post. It's still true though. My husband and I love postickers. It's especially great because I don't even have to modify it to exclude onions or garlic which make me sick. My husband calls it my ginger pork instead of potstickers. He's right, you better like ginger, or you won't like this.
I also need to preface this by saying I made this for my sister who was in the country with her husband and visited us. I happened to have lent them my good camera and my private cell, so I took these pics with a point and shoot camera I gave my husband a few years ago. The pics aren't too bad, but not awesome either.

OK, here goes:

These are the ingredients you need. (Not pictured is the cayenne I used. The recipe calls for Sichuan pepper, however there is an import block of that to the US. Something about citrus plants. However some Asian specialty stores still have some. They can sell what they have, just not import more. The cayenne works just fine for me though.)

Potstickers:
2-3T Soy Sauce
2T Sesame Oil
2 Inches Fresh Ginger
1 lbs Ground Pork
1 Eggs
1t Cayenne
Wanton Wrappers

You will see I just about tripled the recipe. It's up to you though. Also, try to buy round wanton wrappers if you can. I'm a big fan of making everything from scratch, however, I've found that using the pre-made wrappers are just as good if not better than homemade dough. Way less muss and fuss too. If you can't find round ones, you can buy square wrappers and cut off the corners, that'll make them round enough to stuff.

First grab your ginger.

Peel it and chop it into little pieces. Cut through the grain, as it's very fibrous.

Then I toss them into my cusinart. (Thanks mom!)

As you can see I may use more ginger than the recipe calls for. I love ginger though.

Ok, now blend it all up. In theory you can cut it all up by hand, but I'm lazy and love my conveniences.

That delicious fresh ginger smell. Ginger is super good for all sorts of things. It helps with nausea. I swear by ginger. It's also supposed to help increase circulation, or so I'm told. I bought honey crisp apple cider which was too sweet for my sister, so she added a pinch of ginger and a shot of lemon juice to it.


Now start adding all your other ingredients to the cuisinart.
Add your pork.

Add your cayenne.

Add your egg(s)
Add your soy sauce
Add your sesame oil

Now blend it all up until it's all the same consistency and thoroughly mixed.

Now it's time to stuff your wanton wrappers.

This is the brand they sell at my little Waremart (Winco's little baby). They are super great quality. For my batch that's 2.5 times the whole recipe I get two of these packs and end up with a little bit leftover. Which is perfect, since I made my husband fry some up for me as a midnight snack while I was working on them.

I make a little workstation for myself. I take a big cutting board to work on  into the living room and put it onto my coffee table. The stuffing is time consuming, so I like to watch tv or something like that while I work on it.

You'll also need a little bowl with lukewarm water.

Here you can see my little stuffing station. My husband stepped in to act as a photographer for this one.

I use two teaspoons for the filling. One to grab a small scoop of the filling, and the other to help it off the spoon. Be aware to not stuff them too full, or they will burst open while you're cooking them and it gets messy.

Now dip your finger into your water bowl and run it across the edge of the wanton wrapper so it's a half circle.

Now fold over the other half and smooth the edges shut. The water mixes with the flour and acts like a glue.

This takes a little bit of practice, but it really is simple. Pinch the dough and fold over into pleats.

Now just keep making more and more.

You can freeze them and cook them straight from the freezer if you want.
There are a few different ways you can cook these. You can steam them, just fry them on both sides, and I've even seen someone just plain old boil them. I'm going to show you the trickiest version, but in my opinion also the tastiest version. I still find it challenging and make my husband do it. Haha, I'll have to practice it myself too.
Heat up a cast iron frying pan with oil (preferably peanut oil as it can handle the highest temperatures).
Add your potstickers one side down into the hot oil.

Once they've browned on one side, add 2/3 of a cup of water to the pan and place the lid on it until the water has evaporated. This will steam the other side, about 5 minutes. You'll have one side crunchy crispy, and the other side pretty much soft and steamed.

Now here is your delicious treat.

Dipping Sauce Recipe:

4 mashed garlic, 

1t hot oil, 

1t rice vinegar,  

¼t sesame oil, 

3T soysauce, 

(optional hot pepper flakes)

I usually triple the dipping sauce. I also leave out the garlic, but obviously if it doesn't make you violently ill like it does me, it's a tasty addition.

As usual, here is the quicky sumary of the recipe:

Potstickers – Jiaoz

Ingredients:

2 inches ginger, peeled and sliced

1 pound ground pork shoulder

2-3 T soysauce

2 T sesame oil

Setchuan pepper, toasted in oven, mortar + 1-2- t salt

1 egg

Wanton wrappers

Mix all the ingredients in a food processor, if you don’t have one, cut everything very fine and mix.

Stuff into rounds of wanton wrapper. Dampen edges in a half moon circle, fold over wrapper, pinch shut and fold over so there’s a ruffle.

Dipping Sauce

4 mashed garlic, 1 t hot oil, 1 t rice vinegar, ¼ t sesame oil, 3 T soysauce, (optional hot pepper flakes)

How to cook:

Flat skillet on high (cast iron),

Add peanut oil to cover generously

Add potstickers for 1 minute

Add 1/3 cup warm water, put on cover/lid and cook until it evaporates (5 min)

If using frozen ones use add 2/3 cup warm water and extend cooking time by 10 min (You can freeze the stuffed potstickers

Home Remedy for Colds

I've been using this home remedy for years and swear by it! I found it on this website. Everytime someone I know gets a cold or a cough, I recommend this fabulous potion to them.
Hopefully this can help you too. It's really spicy, so beware and consider having some milk as a chaser. It clears your sinuses right out!

This is what you need:

1 T Apple Cider Vinegar, the best is to get raw vinegar as it has more of those healing properties, but in a pinch any apple cider vinegar will do
1/4 t Cayenne Pepper here's the spice
1/4 t Powdered Ginger ginger is one o the best things for nausea
1 T Honey again raw honey is best, but any will do
2 T Water it just makes it not quite so concentrated

Since it can be hard to mix it very well, I microwave the whole thing to help it blend better. I make it in a jar for easier mixing, and then put it into a bottle. Always shake well before you use it.
Her website says to take about a tablespoon. My brother in law ended up putting it in shotglasses and taking it like a shot. It was pretty fun that way. Way more fun than feeling like you're taking medication.
Also the author reminds people, that this is meant for adults as it can be too spicy for kids, and infants under 1 year old aren't supposed to have honey every because of infant botulism.

Kung Pow Chicken

Today I made kung pow chicken (also known as gong bao ji ding in Chinese I believe) for dinner. Partially because I love to cook, and partially because I was avoiding reading my textbook. haha I thought I'd just share some pictures and the recipe.

So here is my recipe:

Marinade:

1 lb chicken 

2 T cornstarch 

2 T soysauce 

2 T wine (white)

1 eggwhite

Beat cornstarch into liquids, then add egg white, then meat

Marinate meat for 20 min before cooking

Heat oil to smoking

Throw in 15-20 deseeded red peppers (hot peppers)

Add marinated meat

2 ‘’ peeled and grated Ginger

2 – 4 Green onions

And ½ - 1 c almonds

Add sauce:

2 T wine (white)

2 T soy sauce

1 T rice vinegar

2 t sugar

2 t cornstarch

1 T sesame oil (toasted sesame oil)

Here's what your chicken will look like in the marinade:

Make sure you have rice ready! I prefer jasmine rice, and then I boil and cook it like pasta, instead of the cooking technique more common in the US. I tend to feel like the rice has a better texture my way. Otherwise it's often one big sticky glob.

Also make sure you have your ginger ready and on the side:

Have your sauce prepared and ready in a bowl too:

Don't you love my adorable rainbow whisk?

It really is best to cook the meat in a wok, otherwise it has a tendency to be greasy since you don't need nearly as much oil if cooking with a wok:

Serve next to the rice or on top of it, depending on your preference:

See how the rice is light and not all clumped together? 

You may also notice, that my dish does not have the green onions in it. That's because I am pretty allergic to onions and get really sick if I eat anything in that family.