Saturday, January 29, 2011

I Made Pot Stickers!! - Recipe Challenge Week 1

What a way to end the first week of my self-imposed challenge.  Home-made pot stickers.  Yum, yum, yum!  Next to the chili, this was the week's best recipe.

I will say though, what a pain in the butt!  I have a new found respect for those poor guys holed up in the prep areas of dumpling restaurants hand stuffing and sealing these little buggers.  Lots o' work!  But these tasted remarkable so perhaps they will appear in my kitchen again on a day when I have loads of extra prep time.  Maybe.

So, my last Martha Stewart recipe for this week, shrimp pot stickers.

Dipping sauce:
1/2 cup soy sauce
5 tbsp white vinegar
4 tsp (or more) Sriracha sauce
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp grated fresh ginger
1 tbsp toasted sesame oil

Pot stickers:
2 scallions, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 medium carrot, diced
1 large egg white
1 lb large shrimp, peeled, deveined & tails removed
36 wonton wrappers
cooking spray

In medium bowl, whisk soy sauce, vinegar, Sriracha, sugar, ginger and sesame oil.  Set aside.

In food processor, process scallions, carrot, egg white and half the shrimp until a paste forms.  Transfer to medium bowl.  Roughly chop remaining shrimp and combine with paste.  Stir in 3 tbsp dipping sauce.

Place a scant tbsp shrimp mixture in center of one wonton wrapper.  With a wet finger, moisten edges, then fold over filling and press to seal.  Place on a dish covered with toweling while you prep remaining wontons.

Lightly coat a large skillet with cooking spray.  In batches, cook dumplings until browned on both sides.  About 1 to 2 minutes per side.  Add 1/2 cup water to skillet, cover, and cook until tender, about 3 minutes.  Remove cover and continue cooking until almost all water has evaporated.  Transfer to plate.  Wipe skillet clean and start over with remaining stickers.  Serve with dipping sauce.
I had never worked with wonton wrappers before, and filling and sealing each one at a time was time consuming.  I did get better towards the end though, and amazingly, none of them opened during cooking.  Best of all, these are so incredibly good.  The sauce intensified in the fridge too, so my lunch leftovers were extra delish.

What is the most time-consuming recipe you make that you just can't live without?

8 comments:

  1. Nice job! I use the wonton wrappers often. When I make a batch of dumplings I freeze them in portions sizes. They freeze really well. The wrappers work nicely for making ravioli too, and that reminds me...I still have some butternut squash ravioli in my freezer. You can also make little guava cheese desserts with them.

    I think, besides the dumplings (I make pork instead, just because I don't eat shrimp) it would have to be empanadas with the dough made from scratch. But they freeze well too, so when you take the time to make these homemade it's good to make a lot and freeze the extra!

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  2. That is such a great idea about freezing extra when you make the "hard" stuff. Your ravioli and empanadas sound so delicious. I will try to work with wontons again. I really like that they didn't fall apart so easily as I thought they would.

    Off to check your blog for the guava cheese desserts!

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  3. These sound amazingly delicious! I love that they're shrimp, YUM!! I agree with you, making dumplings, egg rolls, wontons, ravioli, etc is a pain in the butt but man they're so good :)

    My most time consuming recipe that I can't live with out has got to be tamales. I made them a few weeks ago with a friend and they were amazing. took forever & lots of labor involved but not hard. Just time consuming and delicious!

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  4. This is one of those recipes that I am looking forward to tackling. They are time consuming, and once when I made them, I decided to make the wraps too, what a pain. But they are so good!

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  5. WOW! Nice. Looks awesome.

    I haven't made potstickers, yet. SHould try.

    The most time consuming thing I make is my Easter Rum-Raisin Babka... it's about 3 days from dough to bread. Takes me from Good Friday to Easter morning. But sooo worth it.

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  6. I don't think I posted this guava cheese dessert. I also made chocolate and coconut ones that didn't photograph well so I think I skipped posting it. I'll have to make them again and see how they look. Otherwise I use puff pastry with the guava paste and cream cheese to make turnovers.

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  7. Tamales, homemade wrappers, 3 day bread. Wow! You guys are my new idols. I'm sure they all taste fabulous though.

    That sounds good Lyndsey. I'm sure I can find a recipe somewhere to try. Afterall, I do have some extra wonton wraps. :)

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  8. O...M...G... Love me some dumplings. Guess that's the Asian coming out in me. Hahahaha... I have never attempted to make them though... so YOU GO GIRL! I'm working through my magazine 10x slower... but I know one of them has dumplings and potstickers... may have to pull that one out next b/c yours look YUMMY!

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