Lazy Potstickers

So I've had an Asian food fetish the past few months. It started with stir fry. Then it was pad thai. Soon, it'll be  hot and sour soup from my fabulous new cookbook.

This, however,  is my most current Asian cooking adventure.

Pot stickers! Yay!

My recipe was inspired this recipe which was written by this friend who I met whilst in attendance at this school. I believe in thorough explanations about food, don't you? Anyway, now that we've thoroughly explored the culinary context of this masterpiece, we can safely move on to the recipe itself.

I've called it Lazy Potstickers because, quite honestly, I made them the lazy way. I didn't crimp them the traditional way, and I used what I had in my fridge instead of making the arduous ten minute trek to the grocery store because I was, you guessed it, being lazy. Or maybe I just wanted to stay home and be with my honey. I'm not telling.

Regardless of how they were made, they certainly tasted like the real thing. They were splendid. The soft dumpling skin, the seasoned meat, and the crunch of the cabbage makes for a delicious appetizer or entree.

Helpful hints:

You can use either wonton skins or potsticker skins for this recipe. I found wonton skins in the produce section of my grocery store. More and more stores are carrying specialty food items such as these, so you may be able to find them in the grocery store you usually go to. They also would be available at an Asian specialty food store.

Wonton skins are rectangular; potsticker skins are round. You'll have to fold each differently to make a potsticker. I folded my wonton skins in half diagonally which resulted in a triangular shaped potsticker. Round potstickers skins will result in a half moon shaped pot-sticker.

Also, the cooking method is a bit different. You saute and then steam 'em with a bit of water. The idea behind this is to add a bit of texture and browning by sauteing, and then steaming to make sure the filling is cooked through.

If you're new to this whole potsticker thing, you may want to make one test potsticker so you can taste all the elements together and make any necessary adjustments to the seasoning or skins.

About that sauce: it's awesome. And it's only three ingredients. You can control the heat factor by how much red pepper flakes you put in there. I made the sauce before I started making the potstickers so all the flavors could have time to meld a bit.

Seasoning: leave the filling a touch under seasoned if you are also serving the potsticker sauce, which is pretty salty. They'll balance each other out.

Variations: Use ground beef, pork or chicken instead of ground turkey. Use scallions or chives instead of onion.

Potstickers
Adapted from here.

Makes 25 individual potstickers.

1 pound ground turkey

1 cup of chopped onion

3 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 1/2 cups green cabbage, chopped 

1/2 cups spinach, chopped

1 egg, beaten

 1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

 1 package of frozen wonton skins, thawed in fridge for a few hours. 

2 teaspoons of EVOO

Mix turkey, onion, garlic, green cabbage, spinach, egg, fish sauce (or salt) and pepper. 

Take one wonton skin out of the package. Dip your index fingers in a bowl of water and trace the edges of the wonton skin. Put a teaspoon of filling in the middle. Squish - yes, squish - and pat the edges together diagonally so that the rectangular wonton skin becomes a triangle. 

Fill desired amount of wonton skins.

To cook, pour two teaspoons of oil into skillet and cook over medium heat. Once the oil is warm ( if a drop of cool water sizzles when it hits the pan, it's ready), put a potsticker in the skillet. After about four minutes, pour in 1/4 cup of water and cover to allow the pot sticker to steam through. 

If your test potsticker is everything you hoped for, repeat the saute and steam method with the remaining filling and wonton skins. 

Potsticker Sauce 

As always, adjust to taste,

3 tablespoons soy sauce

2 teaspoons rice vinegar

Pinch (or more) of red pepper flakes

Mix all, set aside.