One of my favorite things to eat at a Chinese restaurant are pot-stickers. I have loved pot-stickers since I was in nursing school in the early 1980's. Three friends and I used to go for lunch to a Chinese restaurant where we were introduced to pot-stickers. They sold them by the dozen on huge, round, wooden lazy Susan's with little glass bowls of the most delicious sauce. I cannot tell you how many pot-stickers I ate before becoming an RN. We never told anyone else where we disappeared to at lunch time. If the secret got out, the place would be mobbed, and we couldn't get our order in time to eat and get back to campus. I know, selfish.
I don't order pot-stickers often now because they take longer than everything else to cook. I hate for the meal to be held up by a slow appetizer. I never thought Michael was much of a pot-sticker fan anyway. I changed my mind tonight. I had a hankering for pot-stickers, and since we had take-home Chinese last night, I couldn't order from the local joint again. So I decided to make them myself for the first time. I had all the ingredients on hand for other Superbowl recipes so I stole what I needed. I was going to follow a recipe on the Internet, but I could find one that I liked. I found several that I liked parts of so, as usual, I took my cues from them, but forged ahead on my own. The result was simply delicious. Michael ate a big plateful with a side of pot-sticker sauce and Chinese hot mustard. I ate mine with pot-sticker sauce swimming in hot pepper oil. There isn't enough antacid in the world to fix that! But, it was oh-so-worth-it.
Ingredients
- For the filling:
- ¾ lb country pork sausage (not Italian sausage)
- ¼ cup sliced scallions
- 1 tsp garlic paste
- 1 tsp red chili paste
- 1 TBS brown sugar
- 2 TBS soy sauce
- ½ tsp Chinese hot mustard
- ½ tsp salt
- For the pot-stickers:
- 1 slightly beaten egg with 1 TBS water added
- Round wonton wrappers
- Vegetable oil for frying
- 2 cups chicken stock for steaming
- For the dipping sauce:
- ½ cup soy sauce
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1 tsp hot chili oil
- Garnishes:
- Sliced scallions
- Hot pepper oil
- Chinese hot mustard
Instructions
- DIRECTIONS:
- Combine all three ingredients for the sauce and set aside in a small bowl. You can get creative with the sauce if you like by adding ginger, fish sauce, etc.
- Mix all the ingredients for the filling in a medium bowl. Set aside. Open the package of wonton wrappers and remove four or five. Place the others back in the bag to prevent them drying out. Using a pastry brush, apply the egg/water mixture to the outer edge of the wonton wrapper.