Pork Pot Stickers

The pot stickers are another dim-sum favorite snack and uses basically same ground pork mixture as Shu-Mei steamed dumplings and steamed Pearl Balls. It is very tedious to make so typical Chinese family do not make them at home, but I have no choice, there are no dim-sum restaurants in our town. I don’t mind even though as a full meal it takes me about half an hour to make them, another 15 minutes to cook them and then just few minutes to eat them all. C’est la vie.

Ingredients

3/4 pound pork butt or equivalent ground pork
1/2 Tbs. fresh ginger, minced

1/2 cup finely chopped Napa or Savoy cabbage leaves

2 tsp. chopped garlic
1 tablespoons water chestnut, finely chopped

3 green onions, minced

2 shitake mushrooms, soaked and chopped fine
1 Tbs. Sake or rice wine
1 tsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 tsp. white pepper
1 tsp. sugar
1 Tbs. cornstarch

Won-ton wrappers

Bowl with water for sealing the dumplings

Directions

Mix all the ingredients except the wrappers, cover and refrigerate for 2 hours to blend the flavours.

1.     Spoon 1 heaping teaspoon of the filling onto a dumpling wrapper. Don’t be tempted to overfill! Dip your finger into the water and “paint” all around the edges of the dumpling skin.

2.     In the middle, pinch the top and bottom together, tightly.

3.     Starting just left of the middle, use your left hand to bring the TOP portion of wrapper to pleat towards the middle. Pinch to secure that pleat. Move down just a bit, and do the pleating again. Repeat once more. You will have 3 pleats on each side, all pleats pointing towards the middle.

4.     Now, it’s time to do the right side. Do the same using only the top portion of wrapper. Pleat towards the middle, or to the left. Repeat 2 more times.

5.     Finish by pinching the pleat all around one more time with your thumb and lower portion of your finger. Remember, any unsealed section will cause the potsticker to leak filling!

 
To cook the potstickers, pour about 2 tablespoons of oil into a non-stick frying pan over medium heat. When hot but not smoking, carefully place the dumplings in frying pan, flat side down, not touching each other. Do not crowd too much or they will not brown. Fry the dumplings in batches for 4 to 5 minutes, until the bottoms are nicely browned.

Add 1/4 cup (65 ml) of water and immediately cover to start the steaming process. Steam for 3 to 4 minutes. Remove the lid and let the rest of the water boil off and re-crisp the bottoms, about 1 minute. Cut open one of the dumplings and make sure the inside meat is cooked. Before starting your next batch, wipe the frying pan clean before adding more cooking oil. Adjust amount of water and steam time for the next batch as needed.

Check this website for clear illustration on folding the potstickers

Ready for cooking. Little bit too crowded for comfort but we were hungry!

Steamed Pearl Balls - Chinese Dim Sum

Chen-chu-jou-wan

These steamed pork meat balls coated in sticky rice are not only favorites in Dim Sum restaurants but at formal Chinese banquets as well. They are so easy to make, especially if using store bought ground meat. Since I never buy ground meat it takes me few minutes longer to prepare, but for me it is worth the time and effort since I know exactly what is in my meat. Same pork mixture can also be used in wontons for soup and also pot stickers. It is very versatile recipe.

 Ingredients

3/4 cup sticky rice
1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 tsp. white pepper
1 tsp. sugar
1 Tbs. cornstarch
3/4 pound pork butt or equivalent ground pork
1/2 Tbs. fresh ginger, minced

2 tsp. chopped garlic
1 tablespoons water chestnut, finely chopped

3 green onions, minced

2 shitake mushrooms, soaked and chopped fine
1 Tbs. Sake or rice wine
1 tsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. sesame oil
1 Tbs. peanut oil
1 large egg, beaten

Napa or Savoy cabbage leaves

Soak sticky rice in water for minimum 8 hours, preferably overnight.

Drain well in colander and leave the rice in the colander over a bowl to catch water drippings.

If using pork butt, grind the meat using 1/4” plate.

Mix salt, pepper, sugar and cornstarch in a small bowl.

Place the ground pork in a large mixing bowl together with ginger, garlic, water chestnuts, onions and mushrooms and mix with your hands until the mixture is well combined. Add dry mix and mix till mixture is smooth.

With a spoon scoop out about 2 tablespoons of meat mixture and roll it in palm of your hands forming uniform ball. Place the ball on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Repeat till all balls are rolled. I prefer to scoop out all the meat first and then roll all the meat at the same time.

Firmly roll the meat balls in colander holding the rice until rice completely covers the meat. It is lot easier to do if you firm up the meat balls in freezer for about 20 – 30 minutes first.

Line a bamboo steamer with cabbage leaves. Place balls 1/2 inch apart in steamer and cover with steamer lid. Add water to a large skillet to a depth of 1 inch and bring to a boil. Place steamer in skillet, and steam balls 20 minutes or until rice is tender. Remove balls and cabbage from steamer and serve with soy and Chinese red vinegar dipping sauce.

This Chinese aluminum double-decker steamer is one of the most useful utensils in my kitchen. (This picture shows only one basket being used.)

Steamed Tripe (Dim Sum)

If you ask me which is my favorite dim sum dish, I will give you different answer each time. One day it will be Ha Gaau, another Shumai, then maybe Ribs with Dow See but more often it will have to be Steamed Tripe or Phoenix Feet (chicken feet). Steamed Tripe is a dish that is cooked 3 times: boiled, dried and stir fried and then finally steamed. This is one reason that almost no Chinese ever cooks it at home. For me, however, I have no choice: there is no decent Dim Sum joint for about 100Km. Fortunately, I can get a good book tripe just about 40 minutes away. I can get honeycomb tripe in local supermarkets but this is not a tripe to use for this dish.
This is not complicated meal with lots of ingredients but it is time consuming, schedule 2 days if you want to make it.
First, cleaned book tripe is boiled in salted water with ginger and garlic for about 20 minutes, drained and then dried over night in a fridge.
Next day, cut the tripe into small serving pieces and stir fry with chillies and chopped ginger and garlic. Then you place tripe, chillies, ginger and garlic in small serving dishes and stem for about 20 minutes. Three minutes before serving sprinkle with green onions cut diagonally into 1 inch pieces.
Here is very detailed recipe.

Tripe Dim Sum

Anybody that reads my blog on regular basis must have noticed that I like tripes. Yup, I like tripes a lot! On my last visit to supermarket I passed by meat isle and the Styrofoam tray of tripes was so irresistible that I had to take it home. The second I laid my eyes on it I knew how I am going to cook it – Steamed Tripe Dim Sum. Actually, it is a trice cooked dish: boiled for 2 hours, then briefly stir fried and finally steamed. Lots of work for something that is inhaled in minutes, I have to say. One important note: Traditionally, this dish is done with book or bible tripes but since they are not available in my small town I have to use what I have.

Ingredients:

1 lb tripe

2 green onions cut in 1” pieces, green and white parts separated

1-1/2” piece of ginger, smashed and julienned

1 large clove garlic, chopped

Hot pepper flakes, to taste

1/4 cup rice vinegar

1/4 cup salt

Directions:

Blanch the tripes in plenty of boiling water for 3 – 5 minutes.

Drain and wash the tripes and pot.

In a same pot with fresh water place tripes, salt and vinegar and bring to boil on high. Lower heat to simmer and cook for 2 hours or till tender but still with some crunch left.

Drain, cool and let dry. Previous steps can be done in one day and following 2 steps next day.

When tripes are dry, heat a wok with a bit of oil and when hot drop in garlic, ginger, pepper flakes and white parts of green onions and stir fry briefly.

Add tripes and stir fry till all ingredients are well mixed.

Remove to steaming dish, place in a steamer, cover and steam for 20 minutes.

Serve with the bamboo steamer with green onions sprinkled on top of tripes.

Happy Lunar Year of a Cat to Vietnamese friends and Year of a Rabbit to Chinese. Mind you, we have an issue with destructive rabbits in our garden!



Xiao Long Bao – Shanghai Steamed Soup Dumplings

Making these Dim Sum dumplings will be one of my winter projects. Is it ever labor intensive and complex! No need to go into detail here, just visit Steamy Kitchen blog, read the very well written article and salivate.