Daring Cooks: Potstickers

Here's my second Daring Cooks challenge. This round is hosted by Jen of the fabulous Use Real Butter. I swear, no one paid me to say that. I just think Jen's site is amazingly beautiful.

I have been wanting to make my own dumplings for a while. I knew it could be time consuming, but in my brief period of unemployment this was exactly the type of cooking I was excited to do...and that is when I made them. The catch with these was that we had to even made the dumpling skins from scratch. I found them easy to make, but with the rolling and folding...well, let me just say this is not something to attempt when you are hungry.



I had some shrimp in my freezer so I went with a simple shrimp filling that I found on Everyday Food. These came together very easily even with the time it took. My only problem was that I cooked my second batch in a stainless steel pan and many of the potstickers stuck to the bottom of the pan. Although they were kind of a bitch to scrape off, they were really delicious. I whipped the dipping sauce together quickly because by the time they were ready I was starving. It is a bit difficult remember by now, but it was a mix of soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, agave nectar, red pepper flakes, and green onions. I'm pretty sure there was grated ginger in there too. Basically just add each to taste. One of the things that helped me a lot with this was Jen's step-by-step tutorial on her site from making these a while back. That's where you can find the dough recipe. The filling recipe is below.



Dumpling Filling
(From Everyday Food)

1 tablespoon cilantro leaves, chopped
1/2 pound large shrimp, shelled and deveined
1 large egg white
1 1/2 teaspoons chili oil, or 1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil mixed with a pinch of cayenne
1 1/2 teaspoons sesame oil
2 teaspoons low-sodium soy sauce
1 medium carrot, grated
3/4 cup finely chopped (about 2 ounces) Napa cabbage
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
2 small scallions, finely chopped
1 tablespoon minced (about 1 small) shallot
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Coarsely chop half of the shrimp by hand, and set aside.

In the bowl of a food processor, combine remaining shrimp, egg white, chili oil, sesame oil, and soy sauce. Puree into a smooth paste. Transfer to a medium bowl, add chopped cilantro, reserved chopped shrimp, carrot, cabbage, ginger, scallions, shallots, salt, and pepper, and mix well.