I'm done with store-bought dumplings

I am addicted to frozen, store-bought potstickers. I usually have 3 or 4 different varieties in my freezer that are always ready for a quick steam or pan fry.

Well, no more. I'm done with the store-bought dumplings. From now on, I'm making my own.

Inspired by an episode of "Good Eats", I decided, for the first time, to make my own pork potstickers. I thought I'd share the recipe and experience here. I read about 5 or 6 different recipies to come up with, what I think, is a very good traditional pork potsticker recipe.

You'll need a stainless steel skillet with a lid.

I used:

1/2 lb. of ground pork (not too lean)
2 cups of chopped or shredded napa cabbage
2 scallions, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 1/2 tbsp. ginger, finely chopped
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tbsp. sesame oil
1 tbsp. rice wine vinegar
1 pkg won ton wrappers
1 cup of chicken broth

1. Drain the cabbage by letting it sit in 2 tbsp. kosher salt for 30 minutes. Wrap in cheesecloth and squeeze out the water. It's extraordinary how much water will come out. The 2 cups. of cabbage will come down to about 1/2 cup.

2. Mix every ingredient together except the won ton wrappers and broth. Use your hands to mix very well.

3. Depending on the size and shape of your wrappers, put a small amount of filling in the wrapper, wet one side and close. I had square wrappers. I filled with 1 tsp. of filling, closed up like a diamond, and put two pleated folds in each side to give it that won-ton/potsticker shape. Make sure no filling comes to the edge, and you get out as much air as possible from the interior.

4. Pre-heat the oven to 200 to keep the finished ones warm.

5. Heat a stainless-steel skillet until it's pretty darn hot. Lightly coat the bottom with vegetable oil.

6. Put a batch of potstickers in the pan, without overcrowding (they need space). Let them sit for 2-3 minutes. DO NOT TOUCH.

7. After a couple minutes they will be sticking (test with your tongs).

8. Add 1/3 of a cup of broth (it will bubble up and splatter), and immediately cover the skillet. Lower the heat a bit and let it go for 2 more minutes.

9. Remove carefully (they should release), wrap in a foil bag and move to your oven. Deglaze the pan with water for your next batch.

Makes about 4-5 dozen. If you want to freeze some (before you cook them) lay them flat on a cookie sheet in the freezer. When frozen, move to a freezer bag. They can be cooked straight from their frozen state like any store-bought dumpling.

Use your favorite dumpling dipping sauce.
http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=686

The beauty of this is that the total cost of ingredients was about $5 (many of them are staples that I had in the house already). Time to prepare, uncooked: about 1 hour. Now I have a freezer full of mostly homemade dumplings, ready to cook. (I say mostly homemade because of the storebought wrappers).

Best,
EC

My mother always makes her own wontons and dumplings, counting on me to bring a supply of her favorite wrappers (thin, round) when I visit. But I assume you meant to tell us to shred the cabbage before we salt it?

Ann Fisher wrote: But I assume you meant to tell us to shred the cabbage before we salt it?

I went over the whole recipe, sure I was going to miss something.

The cabbage should be finely chopped.

Hi,

I have made the dumpling skins myself. In one of the Chinatown bakeries, the crew was sitting at a table making dumplings. They would roll a marble-sized piece of dough, then place it in a tortilla maker (yes, I said tortilla maker) to press down and release for a perfect round. They also had small 8 inch rolling pins about 3/4 inch diameter available to finish shaping, if necessary.

I made pot stickers for the first time in the early 1980's. I was very impressed by the ingenious cooking method: start by frying, then adding water which allows simultaneous steaming and frying, once the water has evaporated out of the oil (no longer cloudy) continue frying. All in all, maybe 5 minutes. Whoever originated that cooking method had all their marbles intact.

My friend makes her own eggrolls. Unlike eggrolls we normally encounter with lots of cabbage, she uses bean sprouts. Cabbage is used because it holds up under freezing, whereas bean sprouts will shrivel and wilt. She will keep filling in the refrigerator, then assemble and cook eggrolls as desired. Instead of a sweet or mustard sauce, she prefers to use garlic infused vinegar to dip her eggrolls in.

Ah... making potstickers brings back memories... I used to be with a Chinese guy (from Beijing), and for the first year out of college, I stayed with his uncle and his family. They would make potstickers from scratch, including the wrappers. The uncle would roll out the wrappers, and his wife, daughter will start wrapping around the TV in the kitchen.

The first time I did it, they threw me out of the kitchen... screaming that I was wasting food... Then after a few months, I slowly learned. I'm slow, but it comes out looking ok...

The wrappers were circle in shape, and not as thin as store bought wrappers. It was made with flour, yeast and water. They never measured the proportions, but the dough was elastic, and gave it a great chewiness. The thickness held up well in the pan and prevented it from breaking, and also lets the crust form real well.

I have not had potstickers that good in ages!

Hi Crazy C,

If you are making pot stickers, I think you are mistaken on the yeast. If you said, flour, water and salt OR just flour and water, then I would not bat an eye. Yeast would be present in BBQ buns or maybe steamed buns, but not thin translucent wrappers for pot stickers.

I found a picture tutorial called Making Chinese Dumplings with Jen, who not only makes her dumpling skins with water and flour, she also fries them in the method I described above.

I like watching the cooks at Seven Treasures make their dumplings in the window. They do all the folding and primping with one hand and they're fast!

I find making dumplings very therapeutic but I am slow as molasses.

See, that's what I thought too... Most recipes that I see does not include yeast. But I remember them fishing out the yeast (from the freezer) and dumping some in a bowl with warm water. I remembered wondering if the yeast was still alive and how long it was been in the freezer...

Their wrappers were not thin though, they were relatively thick... even thicker than those for Shanghai soup dumplings. Maybe it was just the way they made them in that household... Too bad I can't ask them now... But I will ask around...

*Update: I remember now... they must have been using the same dough as the scallion pancakes. I remember when we ran out of filling, they would doctor up the dough with scallions and sesame oil, and reshape and fry them up...

Dough rises when yeast is used right? Because I remember the dough being kept in a pot, and a heavy bowl was placed on top of the lid to stop it from popping up...

Crazy C wrote:*Update: I remember now... they must have been using the same dough as the scallion pancakes. I remember when we ran out of filling, they would doctor up the dough with scallions and sesame oil, and reshape and fry them up...

Scallion pancakes is what got me into making Chinese dumplings. I remember paying $5 for a scallion pancake appetizer. When I got a book on Dim Sum, I couldn't beleive the ingredient list: scallions, flour, water, salt and some sesame oil or less than 50 cents in cost of materials!

Crazy C wrote:Dough rises when yeast is used right? Because I remember the dough being kept in a pot, and a heavy bowl was placed on top of the lid to stop it from popping up...

Yeast causes dough to rise and sometimes it can be used to help ferment as well. I must admit using yeast in a dough wrapper is very unusual. I'll flip through my Dim Sum book tomorrow to see if they offer anything like that.

Regards,

Just realized that I forgot one ingredient, 1 egg, added to the original post. I need to be more careful with my recipe notes.

The March/April issue of Plate magazine includes the recipe for the House Pot sticker from Edmund Liu, owner of Ed's Potsticker House. Pretty straight forward potsticker recipe and it includes the wrap. I might make these but use store-bought gyoza wrappers (call me lazy.) Here's the filling:

6 servings:

1/4 lb. ground pork
1/2 scallion
1/4 tsp. ginger juice
1 tsp. rice wine
2 Tbs. soy sauce
1 tsp. sesame oil

Here is a link to the complete recipe at Plateonline.com:

Ed's Potsticker House Pot Sticker

Free registration required.

I thought I'd resurrect this old thread because Lucky Peach just published an article with videos of their top 9 Asian dumplings being made. It's a nice cross section of dumplings from across Asia, not just China.

http://luckypeach.com/our-top-9-wrap-videos/

I've been loving Lucky Peach's Dumpling month too, and I keep wrappers around for making my own dumplings (from pot stickers to manti)... but I still keep a bag of frozen dumplings around, as it's a quick meal that I can still feel like I'm cooking, but making a sauce, putting them in a broth or on a salad. There's a variety I got at H-Mart which I have to find again (I forget the brand), which looks like an oversized tortellini, that was quite delicious.

I have made egg rolls at home but haven't tried dumplings yet. This thread popping back up has me in the mood to try. I think I'll just purchase wrappers, though.

One question about the recipe in the first post: it doesn't explicitly say this, but I assume you rinse the salt off the cabbage and then squeeze as much liquid out as possible? Two tablespoons of kosher salt seems too much to leave in.

I like having frozen dumplings on hand for a quick lunch, but up til recently I haven't found a brand I particularly liked. The exception is Tai Pei chicken dumplings, which I have found only at Walmart, of all places. The dough is a little thicker than other brands I've tried, which I like because they don't fall apart as easily. The price seemed good too: $8.99 for a bag that weighs nearly 4 pounds (46.5 oz) and lasts a long time. The bag contains three separate packets of dumpling sauce that you can thaw out or throw out, as you see fit. I think the sauce tastes fine, but I like to doctor it up with some sesame oil and chili garlic sauce.

I've been making dumplings recently too. I tried this watercress dumpling recipe:

http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/wate ... -dumplings

I liked how the dough came out, but the filling wasn't so exciting. I later made some mushroom dumplings (some dried shitake, some fresh button) flavored with garlic and hoisin. I made others with chopped up Phoenix marinated tofu. Both were good, but didn't have the texture I was looking for--they probably needed some egg to hold it together. If people have ideas for really flavorful vegetarian dumplings, I'd love to hear about them.

CrazyC wrote:See, that's what I thought too... Most recipes that I see does not include yeast. But I remember them fishing out the yeast (from the freezer) and dumping some in a bowl with warm water. I remembered wondering if the yeast was still alive and how long it was been in the freezer...

Their wrappers were not thin though, they were relatively thick... even thicker than those for Shanghai soup dumplings. Maybe it was just the way they made them in that household... Too bad I can't ask them now... But I will ask around...

*Update: I remember now... they must have been using the same dough as the scallion pancakes. I remember when we ran out of filling, they would doctor up the dough with scallions and sesame oil, and reshape and fry them up...

This is interesting. I'm sure there are a lot of variants around. I haven't seem people use yeast but I have seen self rising flour for pan fried dumplings, which probably has a similar effect. I've also seen the use of a hot water (or part hot/part cold) dough for potstickers. I've seen hot water dough used for scallion pancakes too. Hot water dough is softer. You would definitely use it for the types of pancakes for Peking duck.

I've only seen cold water dough (without yeast) used for boiled dumplings (shiu jiao). I always start with shui jiao and then will maybe make some potstickers and scallion pancakes but am lazy so use the same cold water dough.

You might want to check out Josie's Home Style Bohemian Dumplings in lovely Stickney! It's located at 6733 W. Pershing Rd. They are famous for their Bread Dumplings. You can see the dumplings being made in the window. I had the Sauerkraut/Mushroom Pierogi's last night. I thawed them and pan fried in butter, delicious. I like the dough it was kind of chewy, the filling was very good and plentiful. People rave about these Bread Dumplings. I haven't had them yet. I bought some of the smaller ones and I'm planning on putting them in my homemade Chicken soup tonight.

Check it out, it's a small family run place. I never noticed it or was never by that area. You can purchase her products at some stores. But I would recommend visiting the store. They also have soup, gravy, etc. I saw they have a dill gravy which I would like to try on the bread dumplings. Here is the link to their website. http://www.josiesdumplings.com

Kenji's discussion of hot-water dough scallion pancakes is quite useful.

I took a class in shu mai dumplings and learned something useful: a small amount of shrimp is added to the filling, and the filling is stirred quite vigorously. This action breaks down the shrimp, which spreads throughout the filling. Thus, when cooked, the filling stays together as a coherent mass. (I've used the same sort of stirring technique in some kinds of sausages, as well.)

My grad students at Wuhan University, once they learned what a foodie I was, held a jiaozi (crescent dumpling!) party for me. Their rolling pins are made from short sections of broom handle, which they used very speedily to roll out the circular wrappers. *Every* one of my female grad students knew how to make jiaozi–it was part of their cultural equipment! (Some of the males did, too, of course! : )

Geo