Potstickers, Gyoza, Shui-Gow. Anyway you you say it, it's a dumpling

I love potstickers. It's one of the plethora of items I grew up with as a kid and didn't realize how good I had it until I couldn't find anything that was as good as my mom's. I have memories of my mom doing all of the chopping, grinding, mixing, etc by hand. She didn't own a food processor, or a meat grinder, or an electric mixer. Thankfully, we have the convenience of these small kitchen appliances.

She would usually start the process in the afternoon one day and the next day have the filling made. She'd make huge batches of the stuff and freeze it. There really wasn't a way to make just one serving for a family of 4 (let alone for 1).

In Chinese, there seems to be a different name for every dough-filling-cooking method combination you can think of. Even then, you have variations from family to family, generation to generation. While growing up, my mom would put in different combinations of filling in an attempt to make it healthier or to stretch out the meat.

Beef Potstickers

This recipe uses the leanest ground meat I could find - 95 - 97% lean beef or turkey and is cut with silken tofu. The tofu acts as a texturizing ingredient, giving the filling the moisture, "juiciness," and smoothness that it would normally lose when using meat as lean as we are (most "juicy" burger recipes call for an 80/20 mix of meat and fat). Both of the vegetarian and beef ones here are 2pp for a 3-piece serving.

Ingredients

Filling: 
16 oz 95% or better lean beef
16 oz of silken tofu, drained (usually one package)
9 medium stalks of scallion, chopped (reserve about 2tbsp of the green parts for the dipping sauce)
1/8 c oyster sauce
1/8 c soy sauce, dark prefered
2 tbsp corn starch
2 tbsp dry bouillon
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
2 tsp ground ginger (fresh is better)
2 pkg Gyoza/Dumpling/Potsticker wrappers, the round kind (you can find them at any asian market. If the round ones are not readily available, the 3-inch square ones are fine too).




Directions: 

In a large bowl, mix the ingredients together. Its usually easier to mix the meat and tofu together first, then add the scallions, veggies, and seasonings.

The best way to get everything throughly incorporated is to use your hands, just like you would for a meatloaf or burger.

Once you have your filling made, give it a taste test. Take about 1 tbsp of the filling, shape it into a mini patty, and fry it up in the smallest fry pan you have, about 2 minutes on each side. Let it cool for about 30 seconds and taste. The texture should be firm and moist, even a little juicy, and should hold up well after cooking. If it's too crumbly, you need to add more of a binding agent -- corn starch for the meat, egg and corn starch for the vegetarian. The cornstarch should also give the meat a "velvety" texture.

If it is a little too salty, don't worry, the potsticker skin will balance it out. If you think it needs more flavor, add a little more ginger or soy sauce. Or, you can make a dipping sauce.

Take one wrapper and fill it with about 1 tbsp of filling. Then, wet the edged and fold it in half, pressing tightly to seal it.  Here, I've done a half-moon shape with one side pleated. You can find more shapes and methods of folding the potsticker here - http://youtu.be/Xvl4Ymxnwrg.

I'm OK with the thickness of the wrappers I get from the market, and a thicker wrapper is easier to work with. If you can only get the square ones, you can use a cookie cutter or kitchen shears to cut it into a round shape.

To freeze: Arrange them on a plate (or pan) dusted with flour (or lined with parchment paper). Make sure they are not touching one another. Place in freezer for a couple of hours until they are frozen. Then, transfer them into a gallon-sized Ziploc. They should keep for 6 months and you can cook them in batches. 

Cooking Method: 

You can cook the dumplings in a multitude of ways - boil, pan fry, deep fry, steam, even microwave. I find that pan-frying is the easiest since it doesn't need and special equipment and is the most forgiving method. 

Pan-Fry

Heat a 12 or 14 inch skillet that has a lid, spray some PAM on it. 

Then, place 8 - 10 of the dumplings into the pan and return it to the heat. Let it fry lightly for about a minute. Add just a little over 1/4 cup of water into the pan and cover with the lid. The water will begin to boil and it with the steam will cook the dumplings. Let the dumplings cook in the pan until the water has boiled off. You'll start to hear the sizzle and pop from the frying (about 5 - 8 minutes). Uncover and remove from heat. Optional: Spray the potstickers with a blast of PAM and flip them to crisp up the skin on the other side. 

Cook them a little longer or with a little more oil for crispier skin, a little less if you want the skin to be smooth and silky.  If you are cooking them from frozen, use 1/3 cup water in the cooking process. This will keep the potstickers cooking for a little longer and ensure that the meat will be cooked through. One batch as noted in this recipe makes about 100 potstickers, depending on how full you fill them. You can 1/2 or 1/4 the recipe, but I thought a good benchmark was a full pound of meat and a whole package of tofu.

Dipping Sauce: 

There are a lot of pre-made dumpling sauces out there and a lot of them are delicious. However, I like making my own sauce to compliment the seasons I have in the filling. Sometimes, I just dip in a chili sauce. 

2 tbsp Soy Sauce (light or low-sodium is better for dipping)

1 1/2 tbsp vinegar (rice wine preferred, red or white wine is good. Regular white vinegar is OK) or vinegar

4-5 drops of sesame oil

1/4 tsp of minced garlic

1/4 tsp of ground ginger

the greens from the chopped scallions

Add some heat: 4-5 drops chili oil, a pinch of red chili flakes, and/or 1 tsp of chili sauce (like Sirracha)

Add some sweet: 1/2 tsp of honey or sugar