Food Feature: Pot Stickers, Lettuce Wraps and Asian Dipping Sauce

Kalie, this one is for you.  In fact, the thought running through my head as I made these was, "Kalie would love these!"  So here you go.  Make them.  Love them.  They are divine.

I dragged my kids out to the local Asian market a couple weeks ago.  It had to be done.  I was struggling to come up with any meals to cook in our new house without some of my new staple Asian ingredients.  The store here isn't as awesome as the one in SLC, but I sort of expected that.  We're in a small town in the Midwest.  But I can get what I need, and I'll take what I can get.  I'm just grateful to have a market in town.  While I was there, I picked up a package of potsticker wrappers and thought I'd give them a go.  Turns out that these are some of my favorite things I have made.

Pork Pot Stickers

Based on this recipe from Martha Stewart

• 1/4 pound ground pork
• 1 tablespoon minced green onions
• 1 1/2 teaspoons soy sauce
• 1 1/2 teaspoons rice wine
• 2-3 tablespoons water chestnuts, minced
• 1 teaspoon minced peeled fresh ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
• 20 wonton wrappers (from a 12-ounce package)
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 
  
• 1. In a bowl, combine pork, onions, soy sauce, sherry, water chestnuts, ginger, sesame oil, cornstarch, and 1 tablespoon water.
  2. Place a heaping teaspoon of pork mixture in center of a wonton wrapper. Lightly wet edge of wrapper, fold over, and press to seal. Repeat to form remaining dumplings (makes 20).
  3. In two batches, cook dumplings in a large pot of boiling water until cooked through, 4 minutes; transfer to a plate with a slotted spoon. In a large nonstick pan, heat vegetable oil over medium-high. In two batches, cook until browned, about 1 1/2 minutes per side. Serve with dipping sauce.
  Freeze raw dumplings on a baking sheet, then store in bags, up to 3 months. Cook from frozen.  Look at all my little dumplings all ready and lined up in a row.  I feel a bit like a proud mommy who got her kids in bed early.

  

  
  

  Serving Suggestions:

  Team these up with Five-Spice Turkey & Lettuce Wraps.  They make an excellent combination because there are a lot of duplicate ingredients between the two recipes, which makes prepping and chopping a whole lot easier.

  And last but not least, here is a recipe for the world's yummiest dipping sauce (pictured above), which also happens to be delicious drizzled over the lettuce wraps.  I may even be tempted to eat this stuff with a spoon.

  Asian Dipping Sauce

  2 T. soy sauce

  1 T. hoisin sauce

  1 T. rice vinegar

  1 T. sesame oil

  1 t. chili sauce (I always use Srirache sauce)
  
  Mix it all together in a bowl.  Store leftovers (if you have any!) in the fridge.  Yum!