{recipes} Southeast Asian Potstickers and Duck a l’Orange Potstickers

(Note: This happened several months ago, but I couldn’t find the recipes I wrote down, so I hadn’t posted about it. I found them wadded up in the bottom of a drawer recently, so here goes.)

My Dad and I have birthdays a week apart, and often do things together to celebrate. When I turned 6 and he turned 40, I asked my parents if we could eat at Windows on the World, the restaurant at the top of the World Trade Center. (We lived in New York at that time.) I guess at that point my parents realized they had a strangely fancy food-obsessed kid on their hands. I don’t remember much about the food, but I do recall going to the bathroom with my sister, who was 10, and being thoroughly confused by the presence of a restroom attendant. When I turned 16 and he 50, we donned our tuxes and prom dresses and got the best seat at Julius’ Castle, a venerated old dining institution with views of San Francisco Bay. Of course neither of those places is still in business, sadly, but we still try to do food-related birthdays together.

This year I was a little surprised when he told me that for his birthday, he wanted to have a potsticker competition. (OK, not that surprised, considering our past food competitions.) Maybe at this time you’re thinking “what does an old white guy know about making potstickers?” But in fact, as a retired professor, my dear old Dad has had the pleasure of working with scores of visiting Chinese postdoctoral students–and while he edited their neuroscience papers, they shared their dumpling-making secrets. So he has been making excellent potstickers for a couple of decades, at least, and they are better than the ones you get in most restaurants. It also doesn’t hurt that he has traveled to China dozens of times to do lots of taste-testing.

Back to the fierce competition: there were 4 competitors, me, my Dad, and two of his friends. There were also several extremely partisan judges to taste-test the total of seven varieties that were on offer. I am happy to say that I totally kicked a$$ by winning with my Southeast Asian-inspired potstickers. The non-traditional filling includes mint, cilantro, chopped cashews, and lime, along with the more standard potsticker filling items like ground pork and cabbage. 

I kind of cheated though, because I had two entries. Although it came in 4th place, I actually preferred my other entrant, a duck a l’orange potsticker, which involved duck confit and orange zest. So I’ve decided to share both recipes with you.

If I’m making 2 kinds, I like to fold them differently so it’s easy to tell which is which. I’ve included directions for both square and round wrappers, so if you’re making multiple varieties, you might want to make one type with square wrappers and one type with circular wrappers.

It’s more fun (read: easier) if more people help out, like an assembly line.

A caveat: we don’t make our own dough, which some people might think is lame. (I’m happy to see that the inimitable Jaden Hair agrees it’s not really worth it. However, the unparalleled Andrea Nguyen would probably disagree.) Baby steps, people. It took us 25 years to get this good at the other aspects of potstickery. We’ve got big plans to attempt a reverse engineering of  Shanghai’s finest Yang’s crispy dumplings, dough included, in the near future. I favor Japanese gyoza skins for my potstickers, because they are a little bit thinner. You can buy Japanese gyoza wrappers or Chinese potsticker skins in the refrigerated section of an Asian market.

Southeast Asian Potstickers
Makes a lot. Serve alongside small empty bowls and some soy sauce, black or rice vinegar, and hot chili flakes or hot sauce like sriracha or sambal oelek – so people can make their own dipping sauce to their liking. Or, mix 2 parts soy sauce, 1 part vinegar, and a dash of hot sauce to make sauce for everyone.

 

INGREDIENTS:
  • 1 lb ground pork
  • 1 egg
  • 1/4 cup finely chopped mint leaves
  • 1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro leaves
  • 3-4 cloves finely chopped garlic
  • 2 Tblsp grated ginger
  • 1/3 head chopped cabbage, lightly sauteed in a teaspoon of sesame oil and dried on paper towels
  • 1/2 cup grated carrot
  • 1/3 cup finely chopped cashews
  • 2 Tblsp soy sauce
  • 1 Tblsp sesame oil
  • zest of 1 lime
  • sambal oelek or sriracha to taste
  • 1-2 packages gyoza or potsticker wrappers
  • vegetable oil for cooking
METHOD:
  • Combine everything (except the wrappers and the cooking oil) in a bowl with a spoon or your (clean) hands. Make sure it’s very well mixed together.
  • Get a small bowl of water, the wrappers, and a sheet pan covered with parchment or foil out so you can fill the potstickers and set them aside.
  • If you’re using round wrappers: Put 1-2 teaspoons of filling in the middle of a wrapper. Dip your finger in the water and draw it around the rim of the wrapper halfway, to make it stick together. Fold the wet half and the dry half together and clamp tightly so no filling falls out. (If you would prefer to make fancy pleats, I recommend this tutorial from Steamy Kitchen.)
  • If you’re using square wrappers: Put 1-2 teaspoons of filling in the middle of a wrapper. Dip your finger in the water and draw it around the entire rim of the wrapper, to make it stick together. Fold the corners in to make a little pyramidal purse-like shape, and make sure it’s clamped together well so no filling falls out.
  • Once you’ve finished you’re wrapping, get out a large saute pan (note: you need a pan with a lid.) Put about 1 tablespoon oil in the pan and heat over high heat to very hot.
  • Add the potstickers to the pan, flat side down, close but not touching. Cook over high heat until browned. Pour about 1/4 cup water into the pan and cover quickly with a lid. Steam for 3-4 minutes with the lid tightly closed. Remove lid and continue cooking until all the water evaporates and the potstickers crisp up.
  • Remove to a plate layered with paper towels and set aside. For remaining batches, clean the pan out with paper towels and start over with new oil.
  • Serve over cilantro and mint leaves, alongside small empty bowls and some soy sauce, black or rice vinegar, and hot chili flakes – so people can make their own dipping sauce to their liking.
Duck A L’Orange Potstickers
Makes a lot. Serve with a little bottled plum sauce or hoisin sauce on the side, like you do with Peking Duck.

 

INGREDIENTS:
  • meat from 4 legs of ghetto duck confit – no skin (just eat it.)
  • 1/3 cup hoisin sauce
  • 1 bunch of scallions, slivered and cut into 1 inch pieces
  • large handful of blanched, squeezed purple cabbage
  • 2 tsp grated ginger
  • finely chopped zest of 2 oranges
  • 1-2 packages gyoza or potsticker wrappers
  • duck fat for cooking (reserved fat from confit)
METHOD:
  • Shred the duck meat and combine everything (except the wrappers and the duck fat) in a bowl with a spoon or your (clean) hands. Make sure it’s very well mixed together.
  • Get a small bowl of water, the wrappers, and a sheet pan covered with parchment or foil out so you can fill the potstickers and set them aside.
  • If you’re using round wrappers: Put 1-2 teaspoons of filling in the middle of a wrapper. Dip your finger in the water and draw it around the rim of the wrapper halfway, to make it stick together. Fold the wet half and the dry half together and clamp tightly so no filling falls out. (If you would prefer to make fancy pleats, I recommend this tutorial from Steamy Kitchen.)
  • If you’re using square wrappers: Put 1-2 teaspoons of filling in the middle of a wrapper. Dip your finger in the water and draw it around the entire rim of the wrapper, to make it stick together. Fold the corners in to make a little pyramidal purse-like shape, and make sure it’s clamped together well so no filling falls out.
  • Once you’ve finished you’re wrapping, get out a large saute pan (note: you need a pan with a lid.) Put about 1 tablespoon duck fat in the pan and heat over high heat to very hot.
  • Add the potstickers to the pan, flat side down, close but not touching. Cook over high heat until browned. Pour about 1/4 cup water into the pan and cover quickly with a lid. Steam for 3-4 minutes with the lid tightly closed. Remove lid and continue cooking until all the water evaporates and the potstickers crisp up.
  • Remove to a plate layered with paper towels and set aside. For remaining batches, clean the pan out with paper towels and start over with new oil.
  • Serve alongside hoisin sauce or plum sauce, on a bed of purple cabbage if you want to look fancy.

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