Pot Stickers

About two weeks ago I was trying out some new Asian inspired recipes. I love the combination of flavors within this type of cuisine. Garlic, ginger, soy and some heat from chili's pair together so nicely in my mouth! When we order out from a local Chinese place, my husband gets these steamed dumplings. I'm not sure what's in them to be honest, but I wanted to try and recreate them. According to hubby, I did a darn fine job of doing so. I mixed together some ground pork with garlic, ginger along with some shredded carrots and peas to get some veggies in the mix. The dumplings that my hubby gets are just steamed, which you can do, but I turned them into pot stickers because I love a little bit of crunch!

What You Need:

1 lb ground pork
1 tsp sugar
2 tbs cornstarch
1 tbs soy
1 tbs sesame oil
1 tbs sherry wine or vinegar
1 tbs minced ginger
2 cloves garlic minced
1 carrot, finely shredded
1/2 c frozen peas
2 scallions, minced using both the white part and most of the green parts
1 pkg of wonton wrappers (square) or pot sticker wrappers (round)
Salt and Pepper

What To Do:

In a bowl, combine all the ingredients together, minus the wrappers. Use your hands to throughly mix everything together. Place about 1 tsp or so into the middle of the wrapper. Moisten the edges of the wrapper with a bit of water and fold to close up. If using pot sticker wrappers, just fold one side over the filling, making a half moon shape. You can then pinch the edges together to form a ribbon looking design which is was traditional pot stickers look like. If you can't find the round ones, and are using the square wonton wrappers, moisten the sides and bring the opposite corners together to make an almost pyramid looking shape. Continue until all the filling is gone.

Bring a steamer up to a full boil. Line the steamer with a piece or parchment with holes, or lightly grease the steamer so that the stickers don't stick. Steam the pot stickers in a single layer for 10 minutes. Once steamed sautee them in a skillet with just the tiniest amount of oil until they are golden just on one side. Serve with your favorite dipping sauce or make your own by combining some soy sauce, along with ginger, rice wine vinegar and a bit of sugar.