Potstickers

My Grandma's famous Lemon Pie was always a mystery. She had no egg stained, tattered recipe to copy, and duplicating her decades of experience and baker's instincts proved to be impossible. Our last somewhat coherent conversation quickly became a pastry interrogation: Years later I remembered that afternoon while sitting in Ning-Ping's East Cotati Avenue kitchen. This time the objective was Pot Stickers. From my Grandma in Ohio to her Granny in China. I was trying to ingest her version of her Granny's standard, filtered as always in cooking, by seasonal availability, leftovers to use up, personal preferences and aversions, regional tastes and how many people will be at the table. As good as Ning-Ping's pot stickers were, she swore her Granny's were much better.

What follows is more of a ramble on the concept of pot stickers than a measured recipe. This is a time consuming, but not difficult dish, that is well worth experimenting with for special events and people. Pot stickers are essentially the same as won-ton and spring rolls, with a specific cooking process giving them their special nature. To make the filling, you need these three elements:

  1. Meat--1/2 to 1 lb. ground pork or lean ground beef or a mixture of the two.
  2. Flavorings--oyster sauce and soy sauce, at about a 2:1 ratio.
    • grated fresh ginger and grated fresh garlic to taste, with one dominating
    • a few drops of sesame oil
    • chopped entire green onion, chopped fresh cilantro, tabasco (all optional)
  3. Crunchy veggies--water chestnuts, celery, bamboo shoots, bok choy, cabbage, mung bean sprouts, sweet pepper, broccoli
    • choose one of the above to "star," with no more than two "supporting players"
    • cut chosen vegetable into evenly sized dice

Combine flavoring with meat and then add veggies. Mix well. Stuff store-bought pot sticker or won ton wrappers with a small amount (1 teaspoon) of filling, fold any which way you can (see wrapper package for hints), and seal firmly. These can be refrigerated in separate layers for a few hours.

Heat a heavy frying pan and add enough oil to lightly cover the bottom. When the oil is hot, add an uncrowded layer of pot stickers, seam side down. When bottom begins to brown, carefully add a few tablespoons of water, cover the pan and steam. Check every few minutes to prevent burning or add more water. Pot stickers are done when the tops are translucent and "kinda sweaty," bottom is brown and crisp, and filling is cooked through. These can be held briefly in a single layer on a cookie sheet in a hot oven.

Serve with soy sauce, white vinegar, hot chili oil or tabasco on the table to make individual dipping sauce.

The first cookbook I ever bought came from a Chinatown grocery store. On closer examination (one recipe began with the phrase, "pluck duck") I realized I needed something a bit more basic. The "starter" Chinese cookbook I recommend is Chinese Village Cookbook by Rhoda Yee, Yerba Buena Press, 1975. As well as tasty Cantonese home cooking, this book explains lots of cooking principles and techniques. The illustrated glossary of Chinese ingredients is very informative and the guide to stir-frying a revelation. Regional and topical Chinese cookbooks thrive in the public library.

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