The Hirshon Chinese Pot Stickers – 锅贴

Ingredients

• 40-50 round dumpling wrappers
• ½ lb ground pork, half fat - add additional chopped cold Lard to pork if needed to bring to 50/50 meat/fat ratio
• 1 ¾ cups Napa cabbage, finely chopped
• ¼ cup finely minced Sichuan preserved vegetable - if unavailable, use plain old Napa cabbage
• 1 ½ tsp salt
• 2 ½ tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tsp sesame oil (Kadoya brand preferred)
• 3 tsp Shaoxing rice wine
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp white pepper
• ½ tbsp. oyster sauce
• ½ tbsp. minced ginger
• 1 large egg (duck egg preferred)
• ¼ cup chopped scallion
• ¼ cup chopped garlic chives, including flowering heads
• 1 tbsp. hot chili oil (Kadoya brand preferred)
• 1 tbsp. Sichuan peppercorn oil (if unavailable, use chili oil)
• ½ tbsp. water
• 1 tbsp. flour
• ***
• For cooking:
• ½ cup corn or peanut oil for pan-frying
• 2 cups unsalted hot chicken stock plus 2 tbsp corn or peanut oil for steam-cooking
• ***
• For the dipping sauce:
• ¼ cup soy sauce
• ¼ cup rice wine vinegar
• 2 ½ teaspoons sugar
• ½ medium scallion, minced
• 2 teaspoons minced fresh gingerroot
• ½ teaspoon toasted sesame oil
• ½ teaspoon hot red pepper flakes

Instructions

1. Combine pork, salt, soy sauce, sesame oil, rice wine, sugar, white pepper, oyster sauce and water in large mixing bowl.
2. Stir in one direction for a couple of minutes until the pork mixture stops looking like separated pork pieces and more like a paste.
3. Add flour and egg and mix in. Add the cabbage and Tianjin preserved vegetable and stir in one direction until thoroughly mixed, fluffy and smooth.
4. Let rest in fridge 1 hour to combine flavors.
5. Heat the chili and peppercorn oils until smoking. Put scallions and chives on top of meat mixture, pour smoking oil over the greens to maximize their aroma. Stir, again in the same direction, until incorporated.
6. Prepare working area with dumpling wrappers (keep covered until use), a small bowl of water, pork mixture, and a clean plate for placing of wrapped dumplings.
7. For each pot sticker, take one dumpling skin and place one scant tablespoon in middle. Keeping your fingers as dry as possible, wrap and pleat the pot sticker, then close.
8. For the dipping sauce:
9. Bring soy sauce, vinegar, sugar and ¼ cup water to boil in small saucepan over medium heat, stirring until sugar dissolves.
10. Pour mixture into bowl and stir in scallion, ginger, oil, and hot red pepper flakes (Sauce can be refrigerated in air-tight container for several days.
11. To cook potstickers:
12. Heat the skillet over high heat until hot enough to evaporate a bead of water on contact. Add enough oil to coat the bottom with a scant ¼ inch oil, swirl the skillet to glaze it an inch up'the sides, then adjust the skillet on the burner so that the oil is evenly deep.
13. Reduce the heat to medium. When the oil is hot enough to foam a pinch of dry flour, pick up the dumplings by their tops and quickly arrange them smooth side down in the pan.
14. Make concentric rings starting from the outside of the pan and working into the center, putting the dumplings directly next to and hugging one another. (The crowding will cause the dumplings to stick together in a pretty spiral when they are turned out onto the platter, which is the traditional presentation.} As you arrange the dumplings, adjust the heat so they sizzle mildly.
15. Once the dumplings are in place, raise the heat slightly to bring them to a merry sizzle and brown the bottoms. Check frequently, lifting them carefully with a spatula, and when the bottoms are evenly browned give the stock mixture a stir, and add enough to come halfway up the side of the dumplings. Expect the liquid to hiss loudly as soon as it is added.
16. Adjust the heat to maintain a simmer, and cover the pot. (These are the moments when the wrappers and filling will cook through and absorb the flavor of the stock.)
17. After about 7 minutes, lift the lid to peek inside the pot, and when the stock is almost all absorbed remove the lid. Lift one dumphng with a spatula and check the bottom. If it is not crisp enough to "clink" against a flngemail, then continue to cook for a minute or so more.
18. If there is not sufficient oil left after the steaming to crisp them, add a bit more oil from the side of the pan and swirl to distribute it under the dumplings.
19. When the bottoms are crisp, turn off the heat, move the pan off the burner, and loosen the bottoms of the dumplings with the spatula. Invert them onto the serving platter, browned bottoms up. If you have done the job well, they will cling in a spiral.
20. Eating pot stickers:
21. As soon as you have turned the dumplings out of the pan (and neatened them up if they did not emerge exactly as planned), rush them to the table.
22. Part of the traditional fun is for the guests to pull them apart with their chopsticks, then, the eating begins: Pick a dumpling up with the help of chopsticks and a small Chinese porcelain spoon (a metal soup spoon will do, though it gets too hot to be perfect).
23. Pick the dumpling up out of the spoon long enough to dunk its bottom in the dip, then return it to the spoon. Raise the spoon almost to your chin, use the chopsticks to complete the journey of the dumpling to your mouth, then after you have bitten off a neat half (carefully, so the steam and hot juices don't bum you), deposit the remaining half in the spoon until you are ready for the next bite.
24. Dumpling eating is designed to be fun and informal, so feel free to lose a dumpling here and there, splatter a bit of the dipping sauce if you have not perfected the art of dunking, and demand more dumplings in the spirit of a good party.
25. Cook only as many dumplings as will be eaten (which is usually more than you anticipate if you have assembled the appropriate audience). Cold pot stickers are beyond rewarming or at least beyond my taste.

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