Recipe - Meat Dumplings Poached Or Pot-Sticker Style

1 pound Ground or very finely
chopped pork or beef or 1/2
& 1/2
Or One half pork & One half raw shrimp
Marinade:
6 tablespoon Sesame oil
2 teaspoon Sugar
Three fourths teaspoon Salt
One fourth teaspoon Pepper
1 pound Cabbage (napa or Chinese,
preferred) or mix with bok
choy,
Celery, carrot, etc.
1 teaspoon Salt
1/3 pound Chopped green onions (use
whole onion w/o roots)
Skin:
3 cup Flour
Three fourths cup Cold water
One half cup Flour to prevent sticking
during kneading.
10 cup Boiling liquid (water or
stock optional)

Filling: Chop the "meat" well and mix well with the marinade.

Then chop the cabbage or veggie(s) fine and mix with 1 t. salt and let sit
for 10 minutes; Squeeze out the excess water. Mix the veggie with the meat
and green onions and mix well by hand.

Skins: In a bowl, add water to the flour and knead into a smooth dough; let
it stand for ten minutes. Then roll the dough into a long batonlike roll
and cut into 50 pieces. (I just divide in One half & One half & One half etc and am
satisfied with four dozen. At the end I can eyeball 3 equal parts pretty
accurately.)

Use a rolling pin to roll each piece into a thin circle.

Place 1 portion (50 th or 48th) of filling in the center of a dough circle.
Fold the circle in half and moisten the edges with water. Use index finger
and thumb to bring the sides together.

Pleat the open edge together (into a semicircle sorta) keeping the other
edge smooth. The smooth edge will yield to the length of the pleated edge.
Pinch the pleats together to seal. Repeat for all dumplings.

Boil 10 cups water or stock or mixture and add dumplings; stir to prevent
from sticking together. Return to a boil, turn heat low and cook for six
minutes. Remove. Serve with dipping sauces.

I like to give each diner a small dipping bowl and provide Soy, Shao Hsing,
Rice Vinegar, Sesame Oil, Hot Sesame oil, Finely chopped or grated Garlic,
Ginger, Bean paste, Hot bean paste, Black Bean paste, Peanut paste as
makings for each to mix their dip to their liking.

YOU CAN CHEAT and buy ready made "gyoza" skins at most Chinese markets. If
you are not too dexterous, get a dumpling press and you can stuff, fold,
pleat, etc rapidly. Get more presses if you've a helper or two. Mine were
under $2.00 if I remember. These are the same as you use for pierogi, etc.

You can freeze these but wrap with separate partitions (I was successful
rolling them in saran. I'd wrap one, roll, wrap one, roll, etc. When frozen
and then cooked, as liquid returns to boil, lower and poach for 10 minutes.
If they are going to be pot stickers (next recipe) you can also steam them
or poach in low liquid without covering.

FROM:FRED PETERS

From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini