Recipies to Rival – My First Challenge
Way back in one of my previous lifetimes I worked in a grocery store deli that included a Chinese food take-out area. For several months I was assigned to Chinese take-out duty, meaning that I stood over the deli cases full of Chinese food for eight hours a day. Which did two things. First, it introduced me to some dishes that I might not have tried otherwise, like Kung Pao Chicken and Pot Stickers; and second, it made my hair smell like chow mein. (As a date once told me…boy, did he know how to sweep a girl off her feet!)
I never developed much of a taste for the Kung Pao Chicken, however, I love pot stickers with their soft, chewy dough and wonderful savory meat filling. Mmmmm…
Now, I’m comfortable enough in the kitchen that I don’t shy away from much. Yeast breads of any type? Been making them for years. Totally from-scratch homemade pizza? Almost weekly. Expensive Rib Roast? Every Christmas. But pot stickers? I never even thought about even trying to make them at home!
Pot stickers are one of those things that you just get out , along with Fried Onion “Flowers” and Fajitas. Why pot stickers? Well, first of all, they look so labor intensive. And secondly, they look REALLY labor intensive! C’mon, all those teeny tiny little pleats – really? Who has the time. And how much better could homemade really be? I had no interest in finding out for myself. They could remain a mystery to me.
Until a couple of weeks ago, that is. That’s when I joined a blog group known as Recipes 2 Rival. The R2R group each month takes on a recipe and collectively posts their experiences making it. When I saw that my first challenge recipe was pot stickers, I had mixed feelings of interest and dread. C’mon, all those teeny tiny little pleats! And then, reading further, I saw the real challenge…the dough must be made from scratch! Pleats and rolling a dough I’ve never worked with paper thin? This was going to be interesting.
But it was what it was. And I determined to face the challenge head-on. Pleats, dough and all. Figuring I would make a party out of it, I called my sister Anna (you might remember her from our Curry adventure) and we found a mutually acceptable date for a Chinese Dinner feast.
Armed with the R2R pot sticker recipe and a bag full of ingredients, we headed over to Anna’s. The menu was fabulous. Hot & Sour Soup, Peanut Noodles, Chinese BBQ Pork and of course, Pot Stickers.
The dough came together perfect. I used the Kitchen Aid to mix it up, and after letting it sit for about an hour, it was easy-peasy to work with. The filling was also quick and easy to mix together, though after thinking that it seemed wetter than I expected, I looked closer at my recipe and realized I had added some of the ingredients for the dipping sauce into the filling. Not much to do about it at that point, I’d just have to go with it & hope it was good.
So I rolled and Anna pleated and Sean steamed and fried. And it was good.
If I had read all the comments from my fellow R2R-ers, I would have realized that we shouldn’t have steamed the dumplings before putting them in the frying pan. It made for pot stickers that, well, stuck to the pot and fell apart. But they were delicious! Everyone agreed, even all five kids!
Which may be a first for that group!
For the recipes, go here, and to see what everyone else did, go here.
Tags: Anna, dinner, recipe, recipes to rival
Recipes | greengrassliving | 
September 30, 2008 10:23 am
Subscribe