Value of steam or other form of heat energy (30USC1004)

After my last encounter with Asian food, I had put off making potstickers, even though they are one of my favorite ethnic appetizers (sorry, but good 'ol American wings, mozzarella sticks, and potato skins are up there, too). As it turned out, the only hard part about making them was tracking down the wrappers. I ended up stopping by an Asian market, with fingers crossed, on my way to the airport because I didn't see any in the grocery stores I usually go to. With some luck, and some help from the friendly cashier, I found some hiding in a freezer.

In other ways, I let myself be less than traditional. For the meat, I used ground pork and shrimp (top left), but when it came to vegetables, I used regular celery instead of Chinese celery, along with the water chestnuts (top right). In terms of spices (below left), our cilantro plant died during my time out of town, so I substituted coriander (dried cilantro). I didn't want to buy raw ginger, because the last time I did, more than 90% of it went wasted, so I put in a teaspoon of Chinese five spice instead; even though my version didn't include ginger, I thought it would add a similar flavor. I also didn't want to waste the yolk leftover from the egg white, so I put that in reserve for later while I whipped up the filling (bottom right).

I mixed the yolk with some water to create a wash for sealing the wrappers (left). The construction of the dumplings was a lot easier because the wrappers weren't nearly as delicate as the spring-roll wrappers. But, still worried about them staying together, I actually held back on the filling at first, leaving me with 30 pockets instead of the 24 outlined in the recipe (right).

Even after sitting for a couple of hours, the dumplings didn't show any signs of coming apart, even when I started frying them in the skillet (top left and right). I had always assumed that potstickers were completely cooked through frying, but actually, the real heat comes from steaming them with broth (below left). As their name suggests, the pockets stick to the pot, but even removing them didn't cause them to split. In fact, the only time they ripped was when I was a little too quick with the tongs as I transferred them to a paper towel to let the grease drain (below right). 

The dipping sauce was quick and indeed spicy, although possibly more so because of the substitutions I made: sriracha for chili-garlic sauce, white wine vinegar for rice vinegar, and Thai sweet chili sauce for hot chili oil (left). In the end, I was happy with the result because it was thicker than most sauces I have eaten with potstickers (right), so you could get more of the flavor when you dipped.

I dug out the chopsticks so we could at least be authentic in the way we ate the appetizers. But I'm already thinking about how to use the leftover wrappers in un-authentic ways. Potato-skin potstickers, anyone?