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July 5th, 2008
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Easy and delicious

How to make pot stickers at home
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March 12th, 2008 issue

When I was young, schools in Japan offered a variety of international food for lunch: curry with rice, ramen noodles, spaghetti with tomato sauce, fried chicken, chirashi sushi, salmon meuniere, yogurt salad, seaweed soup and more. My homeroom teacher, an old man who grew up in hunger after the war, never let us leave food on our plates.

Another popular item was pot stickers. This dish is originally from China, where it is called jiao-zi. In Japan, you can buy frozen pot stickers imported from China. They’re already prepared and easy to pan-fry, or drop in chicken consommé soup.
Recently, however, a very high pesticide content was discovered in imported Chinese pot stickers. Some caused serious cases of food poisoning. This news shocked people in Japan, especially busy mothers who relied on them for quick, easy meals at a reasonable price.
As a result, you rarely see Chinese pot stickers at Japanese supermarkets anymore. But they’re easy to make at home, and tastier. If you’ve ever tried your hand at making Polish pierogi, you already have the necessary skills. And, best of all, you don’t need to run to an Asian grocery to make them here. Everything you need can be found at your nearest supermarket.
Tokyo native Futaba Tanaka is a food enthusiast who frequently entertains at home.

POT STICKERS

(makes 40)
Dough
400 grams flour (in Czech: polohruba mouka)
250 ml water
1 teaspoon salt
Filling
300 grams ground pork
300 grams Chinese cabbage
1 clove garlic
1 stalk spring onion
1 tablespoon soy sauce (or oyster sauce)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
For frying
2 tablespoons oil
200 ml hot water
Dipping sauce
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons vinegar
1 teaspoon chile sesame oil (optional)

Making the dough

Mix the salt with warm water (body temperature), then add in the flour. Knead vigorously by hand until the dough becomes soft and smooth, like your earlobe. Cover the dough with plastic wrap to avoid drying. Let sit for an hour.

Making the filling

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Finely chop the Chinese cabbage. Mix with 1 teaspoon of salt. Let it sit for a while. Squeeze the water out of the mix by hand. Finely chop the spring onion and garlic. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl by hand: Chinese cabbage, ground pork, onion, garlic, soy sauce, salt and pepper. (If you don’t like your hands greasy, cover them with plastic gloves or bags.)

Making pot stickers

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Roll the dough thin (about 2 millimeters). Cut into 2-inch circles with a cookie cutter (a beer glass also works well). Lay a circle of dough in your hand, put a tablespoon of filling in the center, fold over the dough and press the edges together with your fingers. This is the most difficult part, but after about 10 pot stickers, you should have the hang of it.

Frying and steaming

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Heat a frying pan with 1 tablespoon of oil. Put in as many pot stickers as will fit (up to 20) and heat for about two minutes, until the bottoms have a golden-brown color. Add 100 milliliters of hot water at once, and cover the pan immediately. Steam for about three minutes. After the water is gone, uncover the pan and heat it just a bit more to give the pot stickers a crunchy texture. Repeat for the remaining pot stickers.

To serve

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Mix the soy sauce, vinegar and sesame chili oil (if you have it) in a dipping cup. Serve the pot stickers on a warmed plate. Itadakimasu! 


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