Potstickers, Part 2 Of 2

MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.05

Title: POTSTICKERS, PART 2 OF 2
Categories: Appetizers, Chinese
Yield: 2 Dozen

See Part 1

: Continued from Part 1

NOTES:

* Delicious Northern Chinese snack and hacker's staple -- Hackers on
both coasts and most places in between love potstickers (though if
you're from the Right Coast, you probably know them as Peking
Ravioli, or just ravs. This recipe is based on one found in Chef
Chu's Distinctive Cuisine of China. Total preparation time is about
45 minutes. They don't come out as good as the ones from Cho's in
Mountain View, but if you don't happen to be within 45 minutes of
Mountain View, they'll do very nicely, thank you. Yield: Makes about
2 dozen.

* You can freeze uncooked potstickers for later use, if you squeeze
out the water from the cabbage during preparation (in a colander or
cheesecloth). Freeze potstickers separately on cookie sheets until
firm, then put them in plastic bags. When rolling out the pancakes,
leave the centers slightly thicker than the edges. A thicker center
will hold up better during the browning.

* If you prefer, steam potstickers for about 12 minutes over boiling
water instead of pan-frying. (No self-respecting hacker would be
caught eating steamed potstickers, though.)

* These are really not hard to make, and come out quite nicely!
Following the dough recipe above leads to a fairly dry and floury
dough; this makes it hard to roll out and pleat. Feel free to add a
little more water. There are also now commercially available
potsticker presses that take care of folding and pleating; they're
cheap and plastic and work rather well.

* The perfect potsticker is uniformly brown with a thick brown area
on the bottom (where it sticks to the pot); it seems that achieving
this only comes with practice. I tend to fry both sides a bit before
adding the water; this helps. Beware of too much heat; the bottom
will bubble and crack. This doesn't taste any different, but doesn't
look as nice.

* If you don't cook the whole batch at once, store the potstickers
so that they don't touch; the dough tends to stick to itself, so the
potstickers may tear as you remove them.

* Many restaurants serve Hoy Sin sauce (hoisin) instead of hot sauce.

: Difficulty: moderate.
: Time: 45 minutes.
: Precision: measure the ingredients.

: Chris Kent
: DEC Western Research Lab, Palo Alto, California
: kent@decwrl.DEC.COM
{ihnp4,ucbvax,decvax}!decwrl!kent

: Copyright (C) 1986 USENET Community Trust

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